Verbal Tic / Real Life

• Tourettes syndrome. In that case, it really is an unavoidable compulsion. Many people with Tourette syndrome have at least some verbal tics. They aren't necessarily cursing. They may be saying things like "kitty" instead. That said, classical diagnoses of Tourette syndrome require at least one "phonic" tic, which can be as simple as grunting or throat-clearing.
• Verbal tics can be found in autistic people and can be either transient (lasting no longer than a few months to a year) or chronic (persisting beyond a year).
• Some verbal tics may also be a consequence of brain trauma or other neurological conditions. For instance, it can cause a person to speak in spoonerisms or to swap words that sound similar.
• Excessive use of filler words — like "um", "ah", "well", etc. — is a very common side effect of stuttering. One form of stuttering is called dysfluency, where patients may repeat a whole word several times at the start of a phrase, repeat or drag out a sound toward the end of a phrase or tack on an extra syllable or two; for example, "Can- can- can I get a drink?".
• Oh the ehh, subject of, ehh, comedians, ehh... Dara, ehh, Ó Briain, eeehhh... Probably fits this trope
• Football legend Pelé often finishes sentences with "Entende?" ("understood?").
• Jive has "yunno whaddam sayin'?" and "Gnome sane?" and "Nameen?"
• Canadian Accents:
  • Québecois French. Some locals have the habit of saying "là" ("there") at the end of each sentence. "Alors" ("so") also sometimes fills this role, as do "genre" (similar to "like") and "moi" ("me") and "lui" ("him"), which are often thrown in where an English speaker would consider the sentence complete without them. E.g., "Il est tropeur, lui," would be "he is a troper, him". Sometimes these constructions are used even when they speak English - "there" being rendered in the Québecois French accent as "dere", rather than the Parisian "zere". Those constructions - for example, "He's a troper, him" or "I like beer, me" - are also associated with certain English dialects, particularly Geordie / those from the North East.
  • Speakers of Canadian English use "eh?" as an all-purpose interrogative, though not as frequently as media would have you believe.
  • Newfoundlanders ("Newfies" in less-than-polite company) are typically incomprehensible to most 'Mainlanders' (people not from Newfoundland), but it gets worse when they pepper their sentences with innumerable "yes b'y"-s.
  • From Metropolitan French, you also have "tu vois" ("you see") at the end of a sentence, and its suburban counterpart "t'as vu" (roughly "you've seen"), although the media mainly use them as a parody of celebrity speech these days. Like all speech filler, it is still in use by some people, however. Also, at the end of a sentence and also supposedly discredited, there's "quoi" (word-for-word "what"). Unlike "tu vois", though, it also gives the sentence a very particular tone, and has no real equivalent in English or, indeed, any other language. It is therefore extremely difficult to translate; although in many pockets of northern England, the word "like" conveys this tone perfectly, like. This is not the same "like" referred to further down the page, like. When used in the interrogative by the same people, it roughly translates to a prefix of "Can I conclude that..." ("Is John home?" "Do you want to see him, like?")
  • Francophones from all over have their own equivalent of "eh" in "hein," which despite the spelling is pronounced like a very nasal version of "eh." And they actually do use it as much as a US caricature of a Canadian says "eh."
  • People from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia often use “fuckin” as a pause. Example:
  Maritimer: Hey, can I get a... fuckinnnnnnn... double-double with milk?
  • While not being word-for-word, tagging "you know" at the end of a sentence serves a similar purpose.
  • A substantial portion of the Québecois population uses ''sacre'' (comparable to "Holy...") as a Verbal Tic, which results in a Cluster F-Bomb.
• Taiwan:
  • Some Taiwanese speakers will end sentences with "ho" ("good").
  • Taiwanese young people litter their Chinese sentences with "jiu shi" ("it's just..."/"it's like..."), which has as much meaning as the American use of "like".
