Why we say um
A filler word fills the gap between one thought and the next, and signals to listeners that you are not finished. It is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign that the next sentence was not ready. The fix is therefore not to suppress the sound but to make peace with the gap.
Count first
Record two minutes on any topic and listen back with a tally. Most people are surprised twice: by how many there are, and by how few the audience actually noticed. Speechzy's AI does the tally for you and marks each one in the transcript, so you can see the pattern — usually at the start of sentences and right after a strong point.
Replace the sound with silence
The habit that removes most fillers is simple and uncomfortable: when you feel one coming, close your mouth and pause. A one-second silence feels enormous from the inside and reads as confidence from the outside. Practise it deliberately in short recordings until the pause arrives before the um does.
Slow the pace slightly
Fillers cluster when you speak faster than you think. Bringing pace down a little — the AI shows you words per minute — gives the next thought time to arrive, and the gap never opens.
A week is enough to see it
One two-minute recording a day, count, pause, repeat. By day seven the count is usually a fraction of day one. Keep the recordings; the graph is the motivation.