Why do we, like, hesitate when we, um, speak? - Lorenzo García-Amaya

Why do we fill pauses in speech with words like “um,” “uh,” and “like”? Dig into the hesitation phenomenon to find out their linguistic significance. -- For as long as we’ve had language, some people have tried to control it. And some of the most frequent targets of this communication regulation are the ums, ers, and likes that pepper our conversations. These linguistic fillers occur roughly 2 to 3 times per minute in natural speech. So are ums and uhs just a habit we can’t break? Or is there more to them? Lorenzo García-Amaya investigates. Lesson by Lorenzo García-Amaya, directed by Yael Reisfeld. Support Our Non-Profit Mission ---------------------------------------------- Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop ---------------------------------------------- Connect With Us ---------------------------------------------- Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram ---------------------------------------------- Keep Learning ---------------------------------------------- View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-we-like-hesitate-when-we-um-speak-lorenzo-garcia-amaya Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-we-like-hesitate-when-we-um-speak-lorenzo-garcia-amaya#digdeeper Animator's website: https://www.yaelreisfeld.com/ Educator's website: http://umich.edu/~speechlab/ ---------------------------------------------- Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Brady Jones, Christina Salvatore, Karlee Finch, Michael Goldberg, Mario Mejia, Nicolas Silva, Kurt Almendras, Denise A Pitts, Doug Henry, Kristiyan Bonev, Keven Webb, Mihai Sandu, Deepak Iyer, Javid Gozalov, Jaime Arriola, Rebecca Reineke, William Biersdorf, Patricia Alves Panagides, Valeria Sloan Vasquez, Yvette Mocete, Cyrus Garay, Victoria Soler-Roig, Samuel Barbas, Brighteagle, LadyGeek, Curtis Light, Dwight Schrute, Dianne Palomar, Marin Kovachev, Ravi S. Rāmphal, Tekin Gültekin, Gaurav Mathur, Erik Biemans, Tony, Michelle, Katie and Josh Pedretti, Aidan Forero, Sunny Patel, Lowell Fleming, Hoai Nam Tran, Stina Boberg, Kack-Kyun Kim, Ken, zjweele13, Jurjen Geleijn, Anna-Pitschna Kunz, Edla Paniguel, Thomas Mungavan, Jaron Blackburn, Venkat Venkatakrishnan, ReuniteKorea and John Saveland.