• In mainland China, there's a few verbal tics that depend on province and dialect. One of the more well-known ones is the tendency of Mandarin speakers (especially those from Beijing) to append "-ar" (rhymes with "car") at the end of phrases, sometimes slurring words together. The end result turns the accent-less sentence "Xiànzài jǐ diǎnle?" ("What time is it?") to "Xiànzài jǐ di-ar?" This tic is noticeably absent outside of the mainland, which is an easy way to identify who lives there and who doesn't. In fact, the "-ar" tic is so prevalent that the Japanese have their own stereotype of Chinese people ending their sentences with "-aru", the phoentic equivalent.
• Mexican people, especially those from Mexico City, often append "güey" (alternatively a friendly word, kind like "dude", or a serious insult equal to "fool") at the end of their sentences; Northerners and Mexican-Americans, meanwhile, often do the same with "ese" ("homeboy"). People from Mexico City also tend to start their sentences will "Pues..." (which can be translated as "Well...") and end them with the same "eh?" as Canadians do.
• Puerto Ricans tend to use the word "Mano" to mean dude or guy (instead of "hand") and will often sprinkle it into their sentences similar to how Mexicans use "güey" or "Ese".
• Argentines often start their phrases with "che." The rebel leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna gained his nickname in Cuba because the local Cubans found it odd.
• In southern Brazil, "tchê" is often used as a way of saying "dude" or "man." It's also very common, especially in and around the Buenos Aires province, to append a "viteh" to the end of almost any declaratory statement. It's "¿viste?" in heavily accented Buenos Aires Spanish; it means "did you see?", but is used colloquially as the Minnesotan "doncha know?".
• Similarly, when a Spaniard forgets which word to use or doesn't feel like using a complex word, s/he'll sometimes shoehorn the word "desto" ("de esto" = "this's") where the word would go.
• Singaporeans and Malaysians often use "lah" at the end of sentences, to soften the impact of the message. Eg. "Take out the trash," carries more emphasis than "Take out the trash, lah." In Ghanaian and Nigerian English "la" has the opposite effect, so "Take out the trash la" would be roughly equivalent to "Take the trash out already!" Singaporeans and Malaysians beware.
• Also, in the drinking game Kings (or Circle of Death), one card allows the person who picked it to make up a rule, the penalty of breaking which is to drink. A very common rule in some places is to add the "In my pants" rule mentioned below, making for interesting conversation.
• Not all Minnesotans end every sentence with "doncha know," but yeah, a few do, doncha know? There are some remnants of the stereotyped phrases in Minnesotan speech, as they sometimes have a tendency to end sentences in "y'know?" The other phrase of "Ya sure, you betcha" (which is only ever used by the elderly) is now two separate phrases used when agreeing with something: "Yeah, sure" and "You bet." The heavy Fargo accent is mostly a myth. The rare person who does have that accent is usually from the far north.
• Much like Minnesotans, Wisconsinites have their own verbal tics that appear to be second-nature, including "'n so?" ("Ain't that so?" used at the end of an interrogative sentence, albeit uselessly).
• The stereotypical Pittsburgh "Yinzer" is someone who, among other verbal quirks, ends most sentences with "n'at" (short for "and all that"), n'at. The name comes from their use of "yinz", as opposed to "y'all", as a second-person plural — and as with "y'all", it's frequently misused as a singular pronoun. Another shock, on moving to southwestern Pennsylvania, is the use of the phrase "H'ainnit?" (Meaning "ain't it?") as punctuation.
• Italians speaking English tenda to put As where they don't-a-belong. This is because Italian, like Japanese, doesn't have many closed syllables (syllables that begin and end with consonants), so an Italian who learned English as a second language may inadvertently drop unvoiced vowels into words to make it more consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel like Italian if he is not proficient enough. This is also considered a southern Italian tic. Northern Italians consider the gesticulating and over-the-top pronunciations ("I make-a big-a pizza!) in both Italian and English as things southerners do.
