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Feminine: Emma Watson said 'um' repeatedly during an ins that was analysed for one study

It may simply sound inarticulate, but whether you say 'um' or 'er' in conversation could actually reveal a lot about you. 

Studies carried out across the world, from Edinburgh to America, Germany and the Netherlands have all concluded that women and young people are more likely to say 'um' whilst deep in thought while men and older people favour 'er'.

But 'er' could become extinct after 'um' is beginning to be used more in everyday language, the research showed.

Josef Fruehwald, a lecturer in socio-linguistics from the University of Edinburgh analysed 25,000 examples of people in the US city of Philadelphia saying the words. In American English 'uh' is used instead of 'er'.

Mr Fruewald told The Times: 'In the Philadelphia data, women's preference for 'um' instead of 'uh' ranges somewhere between being 400 per cent and 120 per cent stronger than men's.'

'Both men and women are shifting their preferences towards using 'um' more, but women are slightly ahead, and in more recent dates of birth, it looks like that [gender] difference is narrowing. It's actually the case that when language changes women lead the way,' he added.

The Times carried out its own research into the trend by analysing which public figures used 'um' and 'er'.

It found that, when interviewed on US chat show Late Night With David Letterman in 1988, comedian John Cleese used 24 'ers' and eight 'ums' within 10 minutes.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage, also illustrated that men favour the 'er' by using 15 'ers' during an interview on The Andrew Marr show in March.

Footballer Steven Gerrard however let his feminine side slip by using nine 'ums' in two and a half minutes last month following a match against Everton.

British actress Emma Watson also proved the trend by tipping the scales towards 'um' during an interview on the Letterman show. 

Some experts believe 'um' and 'er' are simply used in different situations – 'um' for a long pause and 'er' for a shorter break.

Mark Liberman, of the University of Pennsylvania, suggested these 'hesitation sounds have different functions, which are differentially useful to speakers of different ages and genders – like uncertainty about what to say versus uncertainty about how to say it'.

Proving the point: A number of studies concluded that 'er' was favoured by men and older people. Both John Cleese (left) and Nigel Farage favoured the word over 'um' in interviews that were analysed as part of one study