I ask because I caught myself being a huge hypocrite again.
I’m a millennial and I criticized a Gen Z friend for her constant use of the word ‘lowkey.’
I then realized do I not do the same thing? I often say ‘sorta’ or ‘kinda’ when I do just mean I did the thing in the same way she uses ‘lowkey.’
No, I didn’t ‘kinda’ delete a guy’s account at my stupid IT job. I DELETED HIS ACCOUNT! I didn’t ‘sorta’ leave too late for work. I FUCKING LEFT LATE!
So I am a massive fucking hypocrite who needs to just let Gen Z chill and do what the want as I am the same flavor of asshole, but what about you?
There are two primary reasons people use filler words.
One is to maintain possession of the role of ‘speaker’ in the conversation because, if you stop for a while, someone might think you’re done (if it sounded like the end of a thought) or have broken down trying to think of what to say. Spending time in environments where people have high demands for time or competition for attention can make these things worse. The other is social fear or anxiety about how your message will be received, or over one’s correctness and certainty. ‘I am claiming this thing for myself,’ has the same ultimate goal as ‘Nah, lowkey f’real, I was kinda maybe thinking of nabbing that,’ but the use of the extra ‘filler’ words and slang is designed to obfuscate the meaning, making it passive agressive, forcing the listener to parse the extra layers of obfuscation before having a chance to object, and leaving a verbal avenue of retreat open if someone does object, allowing them to say, ‘No, I said I was thinking about it.’ Spending time in environments where one has to deal with openly agressive people can often make people seek out these verbal conflict avoidance techniques.Take one step back and ask yourself why you criticized your friend to begin with.
uuuhno. (That’s one word.) 🤧
no, why use many words when few do trick
The Title should be “Do You Use Filler Words?” not “Do You Needlessly Use Filler Words?”. At least I really, really, really think so. /s
I mean… For real, yeah, I guess, kinda lowkey.
Yes. I stick “honestly” in too many places, and just have a big issue always feeling like I need to qualify everything.
Usually meant to increase the degree to which I’m being absurd or facetious. It’s a manner of showing contempt for the thing I’m describing. I use it to joke more than with actual dialog.
But “kinda” probably happens in my daily vocabulary to such a degree that I’m unaware how much I use it. So, despite using this sort of word deliberately in certain situations, I’m also very guilty of using it everywhere else.
“Y’know what I mean?” or “Y’know what I’m saying?” is a common one. I was watching a high school football player on the news the other day, and he said “You know what I’m saying” a dozen times in his 30 second statement. He would use it multiple times in the same sentence: “We’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing, y’know what I mean, executing the fundamentals, y’know what I mean, keeping the defense pressuring their quarterback, y’know what I mean, and we’ll come out on top, y’know what I mean?” No exaggeration.
My sister-in-law went through a period where she said “…and stuff” at the end of every sentence for a while.
I once met a weird religious freak who started EVERY sentence with “It is written…” That was a weird one to try to have a conversation with. She would say it so fast, I couldn’t even figure it out for a minute, then I got it. Every sentence started with that. Very strange mental quirk.
What the actual fuck? Literally.
Yes I use needless filler words, but i use them because I need them ;)
Low key is a really egregious one though because it is not designed to be a filler word. The thing about filler words is that every adverb is a filler word, as neuroneiro points out. Using them less makes you sound confident and precise. Sometimes they are useful or necessary. But by definition - a filler word. It is likely our overuse of adverts which trains us to use filler words like sort of, low key, kind of
Er, no.
Do you
needlesslyuse filler words?Uhhh idk like um maybe
I like the extra verbosity. When used in moderation anyway. A little bit of seasoning for my sentences.
I rather enjoy the greatly increased verbal verbosity that can be attained. However, I do generally prefer this effect when attained in relative moderation, it must be said. This way i provide only a small, tolerable, amount of verbal seasoning to the sentences i produce.
Exactly. As a non-native speaker, I sometimes intentionally add these words to make my speech sound less formal and more casual.
On the other hand, most of the time I talk with other non-native speakers, so I’m not even sure they notice.
