Linguists call these filled pauses, which are a kind of hesitation phenomenon. And these seemingly insignificant interruptions are actually quite meaningful in spoken communication. For example, while a silent pause might be interpreted as a sign for others to start speaking, a filled pause can signal that you're not finished yet. Hesitation phenomena can buy time for you speech to catch up with your thoughts, or to fish out the right word for a situation. And they don't just benefit the speaker - a filled pause lets your listeners know an important word is on the way. Linguists have even found that people are more likely to remember a word if it comes after a hesitation. -Lorenzo Garcia-Amaya. Why do we, like, hesitation when we, um, speak?