Japanese filler words: なんか, やっぱ, まあ, あの, ちょっと
The small words that buy time, soften a line or change direction: what each one does, and how often it turns up in real comedy routines.
Ukeru notes · counts are from the current library (1,905 routines, 174,812 machine-transcribed lines) and update as it grows
Fillers are not noise
Textbook dialogues are clean: every line is a complete sentence. Real speech is full of small words that carry almost no dictionary meaning but a lot of social meaning. They buy time, soften a request, signal “I'm about to disagree”, or change the subject.
Comedians use them on purpose. A nervous character stumbles through あの and えっと. A straight man's やっぱ tells you he always suspected this would go wrong. Hearing what a filler is doing is part of getting the joke.
The counts below come from machine-made transcripts of the 1,905 routines in our library. Speech recognition tends to drop hesitations, so the real numbers are higher.
The main ones
| Filler | What it does | English feel |
|---|---|---|
| あの（ー） | hesitating, getting attention politely | “um”, “excuse me” |
| えっと／えーと | searching for a word or a number | “let me see” |
| まあ | softening, conceding | “well”, “I mean, sure” |
| なんか | vague “like”, “kind of” | “like…” |
| やっぱ（り） | “as I thought”, or a change of mind | “yeah, actually” |
| ちょっと | softening almost anything | “a bit”, “um, sorry” |
| っていうか | correcting yourself, switching topic | “I mean”, “or rather” |
あの and えっと: hesitating
あの starts a lot of polite approaches: あの、すみません, “um, excuse me”. It also covers any pause while you work out what to say. In our library, lines that open with あの number 1,422. That count includes the plain demonstrative あの (“that”), as in あの人.
えっと (or えーと) is for searching, especially for a number, a name or an answer: えーと、三つです. It sounds a little less polite than あの, but it is fine in most situations.
まあ: softening
まあ takes the edge off. まあ、いいけど is “well, fine, I guess”. まあまあ is “so-so”, or, as a phrase to calm someone down, “now, now”. Lines opening with まあ: 765.
なんか: “like”
なんか is the everyday form of 何か (“something”), and it has grown into a filler much like English “like”. なんか変じゃない？ is “isn't it kind of weird?”. It appears on 2,269 lines in our library, and 235 of the 283 comedians use it. Too many なんか sounds young and vague, just as “like” does. See なんか.
One performer begins sharing their personal view on violence and how much force is acceptable.
なんか彼女の押してはいけないスイッチを押していたらしくって
I'd kind of pushed a button of hers that should never be pushed.
Textbook何か、彼女の押してはいけないスイッチを押していたらしいです。"なんか" is casual "何か" ("something"), used as a vague filler like "kind of"; "らしくて" also loosens to "らしくって".
やっぱ: “as I thought”, or “actually…”
やっぱり (やっぱ for short) comes from やはり, “as expected”. やっぱり雨だ is “it's raining, just as I thought”. It also marks a change of mind: やっぱいいや, “actually, never mind”. In comedy it often comes just before a character gives up on a terrible plan, or goes back to it. Lines with やっぱ: 673. The formal やはり: 23. See やっぱり／やっぱ.
ちょっと: softening everything
ちょっと means “a little”, but it does much more than that. It softens requests (ちょっといい？, “got a second?”), refuses politely (それはちょっと…, “that's a bit…”, meaning no), and, said sharply, it becomes “hey!”: ちょっと！. It is the most frequent word on this page: 4,105 lines in our library. Its most famous use in comedy is the brake, ちょっと待って.
っていうか: “I mean”
っていうか (from というか) corrects what you just said, or pulls the conversation somewhere else: っていうか、誰？, “wait, who are you, anyway?”. The very casual てか is the same word, cut down. See っていうか／てか.
Using them yourself
- A few fillers make your Japanese sound natural rather than recited. あの and えっと are fine even at work.
- まあ and ちょっと are the safest softeners. Use them to make a request or a refusal less blunt.
- Go easy on なんか and っていうか. They are casual, and in large doses they sound juvenile.