• Among Italians, for a skilled listener, it's usually incredibly easy to tell from which region, province, sometimes even city someone hails from: regional accents and dialects are both incredibly numerous (Wikipedia lists about 200 of them) and often quite different from one another. Tuscans use "but huat you doin?" instead of "what are you doing?" ("ma he tu fai?" instead of "cosa stai facendo?") and cut the "doing" and "going" verbs, Romans change "l"s into "r"s, double "rr"s into single "r"s, and are fond of using and abusing "Aoh!" (roughly "Hey!"), while Neapolitan is practically a different language with a different vocabulary, among other things. Piedmontese speakers, especially those from Turin, are often parodied for their stereotypical use of "neh?" (roughly "isn't it?" or an emphatic expression depending on context) at the end of each sentence.
• United Kingdom:
  • Inner-city dwellers in Britain sometimes end every other sentence with the word "though".
  • All over the Midlands, the popular tic is "Y'know?" and has evolved to be less of a question and more to ascertain the agreement of two parties.
  • In the south-East, "like" is used.
  • Further north, it's "Innit?"
  • In the Estuary English dialect, you're likely to hear the phrase "Innit bruv" at the end of sentences on a very regular basis.
  • The Welsh sometimes have tics like "boyo!" and "lovely."
  • The Cornish have "dreckley"
  • Stereotypically, Glaswegians end every sentence with "jim" or "jimmy" (and according to Billy Connolly, the drunker they are the longer it takes for the meandering sentence to reach that point), while Yorkshiremen often end sentences with "tha knows" (informal dialect form of "you know?") The stereotypical Yorkshire accent also includes the replacement of "the" or "to the" with a weird glottal sound usually written as "t'" as in "Going t'shops". This is pronounced as a 't' on the end of the previous word, not at the start of the next one like it's normally written. No, it doesn't make any more sense to people from Yorkshire. They also sometimes do this with "I'm", so "I'm going to the bus station." turns into "'M off t'bus station." The same goes for Lancashire. It can be heard in the works of Peter Kay: he talks like that normally, but often exaggerates it for comic effect.
• The stereotypical Valley Girl has a lot of verbal tics. Sometimes they talk as if every sentence with a question mark.
  • The equivalent in Mexico and Venezuela, the "Niñas fresas" and "sifrinas" liked to pepper their speech with "O sea" and "¿vez?".
  • In a similar vein, it is becoming more and more common for American teenagers to add "like" every third or fourth word of a sentence, particularly in place of just pausing to pick a word. Same for teenagers in Australia, as well.
  • Italian teenagers use "tipo", which is the exact equivalent of "like", or "cioè" ("that is").
• King George III of the UK was famous for involuntarily adding "what what" to most things he said. Yes, it was just him. Once, he reportedly added "peacock" to all his sentences.
• Dominican people have a habit of adding the phrase "Tu sabe" to any sentence in any place in the sentence, being middle, beginning, or end of the sentence. It's equivalent to people saying "You know what I'm sayin?"
• Some Cajuns begin or end sentences with "Mais" (pronounced "meh"), like "well" but more involuntary.
• Caroline Kennedy's attempt at being taken seriously was embarrassed by revelations that she used 'y'know' 30 times in a two-minute interview, and over 140 times in another.
  • Other newspapers used that interview as a case study of how anyone can be made to look stupid by simply transcribing their speech verbatim.
  • Ach, themmuns in Stroke Country have a few of thon wee tics as well, so they do!
• According to stereotype, people from Liverpool have a tendency to end their sentences with 'la', as in the typical Scouse greeting 'alright, la'.
• People from Dominica have a habit of adding "wi" and "nuh" to the end of their sentences. We can turn it off in polite conversation though.
• Poland
  • A variation of a sort: in Poland, there are numerous self-deprecating jokes about such usage of the local equivalent of the eff-word.
  • A clever Bilingual Bonus in this Penny Arcade strip, as the word in question ("kurwa") does mean "whore" and indeed tends to be one of the first words foreigners pick up, to the chagrin of some Poles and the amusement of others.
  • Lately (mid-2010) the people who speak on Polish TV have developed a tendency to finish every. Single. Sentence with a "tak?" ^translationyes? It drives at least one Poland-based troper up the wall.
• Brazil:
  • Brazilians often tag their phrase starts with "então" and "daí­" ("then") and phrase ends with "né?" ("isn't it?")
