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The Conversation

Politics

Valerie M. Fridland, Professor of Linguistics, University of Nevada, Reno

Presidential pauses? What those 'ums' and 'uhs' really tell us about candidates for the White House

Barack Obama Donald Trump Joe Biden University of Pennsylvania

Up for debate? Brendan Smialowski/Jim Watson/Morrry Gash/AFP via Getty Images

Nine. That is the number of “uhs” that former President Barack Obama uttered in a period of two minutes during a 2012 presidential debate. Other Obama “uh” counters, such as University of Pennsylvania linguist Mark Liberman, clocked him as using “uhs” and “ums” – hesitation markers known as “filled pauses” in linguistspeak – roughly every 19 words during one interview.

By comparison, former President Donald Trump rarely uses them at all – as infrequently as once every 117 words.

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