IELTS

SPEAKING TEST
HOW TO IMPROVE
PRONUNCIATION
the COMPLETE GUIDE
Individual Sounds
Word Stress
Sentence Stress
Weak Sounds
plus...
Linking Sounds SECRET
Intonation BONUS
 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

Ashley Howard has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All right reserved. No part of this publication, including the accompanying audio, may be reproduced in any form of
binding or cover or circulated electronically without prior permission of Edwin Publishing and Media Ltd.

Edwin Publishing and Media Ltd

First published in 2016 by Edwin Publishing and Media Ltd

57 London Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP11 1BS
www.edwinpublishing.co.uk
IELTS Speaking Test
How to improve
PRONUNCIATION
the Complete Guide

written and illustrated by

Ashley Howard
 Hello, and Congratulations!
You’ve taken a vital step on your pronunciation ‘roadmap’ journey towards speaking English with
more clarity and more confidence.

So, Let’s Get Straight To It!

Step 1: Decide whether you are a ‘sit-down’ learner or an ‘on-the-go’ kind of learner.

‘Sit-Down’ Learner - Chose the best 10 minutes in your day where you can indulge
your pronunciation dreams. Then bring up this guide on your computer, tablet or
phone (or you could print it out). Get your headphones or turn up your speakers
and have the audio ready to go.

‘On-The-Go’ Learner - You could just download the audio to your phone, tablet
or portable music device and grab your headphones. Or download this guide
onto your phone or tablet along with the audio and get ready watch, listen and learn.

Step 2: Go to Lesson #1 in this guide. Hit the ‘LISTEN AND READ’. Listen and read as I walk
you through each step, one at a time.You can pause and repeat as you choose. If you
are just listening to the audio without the guide, then just listen and repeat.

Step 3: Once you’ve completed all 6 Lessons, go the last page and check out the
KILLER BONUS - you can thank me later.

That’s It - Good Luck And Go For It!

Oh, and if you’ve downloaded this as an EPUB most devices will allow you to click on the audio icons.

If not, or if you have downloaded this as a PDF, click this link (or copy and paste it into your browser)
to dowload the audio and then refer to the track numbers next to each audio icon to guide you:

http://www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com/dl/resource-ielts/

And if you need me at any point, just reach out and I or one of the team will help you:

support@englishpronunciationroadmap.com
 #1 Individual Sounds
1

Individual sounds is quite simply a question of whether your pronunciation of words is clear and
understandable.

So, essentially, we’re talking about your pronunciation of vowels and consonants in words - the
sounds of English.

But how do YOU know whether YOUR pronunciation is clear and understandable?

Here are some ways to find out:

#1 Find a Native English Speaker

The first thing you could do is to have a conversation with a native English speaker, ask them to point
out any words that they struggle to understand, and then record them saying those words, and you
can practice and change your pronunciation.

#2 Identify Difficult Words

The second thing that you could do is to read aloud sections of newspapers, magazines or books
(which will also help you to increase your vocabulary) then circle any words that you struggle to
pronounce or that you didn’t feel very confident with, and then check them against the online Oxford
Dictionary. And in that dictionary it has each word with an audio in both British and American English
that you can listen to and practice with.

#3 Learn Phonetics

Now the third thing you could do is to learn phonetics. Phonetics is a symbol system for
pronunciation (so if you have ever wondered ‘what are those strange squiggles next door to words
in English dictionaries?’ they’re phonetic symbols). And we have something called the IPA (which is
the International Phonetic Alphabet) and it’s a map of all symbols and all the sounds, both vowels
and consonants used in English. So here are two links: one to a free app called Sounds which is great
you can have it on your mobile or your tablet and you can click each symbol and it’ll give you audio
of the sound.

http://www.macmillaneducationapps.com/soundspron/

And the second is an online resource by the British Council which is another version of an interactive
map again that you can double click on an it will give you audio of each sound and that might be
another way to improve your pronunciation.

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemic-chart

I have also included the phonetic symbols on the next page with an audio of me saying all the sounds
for you to listen to and practice. Have a look on the next page...

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 5 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #1 Individual Sounds
2

This is just a reference page, so refer to it when prompted.