  • In the Brazilian equivalent of Tennessee (Minas Gerais), there are several dozen verbal tics, the most (in)famous being adding "uai" to the end of sentences, or not pronouncing soft Ls that follow an A (so "wall" would become "wah").
  • The younger crowd refer to each other as "vei" (a mispronounced slang term for "velho", meaning old, as in "old friend"), or "mano" (a slang for "brother", similar to "bro").
  • Another very frequent verbal tic is "tipo" ("type/kind"). A variation is "tipo assim" (which roughly means "like this").
  • Rio de Janeiro people has one that makes their accent much easier to detect: nearly every word ending in "s" ends in a sibilant "ssss" or "sh".
• Sweden:
  • People who speak Swedish with a strong Stockholm accent tend to pepper their speech with "dårå" ("then then" but used more as "you see") and "va" ("what"). Then there's Rinkebysvenska (sort of a Swedish dialect spoken primarily by immigrants from the Middle East) where the Arabian word 'jalla' is used in all kinds of random ways, like 'jalla hejdå' (jalla goodbye), 'jalla godnatt' (jalla goodnight). The tendency of some Swedish-speakers to use "asså", "liksom" and "typ" is pretty common as well, as is "ba".
  • Swedes listen or react to what someone else is saying to them with a very pronounced verbal tic. In place of what for English speakers might be a "mhmm," they do a combination of "jah" and a sharp intake of breath. A lot. Sometimes punctuated with a following (often nasal) "prrre-ciiis" or "absolut."
  • The ubiquitous "jahå'', "jaja mensan" and "åh".
  • Northern Swedes have "nå" ("well"). And instead of saying "yes" they make a peculiar inhaling sound that sort of sound like "jo" ("yes").
  • Gothenburgers sometimes add "gör" in front of sentences, which can both mean "very" and "big".
• Australia:
  • Australians, along with a tendency to swear incredibly often, quite usually make heavy use of the words "bloody" (the great Australian adjective) and "bastard".
  • There's also a tendency to start sentences with "Yeah", leading to the beautiful phrase "Yeah nah" (which means no). The length of the "yeah" can give you a hint as to how hard the person is thinking their response through; it's not uncommon to have a drawn out "yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah..... nah" while the person considers. It's also seen usage in New Zealand.
  • More urban Australians tend to use 'ay' at the end of sentences, a little like Canada, ay?
• When angry, girls from New Jersey and New York in the US add an A to the end of words. Like "Stopa!" "Knock it offa!" It's actually fairly common with teenage girls across the US. When girls do it, they often extend the vowel before the "a" in their aggression. So when they say "No!", it sounds more like "Noah!"
• In United States public speaking courses, students are advised to practice developing the Verbal Tic of "ummm" or "hmmm" (which usually sounds thoughtful or contemplative when used in public oratory) so that they may cultivate it as their filler of habit, to circumvent using "uh", "d'uh", "err", "y'know", or other more common fillers (which tend to sound uneducated, jejune, or clueless when used in public oratory).
• Some people from Galicia in northwest Spain add "hom" to finish a sentence, while in neighbouring region Asturias they will add "ho" or "oh" at the end of sentences, if adressing a man, or ne, if adressing a woman (usually questions or exclamations)
• In Russian language: "-s" (as in "spy") added at the end of a sentence or just at the end of any word whatsoever. It's not quite that common nowadays. It still exists. It was much more widespread in the 19th century, though it was already considered something of a quirk in high society. Porfiry Petrovich from Crime and Punishment had this, in particular. The "-s" ending is called slovoyers and originally was a polite, respectful form of speaking (it is a shortening of sudar "sir" or sudarinya "madam"). The usage of the slovoyers discontinued after the Red October. Now used mostly in irony and sarcasm.
