This speaking lesson focusses on skills related to
- pronunciation
- intonation
- asking questions
- making statements
Three Patterns of Sentence Stress
Intonation is regarded as the musicality of a language, because it involves modulation of the speaker's voice in the same way that a melody modulates in a piece of music.
There are three basic intonation patterns in English pronunciation:
- Rise
- Fall
- Partial Fall
Each of these indicates a different meaning for the same sentence.
1. Rising Intonation
A rise in intonation signals one of three types of meaning:
1. Yes/No questions: questions that begin with do, be, will, etc.
- e.g. Is the T-chart balanced?
- rising intonation at the end of the sentence
2. A request repetition or clarification: after hearing the answer to an initial question, sometimes we need to confirm, or ask the other speaker to repeat their answer.
- e.g. How much does that cost, again?
- rising intonation at the end of the sentence
3. Surprise: a spontaneous, sometimes energetic response to an unexpected event or statement
- e.g. We spent how much on variable costs?
- rising intonation emphasises the question word and the end of the sentence
2. Falling Intonation
A fall in intonation usually signals two possible meanings for English sentences:
1. Complete Thought:
- e.g. The balance sheet is finished.
- falling intonation at the end of the sentence
2. W5 Questions: questions starting with who, what, when, where, why or how
- e.g. How much does the company hold in assets?
- falling intonation at the end of the sentence
3. Partial Fall
A partial fall in intonation indicates incompletion in at least two ways:
1. Incomplete list of nouns:
- e.g. We've totalled assets, liabilities, accounts payable and accounts receivable.
- There is a partial fall after each of the intermediate items in the list, and a fall in intonation at the end of the sentence.
2. Incomplete Thought
- e.g. I've considered going into accounting, but...
- There is a partial fall at the end of the sentence to indicate that there is (much) more to say about the subject
Review
