According to one commentator, Americans use pauses such as "um" or "em", the Irish commonly use the pause "em", the British say "uh" or "eh", the French use "euh", the Germans say "äh" (pronounced eh or er), the Dutch use "eh", Japanese use "ā", "anō" or "ēto", the Spanish say "ehhh" (also used in Hebrew) and "como" (normally meaning like), and Latin Americans but not the Spanish use "este" (normally meaning this). Besides "er" and "uh", the Portuguese use "hã" or "é". In Mandarin, "那个(nà gè)" and "这个(zhè ge)" are used, meaning "that" or "this", respectively. Arabic speakers say "يعني", the pronunciation of which is close to "yaani", [jæʕni] or [jaʕni], (literally he means, there is no grammatical gender-neutral third person) and Turkish say "şey" in addition to "yani" (without the [ʕ] found in Arabic) and "ııı".Despite the differences between languages, pause fillers in different languages often sound similar because they tend to be the easiest and most neutral vowel sounds to make (such as the schwa), i.e the sounds that can be pronounced with a relaxed tongue or jaw. Research
Recent linguistic research has suggested that non-pathological disfluencies may contain a variety of meaning; the frequency of "uh" and "um" in English is often reflective of a speakers alertness or emotional state.
Erard, Michael (January 3, 2004). "Just Like, Er, Words, Not, Um, Throwaways". The New York Times. Retrieved November 10, 2013. Ing, John (September 26, 2019). "Pause Fillers for Speaking". Retrieved May 3, 2020. Schuessler, Jennifer (November 9, 2013). "The Syllable That Everyone Understands". The New York Times. Retrieved November 9, 2013.