• Philippines:
  • A sign of respect in the Philippines and familiarity if it's lacking. In the regions where Filipino (the Tagalog-based national language) is mostly used, when you have someone who is new to a place (like a new employee in a room full of veteran workers) the newbie would end their sentences with po. The po is a gender-neutral sign of respect, in the most basic sense used for someone older than you. The sentences would usually translate accurately by adding 'sir/ma'am.' (Order nyo po? = "What's your order, sir/ma'am?" Ewan ko po. = "I don't know, sir/ma'am.") You can tell a person has been at a job or has been doing something for a while if they talk without the po. Hell, it's even appeared in English, as "ma'am/sir" but sometimes appears or spoken like one word, i.e. "ma'am-sir". This can get hilarious, even in teleseryes (equivalent to the Spanish telenovela). For example, the protagonist in the teleserye Be Careful With My Heart has a really bad habit of addressing her boss "Ma'am-sir Chief" even though her boss is a male.
  • Also, Cebuanos and Ilocanos often pronounce their 'e's (Pronounced 'eh') as 'i's (Pronounced 'ee'). Exaggerated in the media, but sometimes hilarious nonetheless.
  • There's also the frequent use of kuwa/thing as a pronoun. "It's in the thing."
  • Children of immigrant Filipinos notoriously joke about how "ano" ("what") can be used as a placeholder for EVERYTHING, especially if their parent can't remember the English word they actually need. "Hey, get me the ano" or "We need to go to the ano."
  • There's also basta, which has no real direct translation. It usually comes after trying to explain something, failing, and then telling the other person to just trust them. e.g. "Take a left at the gray building, basta you'll know it when you see it."
  • Filipino comedian Ryan Rems Sarita, while performing — "Rock 'n' roll to the world!" punctuating every joke he tells.
• As Bill Engvall points out, "I tell you what" is a complete sentence in Texas. ("Well, what??" "I just told you!")
• The 14th Dalai Lama, when publicly speaking in English, often finishes a long sentence with "like that?" As English is not his first language, he's checking with his interpreter to make sure his grammar is correct.
• Alaska governor Sarah Palin, "Also..." in sentence constructions where it makes no sense and "you betcha!".
• "Ooh, ooh!" Joe E. Ross even did it in some of his animation roles.
• Zimbabweans seem to do the same with "isn't it?" Not quite "innit"... more like "iznit" or "izzenit".
• John Caparulo tends to end his sentences as if he had a verbal tic, all right?
• Yah der hey, dose folks from 'Scansin have way too many ta list here, you betcha!
• U.S. Senator and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain often addresses crowds as "my friends".
• The swear word putain is something very common in some French dialects. That must do them wonders during diplomacy with the Russians.
  • In the south of France it's known as the "virgule toulousaine/marseillaise" (the Toulouse / Marseille comma), given how often it shows up.
• Lesson #1 in How to Sound like Tina Fey: Replace the words "man" and "woman" with "gentleman" and "lady", but make no effort to sound formal. Also try to fit the word "this" in before them, resulting in comments like "so this lady was crazy."
  • Fairly common amongst most white middle-class New Yorkers, along with several other quirks. "I was waiting on line when this lady cut in front of me" would replace "I was waiting in line when a woman cut in front of me."
• People in Baltimore tend to refer to other people as "hon". They also have a tendency to pronounce short vowel sounds with an appended "R" sound so that Water becomes "Warter", Washington, becomes Warshington. The City and the State get a Bizarre version because of this. If you stress the Mary in Maryland, you're clearly a foreigner. If you stress the Land in Maryland, you've spent some time in the United States. If you pronounce the state in a way that makes it vaguely sound like King Arthur's magician Merlin, then you're a native of the state. While there is no difference between the foreign and national pronunciation of the city "Baltimore", expect the state people to correct you and tell you it's Baltimur.
• People adding an upward tilt? at the end of their sentences? that makes it sound like a question? No matter what they're saying? Like this?
• People from Cork in Ireland, have a tendency to add "like", "boy" and "girl" into their sentences, among other things. D'you know what I mean, like? Serious boy, I'm telling ya. "Boy" is pronounced "b-eye". Certain parts of Scotland do the same thing but with 'lad' and 'lass' instead of 'boy' and 'girl'.
• Whitney Houston popularized the phrase "Hell to the no!", being used instead of the plain "Hell no!"
• Freddie Mercury, darling!
