Using “um” naturally

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It's when you don't know what you're going to say next or you're trying to think of the

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next word or the end of your sentence.

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And let's be honest though, in daily conversation, native speakers use these all the time.

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So I want you to be able to fill those blank spaces in your sentences with something that

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native speakers would use.

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I know that when I was living in France I heard a lot of French speakers say "Oh, well,

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buh ..." and this filler expression would never be used by American English speakers.

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This is something that is specific to French speakers.

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So I'm sure in your native language you have these kind of fillers as well.

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But if you use the ones that you use in your native language, like "Buh ..." it's not going

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to sound very natural.

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So I hope that these expressions that I'm going to teach you today will be useful to

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help you sound more fluid and more fluent.

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And don't worry about using them; native speakers use them all the time.

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You should too.

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Let's start with the first one.

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The first filler expression that I want to teach you today is actually two, and I want

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to teach you the difference between them.

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It is "um" and "uh."

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Let's talk about a quick sample sentence.

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Let's say that you're talking to your friend about your next vacation.

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You could say, "Uh, I was thinking about going to New York.

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I was thinking about going to New York."

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If you said, "I was um, thinking about going to New York," compared to "I was uh, thinking

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about going to New York."