Um. . .: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean Cover
Podcast Mentions

Um. . . Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean

Michael Erard

Um… is about how you really speak, and why it’s normal for your casual, everyday speech to be filled with verbal blunders — about one in every ten words. Why do they happen? Why can’t we control them? What can you tell about the people who make them?

Podcasts 1
Quotes 1
No Stupid Questions

The book discussed the observation that people generally did not focus on or complain about the use of 'um' until voice recording became common. The author made the interesting note that all languages possess their own equivalent to 'um'.

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With a few exceptions, people didn't really start talking about um or complaining about it until the advent of voice recording. It is likely they were using it all along, but either they didn't notice...

— Episode: 45. How Much Better Do You Really Want t...

Episode: 45. How Much Better Do You Really Want to Be?

The book discussed the observation that people generally did not focus on or complain about the use of 'um' until voice recording became common. The author made the interesting note that all languages possess their own equivalent to 'um'.

"

With a few exceptions, people didn't really start talking about um or complaining about it until the advent of voice recording. It is likely they were using it all along, but either they didn't notice it or didn't deem it worthy of writing down. It wasn't considered a word, but a noise like a cough.

Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.