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Intonation is one of the vital features of pronunciation, also common in all languages. It basically refers to focusing on how to speak something in place of what to say. Other vital features of pronunciation include stress, tone, rhythm, connected speech, and accent. Intonation along with these features focuses on how to say something accurately.
In simple terms, intonation is described as 'the music of speech. Change and variation in the pitch while speaking is intonation. Remember these variations strongly affect the meaning of what you say. The art of using the pitch of the voice in order the express the meaning and attitudes of your speech is derived from the practice of intonation.
Let’s take an example
Imagine you visited a restaurant and selected veg crispy to order and asked the waiter that is it worth ordering. He is a low, flat, and chilling voice that says “ Ya, it’s good”. Would you still go for the same order?
Now let’s add intonation to the speech. Imagine, you asked the same question from another waiter and he is a cherished, exciting tone says “Yes, it’s good”. Now would you order this?
If you rely on a second waiter then probably intonation has made its magic as second person tone sound more reliable. It also made you feel that you made the right choice.
Mentioned below are two different functions that explain what intonation is and how it is used in the English language.
Intonation is pretty much helpful in expressing the attitude of the speaker via certain expressions such as happiness, anger, excitement, boredom, surprise, appreciation, and so on.
For example-
On getting a surprise birthday party from your friends and family you expressed an extremely surprised expression by saying- “You all planned this for me?” Giving stress on “me” and rising intonation clearly delivered your message that you are feeling delighted to get the surprise.
Let’s take another situation, imagine your mom has cooked delicious cheesecake for you and asks how’s it?
You reply “OMG! It’s Delicious!” with a smile and give stress on OMG expressing the heavenly flavors of the cake. You have just expressed the appreciation expression with rising intonation starting with the interjection that is “OMG”. Other factors that matter is your facial expressions, gestures, and body language.
Grammatical intonation patterns correspond to the use of certain grammatical structures The very common example is the use of “wh” questions such as questions beginning from 'who', 'what', 'why', 'where', 'when', 'which', and 'how' having falling intonation. Questions that ask for “yes” or “no” answers usually have upward intonation.
Now as you know what intonation is, it’s time to practice and improve your English speaking skills with intonation. Before doing anything just take one paragraph having different types of sentences and expressions in it.
Start recording your speech and listen to it whether it is perfect or needs major improvements. You can also take the help of your English trainer for expert guidance.
Make sure that your voice doesn’t sound flat, your speech must have proper high and low tone according to the context, your voice must sound natural just like a native speaker, and so on.
Given below are a few tips in order to practice intonation and improve your English speaking skills-
Shadow is a technique of repeating the video dialogues and sentences at regular intervals of time to gain that tone, accent, and fluency in English speaking. Prefer videos with subtitles or you can also go for a movie, series, or documentary. Refer to the given article for getting detailed information on the Shadowing concept-
What is Shadowing & How it Helps in Improving English Speaking Skills?
Mark the text with different color highlighters to indicate rise and fall in the sound. Also, you can draw upwards and downwards arrows on words to indicate upward and downward intonation.
In order to practice where it comes intonation try to practice it by exaggerating it which means where there is upward intonation, speak it loudly, really high. Remember don’t opt for it in real-time conversation, this practice is just recommended to make you aware of intonation while speaking.
Pitch detectors are used for musical instrument tuning since your voice is also music so you can use these well for keeping control over high and low pitch.
Take one sentence and say it with different tones. Raise and fall your pitch down, try giving stress on different words, and consider it a fun activity. Record your speech and check if there’s room for improvement. Speak the same sentence with different emotions and observe whether those emotions are clearly reflected in your speech or not.
Intonation plays a major role when asking questions & making statements.
While asking questions intonation rises at the beginning of the sentence & falls at the end, just like you are indicating to them that you are ready to hear their answer. For example- What is your name?
In the given example the word name is said with falling intonation indicating to the listener that you are waiting for their answer.
But in the case of yes-no questions, rising intonation is used at the end of the questions. For example- Will you go with me to the market today?
Here in this question the today has rising intonation indicating to the listener that you are waiting for their confirmation.
In the case of making statements, rising intonation is used at the beginning and falls at the end of the sentence indicating that the sentence is over and you finished speaking. For example- I went to a shopping mall today.
Apart from asking questions and making statements intonation also helps in expressing different types of emotions in your speech.
A speaker usually starts with a phrase or interjection while expressing any emotion of surprise, shock, disbelief, interest, curiosity, and fascination. Some of the common interjections are “Wow!” “OMG!” “Really?” “Seriously?” “What?!”
These phrases & interjections are followed further by rising intonation. How emotions and attitude actually sound can exactly be judged from the tone or intonation of the sentence. In case the context is not clear with the intonation, make sure you watch the facial expression.
In case the speaker wants to show authority & certainty then he/she makes the use of falling intonation. As mentioned above falling intonation is used in the statements to show the authority over the speech 7 also indicates that you are done with speaking.
Also, if you want the audience to focus on your speech, give a little stress to falling intonation. A very good example of this is the case of asking interview questions in which the interviewer is completely sure about the fact that they will get an answer in response.
Rising intonation is used for contrasting between two things and giving little extra stress to two words of comparison. For example-
I thought you liked tea much but you had coffee at the restaurant.
Using rising intonation at the end of a sentence for getting clarification or the opinion of the listener is known as a tag question. For example
If someone asks, “You were joking, weren’t you?”, they use falling intonation because they are telling you their observation, not really asking a question.
Holding intonation is used to express that you didn’t complete it yet and still the speech is left. This is the state of whether your voice neither falls nor rises. Such kind of intonation pattern is observed at business meetings where there are the least chances of getting interrupted while speaking. This also reminds the listeners that you haven’t finished yet and they give you chance to finish your speech.
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