Best times to pause and think during your sentence, and any other verbal cues to know about in Japanese

[Haruto Uzumaki]

Where are the best moments to pause and think during japanese speech without the listener believing you've finished talking, and so on? Another simple question I think, but hard to find info these kinds of detailed topics. I'd just like to truly understand and make use of the little things that can't exactly be heard through "surface listening", for lack of a better term.
I can't remember what else I want to know, but basically all about the stuff that isn't really taught in school but just naturally understood by natives, kinda like how when someone (native) speaks in your native language and you pick up on things like knowing they're not finished talking, maybe... I don't know what I'm saying well anyway, thanks in advance...

 

[mdchachi]

You could learn the filler sounds. Instead of ummm, things like etoooo or anooo. If you need time to put your thoughts together, you can say chotto matte.

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

You could learn the filler sounds. Instead of ummm, things like etoooo or anooo. If you need time to put your thoughts together, you can say chotto matte.

I see... I heard that it's a bad habit to say those a lot, so I wanted to avoid it... I just saw many conversations where it seemed like the listener knew the speaker wasn't finished talking, even though they made what could be considered a complete sentence, and I was interested in finding out if there were any verbal cues or even body language that lets the listener know this which might be different compared to English.

 

[bentenmusume]

For one thing, it's not really a "bad habit" to use filler words. Natives (even highly educated natives) use them all the time.

It's only a "bad habit" in the sense that you'd want to avoid overly using them in formal situations or where you're expected to be a professional, but as a beginning learner of the language, no one is going to be holding you to the standards of an NHK newscaster or a Mitsubishi sales representative making a pitch to an important client.

On the contrary, dropping the occasional あのう, ええと, なんか, なんていうか, なんだろう, なんて言えばいいんだろう, etc. will make your speech more natural, especially if the alternative is just completely freezing in mid-sentence or subconsciously blurting out "Uh...", "Uhm...", or other English filler words.

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As for your larger question about when to pause and/or leave a sentence trailing off, unfortunately this isn't really a "simple question".

In fact, it's very hard to speak about in the abstract, because it can only come from a deeper understanding of the language and knowing how a native speaker would "complete" various thoughts.

Like, as an English native speaker, if I said any of the following...

"I've always dreamed of going to Japan, but..."
"Why, you little..."
"What in the...?"

...you'd be able to fill in the rest, I bet.
Maybe you wouldn't know exactly which words I was about to use, but the idea would be clear, right?
It's the same in Japanese.

It's not that Japanese people have some special kind of telepathy, it's just that they share the linguistic/cultural context to be able to know what might follow a certain thought/expression.

So I understand that this might not be a particularly satisfying answer, but the only way you're going to develop this intuition is by improving your language skills and listening to a lot of native Japanese. There isn't just a one-size-fits-all answer for "when do I pause" or "when do I not need to complete a sentence".

There are certain patterns that you may commonly see "ending" non-complete sentences, for example -て forms of verbs (e.g. どうしようかな～と思って, etc.) -（ん）だけど (e.g. 東京駅に行きたいんだけど…, etc.), -のに for contrary to fact wishes (来ればよかったのに…), conditional forms (行けたらなぁ…）but it's not as simple as "you can always do this when X".

The only real answer is, "when what you've said forms a meaningful utterance that will convey meaning to the listener."
And knowing what constitutes that will only come after you've developed a certain level of familiarity with the language.

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Sorry, that was kind of an essay. Hope it gave some perspective, though.

(For what it's worth, thank you. I feel like it's been a while since someone here was asking thought-provoking questions on the language.)

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

It's only a "bad habit" in the sense that you'd want to avoid overly using them in formal situations or where you're expected to be a professional, but as a beginning learner of the language, no one is going to be holding you to the standards of an NHK newscaster or a Mitsubishi sales representative making a pitch to an important client.

I see, that makes sense then... I hope I can one day learn to sound like an NHK newscaster though that would be cool to me as well!

On the contrary, dropping the occasional あのう, ええと, なんか, なんていうか, なんだろう, なんて言えばいいんだろう, etc. will make your speech more natural, especially if the alternative is just completely freezing in mid-sentence or subconsciously blurting out "Uh...", "Uhm...", or other English filler words.

Yeah I definitely would try to avoid saying any english fillers I'll make sure to try and use these in my thoughts more when I try to practice making Japanese sentences in my head and get stuck.

In fact, it's very hard to speak about in the abstract, because it can only come from a deeper understanding of the language and knowing how a native speaker would "complete" various thoughts.

So I understand that this might not be a particularly satisfying answer, but the only way you're going to develop this intuition is by improving your language skills and listening to a lot of native Japanese. There isn't just a one-size-fits-all answer for "when do I pause" or "when do I not need to complete a sentence".

Yeah, that also makes sense. I was thinking there were some general triggers that cue the listener, but I guess overall I really need to listen to more and more Japanese, as well as continue talking to my friends and learn more grammar points.

The only real answer is, "when what you've said forms a meaningful utterance that will convey meaning to the listener."
And knowing what constitutes that will only come after you've developed a certain level of familiarity with the language.

It's an answer I can come to accept

Sorry, that was kind of an essay. Hope it gave some perspective, though.

(For what it's worth, thank you. I feel like it's been a while since someone here was asking thought-provoking questions on the language.)

Thank you as well, it was insightful There are so many things I'm thinking about regarding Japanese, so I'll definitely continue to ask these types of questions and maybe even just have a non-question based discussion - I have one idea in mind for that one, if anyone's interested!