INTONATION IN

ENGLISH
What is intonation?

Say this sentence with different feeling:

• It’s raining! (surprise) It’s raining (anger)

• What a city! (happiness, joy) What a city (disappointment)
• Good!() Good (wariness)
Intonation is the tone of your voice.
Intonation is about how we say things, rather
than what we say, the way the voice rises and falls
when speaking, in other words the music of the
language.
There are two main types of intonation:
falling and rising.
– Mr. Wooding invited us to London.
– Really?

• A usual affirmative sentence has a falling

intonation. Mr. Wooding invited us to
London.
• Sentences which express any emotion have
a rising intonation. Really?
Rise (and smile)
Fall (and be serious)
Falling Intonation
• Falling Intonation ( )➘ (The pitch of the voice
falls at the end of the sentence.) Falling
intonation is the most common intonation
pattern in English. It is commonly found in
statements, commands, WH-questions
(information questions), confirmatory question
tags and exclamations.
Rising Intonation
• Rising Intonation ( )➚ (The pitch of the voice
rises at the end of a sentence.) Rising intonation
invites the speaker to continue talking. It is
normally used with yes/no questions, and
question tags that are real questions.
 Statements

• Nice to meet ↘you.

• I’ll be back in a ↘minute.
• She doesn’t live here ↘anymore.
• Dad wants to change his ↘car.
• Here is the weather ↘forecast.
• Cloudy weather is expected at the end of the ↘week.
• We should work together more ↘often
• I'm going for a walk in the ↘park.
Commands
• Write your name ↘here.
• Show me what you’ve ↘written.  
• Leave it on the ↘desk.
• Take that picture ↘ down.
• Throw that ↘out.
• Put your books on the ↘table.
• Take your hands out of your ↘pockets.
Exclamations
•How nice of ↘ you!
•That's just what I ↘need!
•You don't ↘ say!
•What a beautiful ↘ voice!
•That's a ↘surprise!
 The Intonation in Questions
Now you know three types of
questions:
• general yes/no questions
• alternative and
•special or WH question
• In (yes/no questions) we have got rising intonation.
– Do you want to go to London?
Our voice is rising in the end of the sentence.
• In all the other questions in the end our voice is falling.

Listen and compare:

Do you want to go to London?
Who wants to go to London?

Do you hear the difference?

Look and compare:
Now look at the alternative question:

Listen and compare:

Do you want to go to London or Paris?
Hear?
Listen again:
Do you want to go to London or Paris?
Look and compare:
Question Tag
Questions Tags that are statements requesting confirmation rather than questions.
Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real questions).
•We've met already, haven't we?➚
•You like fish, don't you?➚
•You're a new student aren't you?➚
•The view is beautiful, isn't it?➚
Not all tag questions are really questions. Some of them merely ask for confirmation or
invite agreement, in which case we use a falling tone at the end.
• He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ↘he?
• She's such a nuisance, isn't ↘she?  
• I failed the test because I didn't revise, did ↘ I?
• It doesn't seem to bother him much, does ↘ it?
Now you know general rules of using intonation in the English
Language. Now let`s train it a bit.
Look and choose: rising or falling intonation.
1. How are you?
– Rising or falling? We can`t answer yes or no, so we use falling information. – Repeat please: How are
you?
2.What is the news?
– Rising or falling?
And again – falling.
Repeat please: What is the news?
3.We are invited to London.
– Rising or Falling? It`s an affirmative sentence. So, we use falling intonation. Repeat please: We are
invited to London.
4. Isn`t it wonderful?
– Rising or falling?
– We can answer yes or no. So, we rising intonation. Repeat please after me: Isn`t it wonderful?