We’re all guilty of peppering our speech with words like um, like and well. Although such words don’t bear any real meaning, they do win us some time whilst something is still lingering on the tip of our tongue. These little words are called ‘filler words’ as they help to fill in the awkward silence when you can’t think of what to say next.
These words form part of every language, but they are a bit different in each one. Whilst in English y’know, like and I mean are the usual suspects, in Portuguese you would often hear então which literally means so. The Finnish might use niinku, which is equivalent to like. If you can’t think of a word in Hungarian, you might get away with substituting it with izé, which is something like thingy or just say aszongya, which is a contracted form of it says. Don’t know what to call an object in German? You can refer to it as a Dingsbums, Dings, Dingsda or Dingens – all variants of thingamajig. If you’ve been asked a question in German and you’re uncertain how to respond, you can start with a Na ja (well…).
In French, tu vois (you know), du coup (so) and the simple bah (well/err) are common filler expressions. In Bulgarian you can use такова (takova), which is a multi-purpose word that could be translated as such. It can replace any noun, verb or adjective, etc., you just need to tweak grammatical endings. You might well hear the following absurd-sounding sentence from someone struggling to think of words: Az takovah takovata (I [did] the [thing]). In Japanese, meanwhile, you could go for ええと (eeto) that might mean well, uh, or let’s see, depending on the context. It’s an excellent word to use when you can’t think of anything else!
When it comes to translating video subtitles, translators often drop filler words as they’re not pivotal to the conversation and removing them saves important screen space. Yet when transcribing and translating audio for, say, a court case, such words would be kept in to accurately reflect the speech.
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Whether it’s fine art monographs, patient information leaflets or video subtitles, our expert team ensures every project speaks accurately and authentically to global audiences. If you’d like to explore how we can help you communicate with new markets, simply reach out to our multilingual project managers at enquiries@firstedit.co.uk.