Vowels Consonants

ɪ KIT m MUM
e DRESS n NONE
ʌ STRUT ŋ SONG
ʊ FOOT f FOR
æ TRAP v VINE
ɒ LOT, CLOTH s SAD
ə The Schwa z ZEAL
Uː GOOSE ʃ SHOE
ɔː THOUGHT, FORCE, NORTH ʒ MEASURE
ɜː NURSE θ THING
ɑː BATH, PALM, START ð THIS
iː FLEECE t TOO
eɪ FACE d DO
ɑɪ PRICE k KING
ɔɪ CHOICE g GO
əʊ GOAT p PUT
aʊ MOUTH b BUT
ɪə NEAR w WAR
eə SQUARE j YOUNG
ʊə CURE r RED
eɪə LAYER l ɫ LEE FEEL
aɪə LIAR dʒ JAM, JUDGE
ɔɪə LAWYER tʃ CHEW
əʊə LOWER h HOW
aʊə HOUR

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 6 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #1 Individual Sounds
1

#4 Get a Pronunciation eBook

Now the fourth thing you could do is to get a pronunciation eBook or a pronunciation book.
There are a few on the market. Get rid of your accent by Olga Smith and Linda James and there’s
another called Work On Your Accent by Helen Ashcroft and Sarah Shepherd. I’ve actually got my own
published eBook, that were published last year.You can click on it to find out more:

ard
Ashle
y How

ow
ard

yH
Ashley Howard oward
hle
H
ley
Ash
As

It’s 320 pages, it covers absolutely ever aspect of vowel and consonant pronunciation, word stress,
sentence stress, intonation, it’s got 12hrs of studio quality audio, for you to listen to and practice with,
illustrations and diagrams, absolutely everything you need to know to improve your pronunciation in
English. It’s also available in 3 Parts.You can click on them to find out more:

Ashley Howard Ashley Howard

Ashley Howard

KILLER BONUS
Before you find out more about the eBooks, you NEED to look at the last page of this guide to see
the KILLER BONUS. Do it now if you like...

#5 Top 10 Mispronounced Sounds

Now in my experience over the last 10 years of working with non-native speakers, helping them
to improve their english pronunciation and intonation, there are 10 sounds that stop almost all of
them from sounding confident and fluent when they speak English. And so last year I created two
free downloadable ebooks with audio for those 10 sounds. They’ve helped thousands of people that
I’ve worked with.You can click here to find out more: TOP 5 VOWELS and TOP 5 CONSONANTS.

Finaly #6 Professional Guidance

Now the last thing you could do, and this is only if you’ve scoured the internet, watch youtube videos
and book eBooks and learnt phonetics is to get some one-to-one guidance. You can do that with
someone like an accent reduction coach or an elocution teacher, accent reduction teacher and they
will help you to pinpoint exactly where you’re going wrong in terms of pronunciation and intonation
and they’ll be able to guide you step by step towards more confidence and fluency in English.

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 7 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #2 Word Stress
3

Word stress is really important because getting the wrong stress in a word in English can actually
change the meaning so it’s vital if you want to get top marks.

> Syllables

Now the first thing to know about word stress, is that words are split up into what are called units,
and they’re called syllables.You might already know about this.

Now a syllable is essentially a part of a word that contains a vowel sound and there may or may not
be a consonant before it or after it, we may even have two or three consonants before it or after it.
But it’s the presence of a vowel that defines a unit of speech, a syllable in speech.

> Monosyllabic words

So we’ve got words like:

‘at’ and ‘to’ and ‘if’

I know that those are just words in and of themselves but they are single syllable words and another
name for those are monosyllabic words.

> Polysyllabic words

Now when we have more than one syllable in a word, like ‘ahead’ for instance, or ‘amended’ then
they are called polysyllabic words or some people call them multi-syllable words. So here are some
examples of those:

a.head - two syllables a.men.ded - three syllables ra.di.at.or - four syllables

a.bbre.vi.a.ted - five syllables au.tho.ri.ta.ri.an - six syllables

> BUT... what about word stress?

Now this is where word stress comes in - because in polysyllabic words in English we tend to only
stress one syllables in a word.

So, in a word like ‘ahead’, ‘HEAD’ is the stressed syllable and the ‘a’ at the beginning is unstressed.

In ‘amended’, ‘MEN’ is the stressed syllable and the ‘a’ at the beginning and the ‘ded’ at the end are
unstressed.

How should I stress a stressed syllable?