• Upper Midwesterners of Scandinavian roots have an interesting little interjection, uff da!, which expresses a standard response to any form of excessive sensory or emotional input.
• Some Californians, particularly those in the San Francisco Bay Area or Central Valley (or if they're filming a Coen Brothers movie), use "dude" as both an expression of joy/anger/exasperation/WTF and an informal address between friends. There is heavy reliance on intonation for the exact meaning, and that makes it insanely hard to explain in text, dude. It's interchangeable with "man" for the most part, although the former is between peers while the latter is mostly used when talking with/to an older person.
  • Additionally, the word "Hella" is used even more frequently as a replacement for 'really' or 'very' and is often used in conjunction with "Dude" ie; "Dude, that looked hella dope" The longer the last syllable is drug out, the more disproportionate the disbelief becomes.
  • The word "Damn" is often pronounced "Day-uhm" This, in of itself has multiple enunciations, ranging from 'barely noticeable tic' to 'wannabe gangsta' if the word develops a second syllable.
• People in eastern Pennsylvania whose families identify themselves as Pennsylvania Dutch have some interesting tics. They're not Dutch, but German, and some of their sentences are exact translations from the original German. Thus you will hear things like "Throw the cow over the fence some hay" and "The coffee's all" (meaning 'all gone'). The regional Amish have very similar tics.
• While over in Cincinnati, also German settled, "Please?" replaces "huh?" or "what?".
• Some Spanish speakers begin every statement with "Sabes Que?" Which means "You know what?" George Lopez pokes fun at this A LOT.
  • Eeh, Spain, vale? The Spanish have a few of these, no?
• Keith Olbermann would sometimes be given to wondering aloud "HOW DARE YOU, SIR?"
• Danny Wallace, in his autobiographical book Yes Man, talks about going to a party at which he met a man who ended every sentence with "do you know what I mean?"
• Now, the most important part, ah... of doing a Jeff Goldblum impersonation is to, accelerate and ACCENT your speech, ah, in um, places where it would. Not benaturaltoaccent, or pause. This tic is a deliberate affectation of his that originated with a fluffed line in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), and there's actually a word for it: "fumfering". It's become so important that Goldblum himself has sometimes been asked to "do Jeff Goldblum" by directors in lieu of more natural readings!
• In Germany the stereotype for Swiss people consists of them being slow and ending every sentence with the words "oder?", making every statement a question. Truth in Television to a certain extent.
• The Oslo dialect from Norway was known for the word "gitt" at the end of any question you could think of. Even when the word showed up in other sentences as well. For the record, "gitt" has the same meaning as "dude".
• Australians use "Mate" in very much the same way as "Dude" or "Man", but it's usually in reference to a friend. Similarly, New Zealanders say "Bro", even to females.
• In urban Philadelphia, the term "jawn" is used as a substitute for any noun with black residents. "Can I get that jawn over there?" "I'll have a large jawn, thanks." "You gonna take the jawn to Center City?" Even natives need clarification sometimes on what exactly the jawn being referred to is. Among southern blacks "junt" is used in a similar role.
• Urban black Americans may frequently end sentences with "yo", "a'ight" or "na'mean?" Some black Americans also use the word "Nigga" a lot, either to address someone or in a more general sense.
• In Greece many people use "ξέρω 'γω" which translates into "do I know?" and is apparently related to the English "y'know". There is also the word "μαλάκα" which translates to "wanker" but is used to same way as "dude" or "man". Usually males use this when they to talk to each other, but it's so popular that even girls use it.
• People from Brooklyn often call everybody "son", for example "I can't believe you would say that, son".
• Guyanese often say "na man" when they are asking someone something repeatedly. "Get de ting deh, na man." (get the thing there).
• In Chile, "sí po" and "no po" are more common than just a plain old "sí" or "no". "Po" doesn't really mean much of anything, but it's a shortened form of the more widespread Spanish word "pues", which also generally doesn't mean much of anything. In Santiago, there's a weekly party for study-abroad types and other similar foreigners which is called "Miércoles Po" ("miércoles" = "Wednesday") as a sort of play on this.^note No points for guessing which day it's on. On top of that, in less formal contexts urban sorts tend to use "weón" (a corruption of "huevón"; pronouncing it properly makes it more like an insult, amusingly enough) like someone from San Francisco would use "dude/man".
