What President Bush needs to say when he's searching for a word in Spanish

Have you ever seen former U.Ss President George W. Bush speak Spanish?

I have, and honestly he’s not too bad. But one thing he and all new Spanish speakers need to learn in order to sound just a little bit closer to fluent is the use of crutch words...

Crutch words are those words you use when you’re stumbling around for other words, like umm and uhh. Spanish, not surprisingly, has it’s own set of crutch words that you can insert in the middle of your sentences, and sound just a little bit more…native.

Pues

Pues is a fine word to use when you want to think about your response before you continue. It basically means well.... I've also heard it pronounced as an almost hiss type of slang in some rural areas (puesssss), and have also seen it used to change the subject. This is a very common interjection in many native's vocabulary, and you'll likely pick it up easily in their presence. No shame in copying!

O sea

Another fine word used for stumbling. Think about it as you know or I mean.

Este

This is a simple crutch word, and when in Spanish speaking countries, I am often unable to distinguish it from its neighbor below.

Es que

It's that.... Although this one can be used as a crutch, I've found it had a lot of use in translating too. For example, when a member of our party says something in English, and someone else had to translate it into Spanish for the rest of the group, es que came in handy to start the sentence without a long explanation such as She says that....

Actually, just plain old que is used this way too.

Es decir

This is a more formal variant. Consider it a crutch to be used in situations such as giving a lecture or speech. Literally, That is to say.

Chisme

A thing. This word is used by Spanish speakers when they have simply forgot the name of something, but non-Spanish speakers can use it to squeak by when you lack vocabulary!

So practice up! Oh, and the word for crutch words? It's muletas.