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  • Hi, I'm Kae.

  • Welcome to Oxford Online English!

  • In this lesson, you can learn about intonation in English.

  • How important is intonation?

  • Let's see.

  • Look at a sentence:

  • Do you need some help?

  • It's a simple question, but by changing the intonation, you can change the meaning

  • completely.

  • For example, it can be a simple question, where you're really offering to help:

  • Do you need some help?

  • It can be a rhetorical question, where you don't really think the person needs help,

  • but you want to be polite:

  • Do you need some help?

  • It can show that you're annoyed with the person you're talking to:

  • Do you need some help?

  • It can be sarcastic:

  • Do you need some help?

  • It can show surprise that the other person might need your help:

  • Do you need some help?

  • There are other possibilities, too!

  • You can see that intonation is a very powerful tool.

  • Controlling your intonation is important for communication in spoken English.

  • So, let's start at the very beginning: what actually is intonation?

  • There are seven possible intonation patterns in English:

  • rising falling

  • rising-falling falling-rising

  • flat high

  • low

  • The most important are the first four: rising, falling, and combinations of rising and falling

  • tones.

  • Flat tones, including high and low tones, aren't common and don't have many uses,

  • so we won't talk about them today.

  • However, rising and falling tones can each have many different meanings.

  • Keep this in mind: one intonation pattern does not mean one thing.

  • The same intonation can have different meanings in different situations.

  • Also, intonation is flexible.

  • There are rules, but the rules are not one hundred per cent fixed.

  • Different people speak in different styles.

  • Let's practice!

  • Here's a word: Let's try saying the word with different

  • intonation patterns.

  • Repeat after me.

  • Rising: where?

  • Falling: where?

  • Rising-falling: where?

  • Falling-rising: where?

  • Let's try one more time, with two words:

  • How many?

  • Rising: how many Falling: how many?

  • Rising-falling: how many?

  • Falling-rising: how many?

  • If you can pronounce these four intonation patterns, you can already do most of what

  • you need in English.

  • So, how do you use these intonation patterns?

  • The most basic rule is that you use a falling tone to show the end of a sentence.

  • For example: I live in Madrid.

  • She's a lawyer.

  • We might be a bit late.

  • You can use a rising tone to show that your sentence isn't finished yet.

  • For example: I live in Madrid, but I was born in Canada.

  • She's a lawyer, although she isn't working at the moment.

  • We might be a bit late, because I don't finish work until seven.

  • That's the most basic rule, and it's important.

  • If you don't use rising or falling tones in the right places, people won't understand

  • whether you've finished speaking or not.

  • However, there are many other ways to use these intonation patterns.

  • Let's look at another.

  • Did you get some bread?

  • I thought you were going to get the bread!

  • How are we going to make sandwiches if we don't have any bread?

  • We can go to the bakery and buy some sandwiches there.

  • But, I think the bakery is closed on Saturdays.

  • It's not Saturday today; it's Sunday!

  • Oh

  • Can you work out what was going on in that dialogue?

  • After the first question: did you get some bread, you heard five sentences.

  • Listen again if you need to; can you hear the intonation?

  • Before, you heard that you use falling intonation at the end of your sentence, but here, the

  • pattern is often the opposite:

  • I thought you were going to get the bread!

  • Do you know why this is?

  • This is our second rule about intonation: you use a falling tone to show that information

  • is new, and you use a rising tone for old information.

  • In this sentence, the bread has already been mentioned, so it's 'old' information,

  • and you pronounce it with a rising tone.

  • However, the word you gets a falling tone, because this is the new idea in the sentence.

  • Let's look at the next example:

  • How are we going to make sandwiches if we don't' have any bread?

  • Here, the idea is the same.

  • The bread is 'old' information, so you pronounce it with a rising tone.

  • The sandwiches are new information; this is the first time anyone has talked about sandwiches.

  • New information gets a falling tone.

  • In the next sentence, which word is 'old' information, and which word is 'new' information?

  • Sandwiches are 'old' information, because we already mentioned them.

  • So, pronounce sandwiches with a rising tone.

  • The bakery is 'new' information, because this is the first time anyone has mentioned

  • it.

  • So, bakery has a falling tone.

  • In the last two sentences, the pattern is reversed, but the idea is the same:

  • But, I think the bakery is closed on Saturdays.

  • It's not Saturday today; it's Sunday!

  • In the first sentence, the bakery is now 'old' information, so it gets a rising tone.

  • The 'new' information, with a falling tone, comes at the end of the sentence.

  • You can see the same pattern in the second sentence: the 'old' informationSaturdaycomes

  • first, and the 'new' informationSundayis at the end of the sentence.

  • If you want more practice with this, go back to the dialogue.

  • Pause after each sentence, and repeat, trying to copy the intonation.

  • Pay attention to the way intonation changes on the same word as it changes from new to

  • old information.

  • Now let's look at a very important use of intonation: questions.

  • Where did you go for your vacation?

  • I went to Dubrovnik.

  • Is that in Croatia?

  • Yes, on the coast.

  • Have you ever been?

  • No, never.

  • Did you have a good time?

  • Very nice, though it's quite touristy.

  • You got back yesterday, right?

  • Yeah, late in the evening.

  • Are you feeling tired?

  • No, not too bad, actually!

  • In the dialogue, you heard six questions.

  • Three of them had rising tones, and three had falling tones.

  • Do you know why the intonation is different in different questions?

  • Sometimes, when you're asking a question, you have no idea of the answer.

  • You're asking a question to find out new information.

  • In this case, the question has a falling tone:

  • Where did you go for your vacation? Have you ever been?

  • Did you have a good time?

  • Sometimes, when you ask a question, you already have some idea of the answer.

  • You're asking a question to check something, or to confirm that your idea is right.

  • In this case, the question has a rising tone:

  • Is that in Croatia? --> I think Dubrovnik is in Croatia, but I'm asking to make sure.

  • You got back yesterday, right? --> I had an idea that you got back yesterday, and I'm

  • confirming this with you.

  • Are you feeling tired? --> You told me you got back late in the evening, so I guess you're

  • tired.

  • This means that the intonation of a question can change depending on the situation.

  • If you use a falling tone, this becomes a question to find new information.

  • This means you really have no idea whether Dubrovnik is in Croatia or not, and you want

  • to know.

  • You can ask:

  • Where did you go for your vacation?

  • If you ask this with a rising tone, it could suggest that you knew the answer before, and

  • you just want a reminder.

  • You're checking something you already knew; you're not asking for completely new information.

  • Using this intonation will help you to sound more natural, but it doesn't change the

  • meaning of the question.

  • However, there are many other intonation patterns in questions which do have different meanings.

  • Let's look!

  • What a fantastic film! Wasn't it great?

  • Are you insane? It was the worst movie I've seen all year.

  • Why would you say that? It was amazing!

  • Forget it.

  • It's two hours of my life I'm never getting back.

  • Why don't we get something to eat? Your pick.

  • How about we just go home? I'm pretty tired.

  • Again, you heard many questions in the dialogue.

  • Can you see what was different this time?

  • Before we tell you, think about a question.

  • What does a question do?

  • Most likely, you thought: “a question asks

  • for information.”

  • That's sometimes true, but actually you can use questions to communicate many other

  • ideas.

  • In these cases, a question might not need an answer.

  • For example, you can use questions to make a comment about something: Wasn't it great?

  • You can use questions to criticise someone or disagree with them: Are you insane?