How to begin a reply to a question?


During Q&A in English, "well" and "uhm" are two ways to begin a reply.

If you known the answer, you begin the reply with "Well... ". This creates a
pause such that the speaker can arrange his thoughts and construct the
clearest answer with good sentence structures. If you aren't sure of the
answer, but want to guess anyway, you begin with "uhm...".

In Japanese, my opinion is that it's natural to begin a response to a question
about which you are unsure of with "あの、... blah blah.".

But, how do you begin to reply to a question about which you are confident?
While I do know the answer, I want a pause so that I can arrange my thoughts.
If I lead with "あの", it could look like I am taking a guess.




えっと is ubiquitous for this purpose. To buy yourself more time you can say
えっとですね.

そうですね is another option and carries the nuance of "that's a good/valid
question". An English equivalent might be "Right...".

You can combine the two as

> えっと、そうですね。[response]  
>  そうですね。えっと、[response]




えっと is ubiquitous for this purpose. To buy yourself more time you can say
えっとですね.

そうですね is another option and carries the nuance of "that's a good/valid
question". An English equivalent might be "Right...".

You can combine the two as

> えっと、そうですね。[response]  
>  そうですね。えっと、[response]