• In Peru, similar to Chile, it's very common to end statements with a pe. This is a short form of pues, meaning roughly "then" or "in that case". Also common
• Czechs, particularly men, and particularly if they're from Bohemia, tend to use the word "vole" or "ty vole" the same way some Americans use "dude" — to address someone informally, to express some kind of emotion, to fill spaces between words, etc. This expression takes a little explaining, because it's the vocative form of the word "vůl" — which means "ox", so it's saying to someone "Hey, you ox". Originally this was an insult, but it's evolved.
• It can be heard in many different areas, but there's a tendency for some to pronounce "sorry" as "sorey."
• In Austria, some people are prone to adding "ur" in front of adjectives, which translates to "really", meaning very. For example, ur alt = really/very old.
• Some not-very-cultured Russians tend to use the word "бля" (blya, short for whore) as an interjection, like in "Я, бля, ну конкретно бля, этому бля, мудаку всю рожу бля разъебал нахуй бля." It sometimes reaches truly ridiculous levels, like in gopniks (Russian street thugs) who can't utter a sentence without saying it at least thrice.
• Some people on the Internet have a habit of doing this lol.
• John Carmack has a unique speech habit: He adds a "hmmm" to every sentence, at least when he was younger. This is mentioned in the book "Masters of Doom", telling the story of id Software and how they became one of the biggest names in the games industry.
• Michael Fassbender has the tendency to say "sort of" and "you know" a lot during interviews. It's sort of hilarious.
• Scott Cawthon has the habits of ending his sentences with "you know?" similar to the aforementioned Michael Fassbender, as evidenced by his interview with Dawko. It even got a remix!
• This Very Wiki, natch:
  • Flat "What"
  • And how!
  • Some of these are particularly egregious.
  • X, dear God, X!
• Of course, there are some people who just have unique verbal tics, for example, starting many of their sentences with words like 'Anyway' even if they were never interrupted or were only just starting to talk
• This can be heard in the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in particular), where the Scandanavian influence brings out the occasional "Ya, you betcha". Canadian "Eh?" is also present there.
• American Midwesterners love the multipurpose interjection "ope". It has no real meaning on its own, but it's generally used as a combination "I'm sorry" and "excuse me" for when the speaker bumps into or otherwise inconveniences someone.
• Formal Japanese will have "desu" at the ending of every strict sentence and "masu" at the ending of every verb.
• Russian hard rock performer Sergei "Spider" Troitsky is famous in Russia for many of his verbal tics, especially for beginning most of his sentences with "в общем-то" ("in general") and ending them with "например" ("for example").
• In Bulgaria it is somewhat common for people to start a sentence with "значи" (znachi), which originally means "meaning" or "means", but in this case it plays the role of "so". As in "So you're going to...", "So I told him to...", etc. This has been used to the point of some teachers calling it a "weed word" and trying to teach students to stop using it. In some parts of the country the particle "де"/"de" is also often used at the end of a statement, usually implying annoyance: "stiga de" - "enough de", "ostavi me de" - "leave me alone de", etc. Another example is the use of slang words in some regions (mainly by the teenagers). In Sofia it is (or was) common for teenagers to put the word "копеле"/"kopele" (meaning "bastard") somewhere in the sentence, when talking to someone, usually friends. In Plovdiv it is still very common for them to end almost every sentence with "майна"/"maina", which has no actual meaning, but probably derives from an old dialect word for "mother" and can also be used as a curse word.
• Ringo Starr, peace and love, peace and love. To the point where it's practically a Madness Mantra.
• Quentin Tarantino peppers his sentences liberally with the words "Okay?" and "Alright?".
• Native born Beijingers tend to add a rotic-R to the end of nouns and at the end of sentences when speaking Mandarin.
• Karl Pilkington, in his Mancunian accent, used "and that" to normally end his sentences and that. It is a common piece of slang used to end sentences by Britons and New Zealanders and that.