Now, the way in which we indicate that that part of the word in stressed in English is by changing
the pitch of the voice, and specifically changing the pitch of the voice upwards. So have a listen to
this: ‘a.HEAD’; ‘a.HEAD’. Can you hear that? ‘dudaah’, ‘dudaah’: the pitch of my voice goes upwards.
’a.MEN.ded’; ‘a.MEN.ded’.Yeah, that’s the stressed part of the word and I’m changing the pitch of my
voice. Here are some more examples:

RA.di.a.tor a.BBRE.vi.a.ted au.tho.ri.TA.ri.an a.MEN.ded WON.der.ful al.THOUGH

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 1 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #2 Word Stress

GE.ni.us in.CRE.di.bly frus.TRA.ting

al.THOUGH you are a GE.ni.us you are in.CRE.di.bly frus.TRA.ting

> Which syllable should I stress?

Now, the question I know that you’re asking yourself, and if you’re not then you should, is ‘how do I
know which syllable in a words to stress?’. And this is important because a lot of non-native speakers
tend to either stress the wrong syllable in a word or they stress too many syllables in a word. And it
can make their speech sound unclear and unnatural.

So, I’m going to give you 4 patterns to follow, which will really help you to understand which syllable
to stress in a word. But just before I do that, one great and easy way to double check which syllable
in a word to stress is to look for this little line in the phonetic transcription of a word. The Oxford
dictionary online is a free website that gives you this transcription. And this little line means that
the following syllable in that word is the stressed syllable. So for ‘abbreviated’ the stressed syllable is
‘BRE’ - əˈbriːvɪeɪtɪd. Can you see that little line before the ‘b’? ‘a.BBRE.vi.a.ted’ that’s the stressed
part. In a word like ‘wonderful’, the stressed syllable is actually the first one just before the ‘w’: so it’s
‘WON’ - ‘wonderful’ ˈwʌndəfʊl.

So, that’s a way you can check absolutely any word, but as promised, here are those 4 patterns you
can follow:

- Pattern 1

This is for two-syllable verbs. So, often, in two syllable verbs it’s the second syllable that is stressed.
So in words like:

a.TTACK pro.VOKE en.TICE

- Pattern 2

The second pattern is for two-syllable nouns and adjectives where, it is often the first syllable in the
two syllable noun or adjective that is stressed:

TA.ble SO.fa HA.ppy LONE.ly

- Pattern 3

This pattern is for words with three or more syllables ending in ‘ic’, ‘sion’ and ‘tion’. And in these
sorts of words the stress often falls on what’s called the penultimate syllable (the one before last).
So for instance:

a.po.lo.GE.tic de.CI.sion con.DI.tion

- Pattern 4

And the last pattern is for words that have four or more syllables ending in either ‘cy’, ‘ty’, ‘phy’, ‘gy’
and ‘al’. And in these sorts of words the stress often falls on what’s called the antepenultimate syllable
(which is the second before last). So for instance:

e.MER.gen.cy i.DEN.ti.ty ge.O.gra.phy a.PO.lo.gy ex.CEP.tion.al

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 2 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #3 Sentence Stress
4

So if you’ve got a question or a sentences or a statement or an exclamation or a command which

word in that sentence or question or exclamation should you stress?

Now it’s pretty vital that you get this right because it’ll help you to sound more natural and fluent
in speech. And it’ll also point out to your listener or more specifically the examiner which word you
want them to pay attention to, which information you want them to pay attention to. So it’s vital in
order to get top marks.

> 4 Simple, Straightforward Strategies

Now there are various ways to think about sentence stress in English. But here are 4 really simple,
straightforward ways to start thinking about sentence stress in English and they’re great IELTS
speaking tips.

#1 What’s the most important information?

Ask yourself ‘which word in your phrase or in your sentence carries the most important bit of
information?’.

And of course that can change depending on the circumstances in which are talking, the person
you’re talking to, and the content that you’re talking about. So it’s a very flexible thing. But I guess it
means that you to be really specific about what information you want that person to go away with.
Have a look at this question:

“Did you know that she crashed the car?”

Listen to the way in which the meaning of this question changes when I stress a different word in
that question:
“DID you know that she crashed the car?”
questions whether the other person knew about the event at all.

“did YOU know that she crashed the car?”

questions in a sort of accusatory way as to whether the other person knew.

“did you KNOW that she crashed the car?”

questions whether the other person knew for certain.

“did you know that SHE crashed the car?”

questions whether the other person is sure of who is responsible.

“did you know that she CRASHED the cars?”

questions whether the other person knew the state of the car.

