Filler words

[Depilego]

Do people who speak Spanish have the same speech issues as people who speak English?

For example, when listing to someone give a lecture, or talk in English, every third word they say "umm", or when you ask them a question "ahhh", before they answer.

I just saw a video and this girl said "um" every third word for 20 mins. It was incredibly annoying.

I'm thinking it's going to be harder to learn Spanish (listening) if they do the same thing. I'm not going to know which are actual words, and which are just speech issues.

I guess I'm just wondering if it's something that I need to look out for when I'm trying to listen to Spanish.

[Rusty]

You're referring to filler words (muletillas, in Spanish).
Some muletillas are listed below.

Spanish	English
este	um, uh
pues	well, then
bueno	ok, alright, well
vale	ok, alright, well (used in Spain)
como	like, um
entonces	so
así que	so
a ver	let's see
digo	I mean, or rather
o sea	I mean, in other words
es decir	I mean, or rather

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

There are many filler words in Spanish.
Some of the ones you'll hear quite often in Mexico: "este", "mmm", "eeeh", "¿no?", "¿ajá?", "¿sí?", "entonces" (or in colloquial speech, "tons")... They don't really mean anything; they're just used to keep talking while you find the idea you want to express.

In any case, don't worry, just try to grab general ideas, instead of understanding every word, and you'll start identifying them little by little.

Rusty beat me to it, but one more reply won't do any harm.

[Depilego]

Why do we need a filler word? Instead of just talking.

[Rusty]

They're used while gathering our thoughts.

There are people who work very hard at not using them, especially public speakers (think representatives, spokespersons and toast masters). But even they, when they go off script, may end up with a few unwanted fillers. They seem to pepper our speech whenever we're thinking about what we'll say next.

[Depilego]

What's weird is that I see people using them when writing to. When you have to read someone's paper, and it's filled with "um" and "like", etc...

[Aprendo]

Originally Posted by Depilego

What's weird is that I see people using them when writing to. When you have to read someone's paper, and it's filled with "um" and "like", etc...

In writing, that's really bad, IMO.

Junior high school students?

[Depilego]

Originally Posted by Aprendo

Junior high school students?

No. Lots of people on Facebook and YouTube. Some people in my college classes.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by Aprendo

In writing, that's really bad, IMO.

Junior high school students?

It's a Vine™ thing. They need padding to reach 6 seconds.

[Glen]

Originally Posted by Depilego

Why do we need a filler word? Instead of just talking.

For those of us who speak slowly they're useful for keeping impatient people (known as sentence-finishers) from interrupting us before we're done speaking.

A variation I hear (and use myself) on the aforementioned este is to draw out the second syllable into a long esteeeeeeeee, which seems to work even better for keeping other people from butting in.

Rusty put forward a good list. Another variation I hear on pues is pos but I've been criticized for using it!