• Speaking of famous Mancunians, brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher (formerly of Oasis), in addition to swearing profusely, end almost all of their sentences with "D'You know what I mean?", to the point where it became the chorus to one of their biggest hits.
• Allison Mack has the habit of using "amazing" a lot. It even carried into Chloe Sullivan, the character she played on Smallville.
  Thank you so much for the amazing art book! It is amazing!
  Alli Mack
  • Brought up to ridiculous levels in Marilyn where she uses it about as often as the F-bomb... which might be another real life Verbal Tic because it is said that she swears quite a lot behind the scenes.
• NPR's Radiolab show aired a segment pointing out fellow host Terry Gross' tendency to start sentences with the word "so".
• Some Arabs tend to add "eh" at the end of the sentences (it's not pronounced the same way as the Canadian "Eh"). It more or less means "huh!" (exclamation mark included) and is usually used when frustrated ex. What's up with this article, huh?!
• Mathias 'Warlord' Nygard, the lead singer of Finnish viking metal band Turisas, makes liberal use of 'just', 'sort of', and 'just, sort of' when doing interviews in English. This could be explained by the fact that English is almost definitely not his first language, and he's simply filling in gaps in his speech (that's not to say that his English isn't very good, of course).
• Juelz Santana of Dipset fame would frequently end his sentences with "you dig?".
• Many Polish noblemen of old had memorable verbal tics; for example, Karol Radziwiłł had "Panie kochanku" (translates roughly to "Beloved Sir"), while Stanisław Potocki was sometimes called Rewera for his habit of constantly saying "re vera" (Latin for "in fact").
• Bert Blyleven, former pitcher and current play-by-play announcer for the Minnesota Twins, finds a way to insert "right there" into just about every sentence he speaks.
• As President, George W. Bush fell victim to speech impediments and cringeworthy Bushism phraseologies. One that's used a lot in parodies is his trademark laugh. Heh heh heh. After they had left the White House, Laura Bush tried to explain away a lot of the "Bushisms" — especially the laugh — as George never really ever getting used to speaking in public, and the malapropisms and the laugh being the involuntary result of stage fright. Its as good an explanation as any.
• Barack Obama repeatedly says "Let's be clear" when trying to make a point. He also uses "uh" as a filler quite often.
• Finland:
  • Finns often say "no", "no niin" or "niin" before sentences, as a way of hesitating similar to the French "alors". Note that "no" is pronounced more like the word "not" with the t cut off than like the English word "no". It can be translated as "Well" or "Well then". They also tend to casually swear a lot. They often start sentences with "Voi" ror "Voi voi" when surprised or disappointed too, which can be loosely translated as "Oh" or "Awww..."
  • Unless the Finn's name is Kimi Raikkonen, in which the appropriate tic would be "Bwoah." Hell, it has even been tagged by automotive website Jalopnik as their 2016 Word of the Year.
  • An intra-Finnish example is the city of Tampere (the second largest urban area in the country), where people tend to use the word "nääs" a lot. It is roughly equivalent to "y'know?" which some people in the English-speaking world tend to use a lot. In fact, one of the nicknames for Tampere is "Nääsville", as a reference to Nashville, Tennessee.
• Pennsylvanians have a habit of adding "then" and "a while" to their sentences. For example: "Let's get to work then!" "Instead of waiting around, do you want me to get going a while?"
• Donald Trump is often satirically depicted as having repetitive mannerisms, including the memetic snowclone "do we love X, folks?"
• SOME people tend to ELEVATE their volume when their speaking AND THEN IMMEDIATELY dial it down, PROBABLY to keep holding your ATTENTION while they talk. THEY DON'T necessarily sound angry when they do this though.
• Edward G. Robinson created a whole image of the archetypal gangster and his pattern of speech has been imitated for nearly a century because of it. Prefacing sentences with "M'yeah" or ending them as a rhetorical question by adding an inquiring "See?" is now almost a requirement for representing the attitude of gangsters from the prohibition era.
• Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov has the notable tic of finishing every other sentence with "don" (translating to 'anyway' in Chechen).

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