Should you remove ums from your video?
23 October 2026 · 5 min read
Short answer: usually cut the worst of them, but not all of them, and not in every kind of video. Here is how to decide.
What the research says (it’s mixed)
You might expect science to say “always cut them”. It doesn’t, and that’s why this question is worth thinking about.
- Fillers can make you look less ready. In two experiments using unscripted speech, filled pauses (“um”, “uh”) made listeners rate speakers as less ready and less certain, and listeners were less willing to choose a speaker who used them. The same study found that a disfluent expert was seen as more careful than a disfluent novice, so it depends on who is talking.
- Fillers can also help listeners. In a 2007 brain-activity study, an “er” before an unexpected word made the brain’s surprise response smaller, and listeners were slightly more likely to remember the word. In a 2011 study, people who heard a story with “uh” and “um” added remembered more of it. Follow-up work has been mixed, and too many fillers seem to hurt.
- Listeners often blame the wrong thing. A 1995 study found that the average listener assumes ums come from nerves or poor preparation, even though they don’t seem to be a product of either.
Put together: a few fillers are harmless or even useful, but listeners may read a lot of them as uncertainty, whether or not that’s fair.
Why video is a bit different
This part is my reasoning, not research. In a conversation, the other person can nod, ask a question, or wait. A viewer watching your video can’t do any of that, they hear each sentence once, and they can leave at any moment. That raises the cost of a long run of ums or a searching pause. It’s also why a recording can feel more “ummy” than the live talk did.
Cut them when…
- The video is there to inform or persuade. Product demos, course lessons, sales videos and screen recordings all do better when they get to the point.
- The video is short. In short clips every second counts, and a few ums are a large share of the time.
- The ums come in runs. One is fine. Three in a sentence, or a long stall while you find your next point, is what loses people.
Leave them in when…
- It’s a real conversation. In interviews and video podcasts, a bit of hesitation makes replies feel honest. Over-tidying can make two people sound like they’re reading.
- The pause carries meaning. A beat before a hard answer or a joke is part of the point. Cutting it changes the effect.
- The um comes right before something surprising. The research above suggests these can prepare the listener for the next word.
- Cutting would leave an abrupt join. If removing it makes the sentence sound chopped, keep it.
A middle path that works for most videos
- Cut the long, searching pauses and the runs of ums first. In my experience that is the biggest improvement.
- Leave the odd single filler that sounds natural.
- Be careful with words like “so” and “you know”, which are sometimes part of what you’re saying. Our filler words list shows which are which.
- Listen to the result once, start to finish, before you share it.
How erm helps you decide
erm is built for this middle path. It finds the ums, erms, uhs and long pauses and shows you every cut before anything is saved, so you can keep the ones that sound natural and remove the rest. Words like “so” and “you know” are left alone unless you ask. Everything happens on your Mac, and nothing is uploaded. For the manual way, see our guide to removing filler words from a video, and to say them less in the first place, read how to stop saying “um”.
Sources
- Disfluency in Spontaneous Speech: Social Attribution and Behavioral Consequences. University of California, eScholarship.
- Corley, M., MacGregor, L. J. & Donaldson, D. I. (2007). It’s the way that you, er, say it: Hesitations in speech affect language comprehension. Cognition, 105(3), 658–668.
- Fraundorf, S. H. & Watson, D. G. (2011). The disfluent discourse: Effects of filled pauses on recall. Journal of Memory and Language, 65(2), 161–175.
- Christenfeld, N. (1995). Does it hurt to say um? Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 19, 171–186.
Questions
Should I remove ums from my video?
Usually remove the runs of them and the long pauses, especially in tutorials, demos, sales videos and short clips. Leave a few natural ones in, and be gentler with interviews and conversations.
Will removing ums make my video sound robotic?
It can if you cut every one. Cutting the worst of them and listening to the result once before you share it keeps the natural rhythm.
Do I need to remove every um?
No. Research suggests a few fillers are harmless and can even help listeners, while a lot of them can make you seem less ready or certain.
erm is coming soon to the Mac App Store. First 3 videos free, then $29.99 once or $19.99 a year.