Fillers, repair, turn-taking and ellipsis - the features of real conversation that written grammar never mentions but fluency depends on.
I can hold a conversation with natural fillers, repairs and backchannels rather than in written sentences.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Ну, гэта самае... я хацеў спытаць пра заўтра.
So, um, I wanted to ask about tomorrow.
Прыйду ў пяць, дакладней - у палове шостай.
I will come at five - or rather, at half past five.
- Пойдзеш з намі? - Пайду.
- Will you come with us? - I will.
- І ўсё скончылася добра. - Вось як! Сапраўды?
- And it all ended well. - Really? Is that so?
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Everything you have learned describes sentences. Conversation does not consist of sentences: it consists of turns, repairs, overlaps and fragments, and sounding fluent means doing those the way the language does them.
| Filler | Job |
|---|---|
| ну | starting a turn, buying a moment |
| гэта самае | the word is coming, hold on |
| значыць | reformulating |
| карацей | getting to the point |
| скажам | introducing an example |
| ведаеш | checking the listener is with you |
Гэта самае is the one worth acquiring first: it is the standard way to hold the floor while retrieving a word, and using it instead of falling silent is most of what makes hesitation sound native.
Speakers correct themselves constantly, and there are set phrases for it: дакладней, то бок, ці, лепш сказаць, не, не так. Using these openly is fluent; going back and silently restarting the sentence is not.
The listener is expected to make noise: ага, так-так, вось як, сапраўды?, ну і ну. Silence from a listener reads as disagreement or inattention, not as politeness.
Speech omits everything recoverable. Questions and answers in particular are reduced to almost nothing:
A full-sentence answer to a short question sounds stilted or pointed, exactly as it does in English.
Вось так неяк - roughly something like that - is the standard way of closing your own turn without a firm conclusion, and it is extremely common.
Learn ten of these and use them. They cost nothing grammatically and they change how you are heard more than another five hundred words of vocabulary would.
Apply this grammar in C2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: answering short questions in full sentences, and staying silent as a listener.
Answering short questions in full sentences
Пойдзеш? Пайду.
Listening without backchannels
Ага, так-так, вось як.
Using Russian fillers
Гэта самае, то бок, карацей.
Restarting a sentence silently
Mark the repair: дакладней, то бок.
Ну, гэта самае... я хацеў спытаць пра заўтра.
So, um, I wanted to ask about tomorrow.
Two fillers holding the floor while the sentence forms.
Прыйду ў пяць, дакладней - у палове шостай.
I will come at five - or rather, at half past five.
Open repair with <em>дакладней</em>.
- Пойдзеш з намі? - Пайду.
- Will you come with us? - I will.
The answer repeats the verb and nothing else.
- І ўсё скончылася добра. - Вось як! Сапраўды?
- And it all ended well. - Really? Is that so?
Backchannels: the listener is expected to respond.
Вось так неяк. А ты як лічыш?
Something like that. What do you think?
Closing your turn and handing it over.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in C2 course exercises