“did you know that she crashed THE car?”

questions whether the listener knows that it’s the best one.

“did you know that she crashed the CAR?”

questions whether the other person knew that it was the car that she crashed as opposed to
something else.

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 3 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #3 Sentence Stress

#2 Heard of ‘tone units’?

The second of these IELTS speaking tips is to think about word stress in sentences is to think about
something called tone units. Take a look at this:

‘I was WONDERING / whether you might be INTERESTED / in coming to a PLAY that I’m going
to. / It’s at the ROYAL / this coming FRIDAY. / It’s about a GUY / who loses EVERYTHING / and
DISCOVERS himself. / It’s got really great REVIEWS / and I THOUGHT / that we could go to that
Italian PIZZA place / close to the TUBE station. / Their DOUGH-balls / are AMAZING!’

You can see how the sentence is broken up into units with forward slashes. It’s broken up into these
little tone units or what I tend to refer to as phrases. And the main stressed word in each of those
tone units or those phrases is often called the tonic syllable.

...stress the last content word

And the word stress rule is that in a tone unit, within that phrase, the tonic syllable/the main stressed
word in that phrase tends to be the last content word. So not necessarily the last word in that phrase
- although it could be - it’s the last content word. So I guess we’re talking about verbs or nouns or
adjectives or adverbs.

And it certainly holds true in this little sentence. Have another look:

‘I was WONDERING / whether you might be INTERESTED / in coming to a PLAY that I’m going
to. / It’s at the ROYAL / this coming FRIDAY. / It’s about a GUY / who loses EVERYTHING / and
DISCOVERS himself. / It’s got really great REVIEWS / and I THOUGHT / that we could go to that
Italian PIZZA place / close to the TUBE station. / Their DOUGH-balls / are AMAZING!’

So you can hear how it’s the last content word within that tone unit or within that phrase that gets
the stress in the sentence. So that might be the second way to think about sentence stress in English.

#3 Stress new information

The third way is to stress the new information within a conversation. Have a look at this:

“have you read the new Dot Hutchison book?

No, but have you read the new Matthew Norman book?”.

So the new piece of information in that example was the new author - so it’s the Author’s name that
gets the stress in the sentence because it’s the new information.

#4 Stress contrasting information

And the same thing goes for contrasting information within a conversation: that’s patten four. So have
a look at this:

“I haven’t SEEN the new car but I’ve HEARD about it”
“do you prefer ROSES or LILIES?”

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 4 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #4 Weak Sounds
5

Some syllables in words are stressed and how some are not stressed.

And it’s those weak syllables, those unstressed syllables that we’re going to focus on.

> the SCHWA

Now, did you know that the pronunciation of the vowel in those unstressed syllables can change to
a much weaker sound. And it’s called the schwa. Now the schwa vowel sound is the most common
sound used in English!

The mark of a really confident and fluent speaker of English is whether they are using the schwa. And
mastering it will really help you to improve your chances of getting really high marks in your test.

There is a lot to say about the schwa, much more than I can talk about in this guide so I’ve included
a link here to one of my eBooks - British English Pronunciation Roadmap: Vowels. Which is the 2nd
in a 3 part series, which covers every vowel sound in English included a big section on the schwa and
cover everything you need to know about schwa pronunciation and how to perfect it.

So... how do you make the schwa?

So the schwa sound is made with the tip of your tongue down behind your bottom teeth, the middle
of the tongue is resting in the middle of your mouth and the lips are relaxed open. And it’s a short
sound. It’s like this: uh, uh.

And it’s phonetic symbol is this: ə

If you look at the phonetic transcription in the online Oxford dictionary, and you see this symbol.
that’s how to pronounce it.

> Schwa used on weak syllables

And the really smart thing is that it’s only ever used to represent the weak syllable in a word, so it’ll
mean that using it confidently will improve your word stress and your sentence stress. I mean it’s
pretty smart, right?

