Intonation

Learning Objectives

Identify intonation in order to improve pronunciation

Intonation– the rise and fall pattern of the voice when speaking; sentences have regular patterns of intonation

Falling intonation ↓

Rising intonation ↑

Statements

  • Nice to meet ↓ you.
  • She doesn’t live here ↓ anymore.
  • I’m going for a walk in the ↓ park.

Yes/no Questions

  • Do you like your new ↑ teacher?
  • Have you finished ↑ already?
  • May I borrow your ↑ dictionary?

Commands

  • Write your name ↓ here.
  • Show me what you’ve ↓ written.
  • Leave it on the ↓ desk.

Wh- questions (requesting information)

  • Where do you ↓ work?
  • Which of them do you ↓ prefer?
  • When does the shop ↓ open?

 

Both Falling ↓ and Rising ↑ Intonation

Choices

  • Are you having ↑ soup or ↓ salad?
  • Does he speak ↑ German or ↓ French?

Hesitation/reluctance

  • I don’t quite ↓ re ↑ member.

Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling)

  • We’ve got ↑ apples, pears, bananas and ↓ oranges
  • The sweater comes in ↑ blue, white pink and ↓ black

Politeness-Doubt-Uncertainty

  • Perhaps we could ↓ vis ↑ it the place?
  • Do you think it’s ↓ al ↑ lowed?

Conditional sentences

  • If he ↑ calls, ask him to leave a ↓message.
  • Unless he ↑ insists, I’m not going to ↓ go.

 

 

tips for teaching

Falling intonation is the most common intonation pattern in English.

 

Rising intonation invites the speaker to continue talking.

 

Use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished thoughts and conditional sentences.

 

Fall-rise intonation shows the speaker is not certain of the response to a question.