> Remove ums, uhs and false starts from a video automatically: in one brief in Shorty, or as a separate pass in Descript, CapCut or Premiere Pro. Source: https://shortyedit.com/guides/how-to-remove-filler-words-from-video --- # How do I remove filler words like um and uh from a video automatically? Use an editor that finds the fillers in the speech and cuts them for you. In Shorty, write “remove the ums and false starts” in your brief: the director cuts the hesitations, stutters and restarts and builds the rest of the edit, captions included, on the clean take. In Descript, CapCut or Premiere Pro, filler removal is its own step: transcribe, review the detected words, delete them, then keep editing. [The Shorty team](https://shortyedit.com/about#editorial-team) · Updated 20 October 2026 · Published 20 October 2026 ## Key takeaways - In Shorty, write “remove the ums and false starts” in your brief; the director cuts them and builds the edit on the clean take. - In Descript, CapCut and Premiere Pro, you transcribe, review the detected fillers and delete them as a separate step. - Keep “like” when it means “such as,” and keep short pauses between thoughts. - A tool can only cut a filler its transcript records, so verbatim transcription matters. ## The fastest way: ask for it in your brief In Shorty, filler removal is part of making the edit, not a pass you run first. Add your footage, describe the video you want, and include a line such as “remove the ums, uhs and false starts.” The director transcribes the speech word for word, decides which words are fillers in context, and cuts them from both the picture and the sound. Because it happens inside the edit, everything timed to the speech follows the clean take. Captions, sound cues and the edit’s length are rebuilt from the cut transcript, so nothing drifts after the cuts. You can also ask for it later, in a revision of an edit you already made. ## Doing it in Descript, CapCut or Premiere Pro These editors have a dedicated filler-word tool. Each works on a transcript: you generate it, review what was detected, and delete it before or during the rest of the edit. | Tool | Steps | What it detects | | --- | --- | --- | | Descript | AI Tools → Remove filler words; review the list, then delete, ignore or replace each with a gap | “Um”, “uh”, “you know”; retakes and long gaps are separate tools | | CapCut | Captions → Auto captions with “Identify filler words” on; delete the highlighted words | “Um”, “uh”, “like”, “you know” and pauses, which CapCut calls examples | | Premiere Pro | Transcript panel → filter by Filler words → Delete all, choosing Extract to close the gaps | “Uh” and “umm” | Sources: [Descript: filler words](https://help.descript.com/script-editing/filler-words) · [CapCut: filler word removal](https://www.capcut.com/tools/filler-words) · [Premiere Pro: detect and delete pauses and filler words](https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere/desktop/edit-projects/edit-video-using-text-based-editing/detect-and-delete-pauses-in-transcripts.html). Competitor features checked 20 October 2026 in each tool’s own documentation. Plans and features change, so check the current page before you choose. ## What to remove, and what to keep Remove hesitations (um, uh, er), stutters and repeated words (“the, the”), false starts where a sentence is abandoned and restarted, and verbal tics that carry no meaning. Keep a word when it does work in the sentence: “like” in “businesses like Stripe” means “such as,” and a repeated word can be deliberate emphasis. Don’t remove every pause. A breath between thoughts sounds natural; a talk with every gap closed sounds rushed. ## Check the result - Listen at each cut for clipped words or a click. - Watch the speaker at each cut. Cover a visible jump with B-roll or a caption. - Play the captions against the speech after the cuts. - Read the transcript of the finished video to confirm no meaning was lost. ## Why automatic tools miss some ums A tool can only cut a filler that appears in its transcript. Many speech recognizers are trained to produce clean, readable text and leave hesitations out. When we ran a widely used transcription model on six interview excerpts with audible hesitations, its transcripts contained no “uh” or “um” at all. Shorty uses a verbatim recognizer that writes them down, so they can be found and cut. ## See it on four real talks We ran four public talks through the same tool the director uses inside an edit. Across them, 107 words came out in 80 cuts, including every “um” and “uh” in the transcripts, and every kept word survived in order. The launch post plays each one before and after, with every removed word struck through. | Recording | Length before → after | Words cut | Cuts | Ums and uhs left | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Nik Storonsky, Revolut | 2:00 → 1:49.8 | 40 | 28 | 0 of 13 | | Prime Intellect, NVIDIA event | 1:00 → 0:53.2 | 38 | 27 | 0 of 16 | | Arjun Karanam, Trajectory | 2:00 → 1:54.4 | 22 | 21 | 0 of 8 | | Elon Musk, Tesla Roadster event | 2:00 → 1:58.4 | 7 | 4 | 0 of 1 | Sources: [Shorty News: four talks before and after](https://shortyedit.com/blog/filler-word-removal-ums-uhs-false-starts). Measured on excerpts of public YouTube talks on 20 October 2026. Results depend on the recording. ## Keep the ideas coming ### Filler-word removal in Shorty Shorty removes filler words as part of the edit. Write “remove the ums” in your brief, and the director cuts hesitations, stutters, repeated words and false starts from the picture and the sound, keeps words like “like” where they mean something, and rebuilds captions, music cues and the edit’s length on the clean take. ### Remove filler words without choppy cuts Cut at sound boundaries rather than rough word timestamps, crossfade each join for a few milliseconds, keep the natural pauses between thoughts, and cover any visible jump with B-roll, a punch-in or a caption. Shorty does the audio part for you when it removes fillers, and you can ask for B-roll or captions over the cuts in the same brief. ### Best AI tools to remove filler words For filler removal inside a finished social edit from one prompt, use Shorty. For editing long recordings as text, Descript. For a free social editor, CapCut. For recorded interviews and podcasts, Riverside. If you already cut in Premiere Pro, its transcript panel removes “uh” and “umm.” For one-click cleanup, VEED’s Magic Cut, and for clipping long videos, OpusClip. ### What filler words are, and which to cut Filler words are sounds and words that fill a pause while a speaker thinks: hesitations such as “um,” “uh” and “er,” and verbal tics such as “like,” “you know,” “basically” and “I mean.” Stutters, repeated words and false starts belong with them. Cut the hesitations and the tics that carry no meaning; keep a word when it is part of the meaning or the speaker’s natural voice. ## Questions, answered. ### How do I remove filler words in Shorty? Add your footage and say it in your brief, for example “remove the ums, uhs and false starts.” The director cuts them from the picture and the sound and builds the rest of the edit, captions included, on the clean take. You can also ask for it in a revision of a finished edit. ### Can I remove filler words for free? CapCut’s filler-word page says the feature is free with its trial, and Riverside lists filler removal on all of its plans. Descript uses AI credits for it, with a limited free allowance. In Shorty, it is part of the edit you are already making, and each edit shows a credit estimate before you submit. ### Does it catch every um? It removes every hesitation its transcript records; on the four talks in our launch post, that was all 38. A hesitation the recognizer doesn’t hear can’t be cut, so listen to the result and ask in a revision if one slipped through. ### Which languages does Shorty’s filler removal support? English and Russian are tested by ear today. French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch are set up and in testing. Speech that mixes languages isn’t supported yet. Each clip can have up to three minutes of speech, on up to four clips per edit. ## Your next video starts here. Bring the footage. Tell us the idea. Shape the edit. --- Published by Tools Products FZ-LLC. Canonical HTML: https://shortyedit.com/guides/how-to-remove-filler-words-from-video