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 5 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #4 Weak Sounds

Have a go at these words:

about - əˈbaʊt offend - əˈfɛnd support - səˈpɔːt

open - ˈəʊpən cautious - ˈkɔːʃəs thorough - ˈθʌrə

> Schwa used in some unstressed grammatical words

Now in addition to this, we also use it in some grammatical words when they’re in an unstressed
position. So for instances a word like ‘a’ is often pronounced as ‘ə’. A word like ’to’ t.o. is often
pronounced as ‘tə’. And a word like ’the’ is often pronounced as ‘ðə’. Have a look at this:

I’d LOVE to GO to the CI.ne.ma, WATCH a FILM, and re.LAX for an HOUR or TWO

And of those words, the polysyllabic content words are words like: ‘cinema’ and ‘relax’. And just
notice how the schwa is present in both of those words:

I’d LOVE to GO to the CI.nə.mə, WATCH a FILM, and rə.LAX for an HOUR or TWO

Now, notice how the other, sort of non-content words, we could call them grammatical words, like
‘to’ and ‘a’ and ‘for’ and ‘an’, they can also, their pronunciation can also be reduced to a schwa, because
they don’t carry any significance. They sort of reduce their status, by being pronounced as a schwa.

I’d LOVE tə GO tə thə CI.nə.mə, WATCH ə FILM, ənd rə.LAX fə ən HOUR or TWO

It’s pretty smart, right? And it’s the perfect ielts speaking practice. Because it also creates a rhythm
created. There’s a sort of heartbeat like rhythm that is created that helps intonation. Listen again.

Good... but how do I work on it?

Now, what can you do about this? Well, as part of your ielts speaking practice you could take maybe
5 or 10 words that you’re using everyday, check them in a dictionary, like the Oxford Dictionary.

Check the phonetic transcription and if you see this schwa symbol (ə) then you know that part of
the word is pronounced as a schwa. You can practice that word and you can start to integrate into
your live speech and your everyday conversations. And then expand that list in a couple of days or in
a weeks time with 5 or 10 more words so that you build up a vocabulary and you really understand
how and when to use this schwa in the right place.

Anything else...

Take a section of a book or newspaper and look at a whole sentence.When considering which of the
grammatical words are not terribly important because they’re not in a stressed position then reduce
the vowel sound in those grammatical words to a schwa.

And then in that way you’ll be getting something of this rhythm, you’ll be sounding much more
natural and fluent and there’s a good chance that you’re going to score much higher in your test with
this sort of ielts speaking practice.

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 6 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 What’s your No. 1 Top Struggle
with Spoken English?
We want to know because we want to help you. Seriously! So, click
on the link right now to head over to our Facebook page. Hit ‘Like’
and then post your No. 1 Top Struggle with Spoken English.

https://www.facebook.com/EnglishPronunciationRoadmap

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 7 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #5 Linking Sounds
6

Now, have you ever noticed how in English when one word meets another word, the sound at the
end of the first word links to the sound at the beginning of the next word. And that’s really important
for fluency and coherence.

And sometimes, the sound at the end of the first word and the sound at the beginning of the next
word can change completely. So it’s vital in order to sound confident and clear in your English.

> 3 Patterns

Now there are three patterns that you can follow. So here they are:

#1 Consonant to Vowel

Words that end with a consonant link to words that start with a vowel and so they connect with
each other. For example:

‘get up’ sounds more like ‘getup’

‘come in’ sounds more like ‘comin’

#2 Vowel to Vowel

Words that end with a vowel often insert a consonant to link to words that start with a vowel. And
these are called ‘intrusive consonants’ and in British English we have three of them:

- Intrusive W

The first is a ‘w’ sound as in ‘wet’. For example, ‘who opened the door’ sounds more like ‘who-w-
opened the door’, ‘who-wopened’ can you hear that? and ‘no entry’ sounds more like ‘no-w-entry’,
‘no-w-entry’.

- Intrusive Y (yod)

The second is a ‘y’ sound as in ‘yet’. For example, ‘she opened’ sounds more like ‘she-y-opened’, ‘she-
y-opened’ can you hear that? It’s more like ‘yopenned’, ‘she-y-opened’. And ‘I asked’ sounds more like
‘I-y-asked’, ‘I-y-asked’.

- Intrusive R

And the third is an ‘r’ sound as in ‘rent’. For example, ‘put the pizza in the oven’ sounds more like ‘put
the pizza-r-in the oven’, can you hear that? ’rin the oven’, ‘pizza-r-in the oven’. And ‘saw in half’ sounds
more like ‘saw-r-in half’, ‘r-in half’, ‘saw-r-in half’.

#3 Consonant to Consonant

- Same Consonants

Now if those two consonant sounds are the same we wouldn’t say both we would only say one. For
example, ‘stand down’ sounds more like ‘standown’, ‘standown’. But notice how I slightly pause on
the ‘d’, and this indicates that there are two words, and this is the join between them. The same is

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 8 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #5 Linking Sounds

true for this ‘feel lazy’ sounds more like ‘feelazy’, ‘feelazy’ and ‘big glasses’ sounds more like ‘biglasses’,
‘biglasses’.

