2. THE BASICS
• Intonation is a non-verbal method of expressing
various meanings, emotions or situations.
• Intonation in American English uses the rise and fall of
pitch to accomplish this.
3. INTONATION AND STRUCTURE
Intonation is very closely linked to grammar, or more
specifically, sentence structure.
Because English has a fairly strictly fixed word order, it
is not an option to rearrange the words when we want to
make a point about something.
Therefore, it becomes necessary to shift our intonation
to highlight information that is key to our point.
4. SOME CLASSIC RULES
Sentence Level Rules
Yes/no questions usually have a rising intonation at the
end.
I.E. Do you want some water?
Information or “wh” questions usually have falling
intonation at the end.
I.E. When will the package arrive?
Declarative sentences also have falling intonation at
the end.
I.E. Intonation makes English more interesting.
5. SOME CLASSIC RULES
Other Rules
When listing items, your pitch should rise at the end of
the word for each item, but drop after the last one.
I.E. I need a hammer, nails, wood, and some hinges.
It is acceptable to leave your intonation high and let
your voice trail off when you are still thinking but plan
to continue speaking.
I.E. Let me see…
6. SOME CLASSIC RULES: THOUGHT
GROUPS
Every sentence can be divided up into a series of shorter
“thought groups”.
For Example:
“My brother bought me a new bicycle.”
Can be divided as:
My brother / bought me / a new bicycle.
Each of the divisions begins a new thought group.
7. THOUGHT GROUPS & INTONATION
In a sentence, depending on the focus and the type of
sentence, you will determine which words in each
thought group to stress or emphasize by raising your
pitch.
However, please note, that at the end of each thought
group, your intonation must end by falling.
Example:
My brother / bought me / a new bicycle.
[Translation: My brother (not my sister) bought me (not you) a new
bicycle (not a pony).]
*Exception: the end of the final thought group of yes/no questions
will rise.
8. ASPECTS OF INTONATION
New Information
Contrast
Meaning
Pronunciation
Mood or Personality
Cultural Understanding
*Source: http://www.americanaccent.com/intonation.html
9. NEW INFORMATION
In standard English, the nouns usually carry the weight of a
sentence, when everything else is equal.
Although the verb carries important information, it does not receive
the primary stress of a first-time noun.
Ex. Dogs eat bones.
After the information has been introduced, or is being repeated
through the use of pronouns, the intonation shifts over to the verb.
The intonation changes when a sentence changes from nouns to
pronouns:
Ex. Dogs eat bones.
They eat them.
10. NEW INFORMATION: PHRASING
In addition to the intonation of a statement, there is
another aspect of speech that indicates meaning --
phrasing.
In a sentence, phrasing tells you where the speaker is
at the moment, where he is going, and if he is finished
or not.
11. PHRASING:
NOTICE THAT THE INTONATION STAYS ON THE
NOUNS.
Statement Listing
Stress the nouns and let the tone With more than one item in a list,
fall at the end of the sentence. all but the last one have a rising
Dogs eat bones. tone.
Dogs eat bones, kibbles and
First half, second half
The first half of a sentence meat.
usually sets up the second half.
Dogs eat bones, but cats eat Question
fish. A regular question goes up
(compared with a statement), but
Intro Phrase
When you want to preface your drops back down at the end.
statement, use a rising tone. Do dogs eat bones?
As we all know, dogs eat bones.
Repeated Question
A repeated, rhetorical or emotional
question goes up, and then up
again at the end.
Do dogs eat bones?!
12. CONTRAST
Once the intonation of new information is established,
notice that there is a pattern that breaks that flow.
When you want to emphasize one thing over another,
you reflect this contrast with pitch change.
Notice how the intonation indicates contrast:
Bob studies English.
Bob studies English, but he doesn't use it.
13. CONTRAST: DANGERS
If a person consistently stresses "contrast words" as
opposed to "new information words", he can end up
sounding permanently argumentative*.
Examples:
I said it is good.
He doesn't like it. Where are you going?
*this is not a good thing
14. CONTRAST: DANGERS
Mixed messages occur when modals or verbs of
perception are stressed -- you end up with the
opposite meaning!
Examples:
People should exercise more, but . . .
They would help us, if . . .
It looks like Chanel, but at that price, it's a knock-
off.
He seems like a nice guy, but once you get to know
him. . .
15. MEANING
Exercise to demonstrate the variety of meaning through
intonation changes:
Take a single sentence, try stressing each word in turn,
and see the totally different meanings that come out.
1. I didn't say he stole the money.
2. I didn't say he stole the money.
3. I didn't say he stole the money.
4. I didn't say he stole the money.
5. I didn't say he stole the money.
6. I didn't say he stole the money.
7. I didn't say he stole the money.
16. MEANING
Once you are clear on the intonation changes in the seven
sentences, you can add context words to clarify the meaning:
1. I didn't say he stole the money, someone else said it.
2. I didn't say he stole the money, that's not true at all.
3. I didn't say he stole the money, I only suggested the
possibility.
4. I didn't say he stole the money, I think someone else took it.
5. I didn't say he stole the money, maybe he just borrowed it.
6. I didn't say he stole the money, but rather some other money.
7. I didn't say he stole the money, he may have taken some
jewelry.
17. PRONUNCIATION
In any language, there are areas of overlap, where one category
has a great deal in common with a different category.
In this case, intonation and pronunciation have two areas of
overlap.
First is the pronunciation of the letter T.
When a T is at the beginning of a word (such as table, ten, take), it is
a clear sharp sound. It is also clear in combination with certain other
letters, (contract, contain, etc.)
When T is in the middle of a word (or in an unstressed position), it
turns into a softer D sound.
Betty bought a bit of better butter.
Beddy bada bida bedder budder.
It is this intonation/pronunciation shift that accounts for the difference
between photography (phoTAgraphy) and photograph
(PHOdagraph).
18. MOOD AND PERSONALITY
This determines if you will be considered charming or
rude, confident or nervous, informed or unfamiliar.
An extremely important part of intonation is inside a
one-syllable word.
We put in little sounds that are not in the written
language, but that convey a great deal of
information in terms of who we are.
19. MOOD AND PERSONALITY
When we contrast two similar words, one ending with a voiced
consonant (d, z, g, v, b) and the other with an unvoiced
consonant (t, s, k, f, p), you will hear the difference in the
preceding vowel, specifically in the length or duration of that
vowel.
In other words, words that end in a voiced consonant have a
doubled (longer) vowel sound.
For example, if you say bit, it is a quick, sharp sound--a
single musical note.
If you say bid, however, the word is stretched out, it has
two musical notes, the first one higher than the second,
bi-id.
20. MOOD AND PERSONALITY
How you stretch a word and manipulate your pitch when you say
it can also send various messages.
Consider this video
21. MOOD AND PERSONALITY
Sarcasm:
The Three Little Pigs
Sarcasm is another function of intonation, or rather the
purposed lack of intonation to signal an opposite
meaning.
