Uki Uki NihonGO + Culture! – Lesson 21 – Filler Words

ウキウキ NihonGO! Lesson #21 – Filler Words
Welcome to Uki Uki NihonGO! + Culture

We got a lot of interesting responses on our previous video on this topic, so let’s talk about it today! つなぎ言葉 are in-between words people commonly use in their speech. Often, these fillers help connect your thoughts.

But they are also helpful in making your speech sound more natural and authentic – a great skill for those of you learning Japanese. So let’s go right ahead and look at some of the most commonly used つなぎ言葉.

あの〜 is one of the most common fillers. For example,
あの〜、すみません。このいす、いいですか？ (Um, excuse me. May I take this chair?)
あ、はい。どうぞ。 (Oh, yes. Go ahead.)

In this next example, you can see another extremely common filler, which isええと. It’s often used when you’re thinking while talking. For instance,

あの〜、らいしゅうのどようび、ランチでもどうですか？(Um, how about lunch or something next Saturday?)
え？ あの〜、どようびですか？(Oh, well, Saturday?) ええと…(let’s see…) 、ああ、すみません。どようびはちょっと…。(Oh, I’m sorry. I’m kind of busy on Saturday.)

As some of you may have noticed in our previous video, はい is another filler in Japanese. You can use this when you’re thinking just like the other fillers, but this can also signal the end of a thought as you’re explaining something. For example,

ま 、そうわけなんです。はい。（…And so, that’s what happened. Yeah.)
You now learned three filler words: ええと、 あの〜, and はい.

The next time you are going to have a conversation with someone in Japanese, try using them in your speech.

みなさんも、ぜひ使ってみてくださいね。
では、また。

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Music by: Soichiro Migita