Pronounciation. Intonation and Sentence Rhythm. Intonation. Exercise 1.

                  Intonation

Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech. The three main patterns of intonation in English are: falling intonation, rising intonation and fall-rise intonation.

Falling intonation

Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of a phrase or a group of words. A falling intonation is very common in wh-questions.

Where’s the nearest p↘ost-office?

What time does the film f↘inish?

We also use falling intonation when we say something definite, or when we want to be very clear about something:

I think we are completely l↘ost.

OK, here’s the magaz↘ine you wanted.

Rising intonation

Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence. Rising intonation is common in yes-no questions:

I hear the Health Centre is expanding. So, is that the new d↗octor?

Are you th↗irsty?

Fall-rise intonation

Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises. We use fall-rise intonation at the end of statements when we want to say that we are not sure, or when we may have more to add:

I do↘n’t support any football team at the m↘om↗ent. (but I may change my mind in future).

It rained every day in the firs↘t w↗eek. (but things improved after that).

We use fall-rise intonation with questions, especially when we request information or invite somebody to do or to have something. The intonation pattern makes the questions sound more polite:

Is this your cam↘er↗a?

Would you like another co↘ff↗ee?

Choose the type of in the capital words.

Quiz

 

1. Learning to speak a foreign language FLUENTLY...
   1.   Fall
   2.   Rise
   3.   Fall-rise
2. and without an ACCENT...
   1.   Fall-rise
   2.   Rise
   3.   Fall
3. ... isn't EASY.
   1.   Rise
   2.   Fall
   3.   Fall-rise
4. In most educational SYSTEMS
   1.   Rise
   2.   Fall-rise
   3.   Fall
5. ... students spend many years studying grammatical RULES.
   1.   Fall-rise
   2.   Rise
   3.   Fall
6. ...but they don't get much of a chance to SPEAK.
   1.   Rise
   2.   Fall-rise
   3.   Fall
7. Arriving in a new COUNTRY...
   1.   Rise
   2.   Fall
   3.   Fall-rise
8. can be a frustrating EXPERIENCE.
   1.   Fall
   2.   Rise
   3.   Fall-rise
9. Although they may be able to read and write very WELL
   1.   Rise
   2.   Fall-rise
   3.   Fall
10. They often find that they can't understand what people SAY to them.
    1.   Fall
    2.   Rise
    3.   Fall-rise