I don’t usually watch Easy French, but a video came up on YT and I watched a little of it.
I realised that, while I might have thought the French a little basic, it was really helpful to see the filler words and phrases translated.
The best French teacher I’ve had said that the French use strings of filler words so that they can carry on talking and stop the other person from getting a word in. I’ve a dutch friend who uses lots of er, er, er whether he’s speaking in French or English. In French this sounds very authentic, whereas in English it just sounds inarticulate.
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There are other ways of looking at this. In English, “like” used as punctuation it makes my teeth grind. However, before that abysmal habit arrived there was a well used path in use of “right”, “alright”, “so” in addition to “umm” and “ah”. Filler words are not always being used to prevent a listener from interjecting, they become a pattern of habit and some speakers can’t stop themselves.
According to one study by J Mem Lang from 2012, filler words can help listeners predict what you’ll say next, bring attention to the stream of speech, and give listeners time to process what has been said. In other words, there’s clear evidence that not all filler words are bad. I just feel they make the speaker sound less articulate. Unless, of course, they’re a cultural difference in language construction, as in Irish use of “so” at the end of a sentence, which I find absolutely charming.
Ah, yes, I think you’ve just solved the mystery of why the French keep saying “Du coup, “ again and again while they are thinking.
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I’ve a friend who uses bref all the time