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?

Falling intonation ↓

Rising intonation ↑

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.

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.