Intonation

Rising and Falling Intonation - Pronunciation

Edited By : Majid Darvish Hosseini

Let's take a look at the different types of intonation used with pronunciation.

Asking questions follows two pattes.

Rising Voice at the End of a Question

If the question is a yes / no question, the voice rises at the end of a question.

Do you like living in Portland?
Have you lived here a long time?
Did you visit your friends last month?

Falling Voice at the End of a Question

if the question is an information question - in other words, if you are asking a question with 'where', 'when', 'what', 'which', 'why', 'what / which kind of..', and questions with 'how' - let your voice fall at then end of a question.

Where are you going to stay on vacation?
When did you arrive last night?
How long have you lived in this country?

Question Tags

Question tags are used to either confirm information or to ask for clarification. The intonation is different in each case.

Question Tags to Confirm

If you think you know something, but would like to confirm it, let the voice fall in the question tag.

You live in Seattle, don't you?
This is easy, isn't it?
You aren't coming to the meeting, are you?

Question Tags to Ask for Clarification

When using a question tag to clarify, let the voice rise to let the listener know that you expect more information.

Peter isn't going to be at the party, is he?
You understand your role, don't you?
We aren't expected to finish the report by Friday, are we?

End of Sentences

The voice usually falls at the end of sentences. However, when making a short statement with a word that is only one syllable the voice rises to express happiness, shock, approval, etc.

That's great!
I'm free!
I bought a new car.

When making a short statement with a word that is more than one syllable (multi-syllabic) the voice falls.

Mary is happy.
We're married.
They're exhausted.

Commas

We also use a specific type of intonation when using commas in a list. Let's take a look at an example:

Peter enjoys playing teis, swimming, hiking, and biking.

In this example the voice rises after each item in the list. For the final item, let the voice fall. In other words, 'teis', 'swimming', and 'hiking' all rise in intonation. The final activity, 'biking', falls in intonation. Practice with a few more examples:

We bought some jeans, two shirts, a pair of shoes, and an umbrella.
Steve wants to go to Paris, Berlin, Florence, and London.

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