- Different Consonants

But when there are two different consonants that meet between words, their pronunciation can
completely change.

So for example in ‘thought provoking’, the ’t’ at the end of ‘thought’ is actually pronounced as a ‘p’.
We don’t say two ‘p’ sounds, we only say one, but we slightly pause to indicate that there is a join
between them. So ‘thought provoking’ sounds more like ‘thoughp-provoking’, ‘thoughp-provoking’.

This is because it helps the words link together and it’s an important part of fluency. It’s called
assimilation and native English speakers use it all the time because it really adds fluency. But it’s also
an important part pronunciation.

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 9 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #6 Intonation
7

Intonation is essentially the way in which we’re using rhythm and the way we’re using pitch to
indicate what we feel or our intention.

And it helps the listener know our relationship to what it is that we’re saying - whether happy or
sad or excited or angry. So I guess we’re talking in a musical sense about how we’re using our voice
as a musical instrument. It’s absolutely essential to sounding confident and clear and fluent in English.

> 3 Uses of Pitch

Now there are many ways in which use rhythm and pitch but we’re going to focus on pitch because
I think that will have the most impact.

We’re going to focus on 3 specific uses of pitch:

#1 Rising Intonation

The first one is a rising intonation. Now a rising intonation is simple a rise in the voice upwards: it
just rises upwards.

- Asking Questions

And we tend to use that rising intonation when we’re asking questions. So for example:

‘when does the meeting start?’ or ’would you like a cup of tea?’.

A rising intonation is a sort of way of sending out an invitation out to your listener for some kind of
response, some kind of answer to your question. We do a use a downward inflection, which I’ll talk
more about in a moment, on some questions, but typically we tend to use this upward inflection.

- Lists

Another in which we use this upward inflection is on lists. Have a listen to this: ‘I’d like some eggs,
some milk, some cheese and some bread’. Each item on the list is spoken with a rising intonation:
‘eggs’, ‘milk’, ‘cheese’. But then we would use a falling intonation, a downward intonation (which I’ll
talk more about in a minute) on ‘bread’ to indicate that we’ve finished. So, I’d like some ‘I’d like some
eggs, some milk, some cheese and some bread’.

#2 Falling Intonation

The second way in which we would use pitch is on a downward or falling Intonation.And I mentioned
it a moment ago with the word ‘bread’ at the end of the list, it’s a downward glide in the voice.

- Statements, Commands and Exclamations

We tend to do that when we’re using statements or commands or exclamations. So, for example:

‘I’ve got to go to work’, ’that’s wonderful’, ’put that down!’.

www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com 10 Copyright © 2016 Ashley Howard

 #6 Intonation

- End of thoughts and sentences

Another instance in which we would use this downward inflection is at the ends of our thoughts or
at the end of our sentences. It’s the way we indicate that we’ve finished what we’re saying. It’s sort
of what I was talking about with the list, with ‘bread’, it indicates that we’ve finished, that it’s the end
of what we’re saying. “It indicates that we’ve finished”, “that I’ve finished what I’m saying”. And that’s
how we indicate that we’ve concluded that idea or that thought or that subject. And then we might
move onto the next.

#3 Circumflex Intonation

The third way in which we use pitch (and I think this is one of the best IELTS speaking test tips) is
something called a circumflex inflection or a circumflex intonation. Now you don’t need to remember
that name. Essentially it’s the way that the pitch of our voice rises, falls and then rises again. That’s a
circumflex inflection.

- When we haven’t quite finished what we’re saying...

We use it all the time in English, especially British English. And it’s the way in which we indicate to the
listener that we haven’t quite finished what we’re saying yet.

So we typically use it on the last word of each phrase. In one of the other videos I talked about tone
units. We tend to use circumflex intonation on the last word in each tone unit, and it’s the way I
indicate to you the listener, that I haven’t finished what I’m saying yet. But when I do indicate what
I’m saying, then I would finish with a downward intonation. Have a listen again:

“So, it’s the way that I would say that I’m in the middle of my sentence / and I don’t want you to
interrupt me yet / because I’ve got more to say about this subject / but when I have finished what
I’m saying / I’ll finish.” (with a downward inflection).

But... is that it? What’s the next step?

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