Intonation: Making Lists | Part 7
Intonation: Making Lists | Part 7
English Pronunciation Lesson
Series on Intonation in English
Part 1: Introduction to Intonation
Part 2: Completing a statement (“I got a dog.”)
Part 3: Asking a wh-question (“What is your dog’s name?”)
Part 4: Need clarification/repetition (“WHO got a dog?”)
Part 5: Expressing surprise (“Your dog speaks English?!”)
Part 6: Unfinished thought (“I want a dog, but…”)
⇒ Part 7: Making a list or in between thoughts (“My dog is smart, pretty and sweet.”)
Introduction
As was explained in the Introduction to Intonation lesson, the musical pattern of ups and downs in your speech–-in both the middle and end of your sentences–-is called intonation.
3 Intonation Patterns
In English, there are three intonation patterns:
1) Rise ↗︎
2) Full fall ↘︎
3) Partial fall ➘
These different musical patterns communicate different messages to your listener.
Making Lists
As was discussed in the lesson on unfinished thoughts, native English speakers use a partial fall with their pitch to tell the listener that they are not finished speaking.
Similarly, native speakers use a partial rise ↗︎ in their intonation to tell the listener that they are not done giving a list or series of things in their speech.
Example
Notice what the pitch (the musical note) of my voice does on the following list.
“I want to visit Amsterdam, Berlin and Brussels next year.”
Here, there were three cities in the list of places I want to visit: Amsterdam, Berlin and Brussels.
To tell the listener that I am making a list, my voice partially rises ↗︎ on each of the options in that series.
In the example:
my voice rose ↗︎ on Amsterdam and Berlin, the first two cities in the series.
Then, to make it clear to the listener that I am done with my list,
my voice went down ↘︎ on the third city that I said–Brussels–so that the listener knows that Brussels would also be the last city in my list.
Listen and Repeat
“I’ll have the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream, please.”
“Would you like to go to a restaurant or eat at home?”
“We’ll take a red, black or yellow shirt, but not the white.”
“My puppy is cute, smart and naughty!”
Series on Intonation in English
Part 1: Introduction to Intonation
Part 2: Completing a statement (“I got a dog.”)
Part 3: Asking a wh-question (“What is your dog’s name?”)
Part 4: Need clarification/repetition (“WHO got a dog?”)
Part 5: Expressing surprise (“Your dog speaks English?!”)
Part 6: Unfinished thought (“I want a dog, but…”)
⇒ Part 7: Making a list or in between thoughts (“My dog is smart, pretty and sweet.”)
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