People who 'um' and 'ah' are more memorable than clear speakers

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

But the utterances that slow down our sentences actually make us better understood, according to scientists.

They found that "ums", "ers" and "ahs" - known as "disfluencies" - force a listener to pay attention.

Scroll down for more...

Ummmm: Bumbling Hugh Grant had lots of 'ums' and 'ahs' in his best man speech in film hit Four Weddings and a Funeral

The experts at Stirling and Edinburgh universities asked volunteers to listen to a series of sentences, including a number which had disfluencies.

They then carried out a series of tests to measure how much the listeners could remember.

Inserting the "ers" apparently had a significant effect on how well the subjects could recall what was said.

Up to an hour after hearing typical sentences, volunteers got 62 per cent of words correct where there had been a disfluency in the sentence.

That compared to 55 per cent for sentences where there had not been any stumbles, the team said in their report, It's The Way That You, er, Say It.

Dr Martin Corley, of Edinburgh University's School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, said: "A disfluency is an interruption to the predicted ritual of things.

"It's like we are saying to ourselves 'I'd better pay attention now, because what I thought was going to happen isn't going to happen'."

The results fly in the face of current thought on um-ing and ah-ing.

Broadcasters, politicians, lawyers and the clergy, for example, are advised to iron out disfluencies from their speech.

Neil Stevenson, deputy director of education and training at the Law Society of Scotland, said: "We're sure some of our members will be delighted that their ums are now seen as a sign of clear communication."

The researchers are now studying whether words such as "like" operate in a similar way to disfluencies.