Intonation: Expressing Surprise | Part 5

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 ➘

Example

Compare the two sentences below:

X: “My dog understands English.” ↘︎

Y: “Your dog understands English?!” ↗︎

In English, the burden is on the speaker to be very clear. The listener should not need to work hard to understand the communication, which includes the emotion behind the words.

Therefore, native English speakers use the rising intonation pattern to tell the listener that he or she is surprised by what they just heard–so surprised, in fact, that they sometimes repeat the surprising statement as a question with the rising intonation.

Listen again.

X: “My dog understands English.” ↘︎

Y: “Your dog understands English?!” ↗︎

Did you hear how my rising intonation expressed surprise?

Listen and Repeat

Notice which focus word takes the most emphasis. The rising intonation will come after the pitch change on that focus word.

“Is that yours?”↗︎

(Subtly meaning, “Wow, I can’t believe you have that!”)

X: “John is the class valedictorian.” ↘︎

Y: “John graduated at the top of his class?!” ↗︎

(Meaning, “Wow, I didn’t know he was that smart.”)

X: “I prefer vanilla.” ↘︎

Y: “Wait, you don’t like chocolate ice cream?!” ↗︎

(Meaning, “Chocolate ice cream is amazing. I thought everyone loves it!”

“You’re moving to China ?!” ↗︎

(Meaning: “OMG, that’s so far away!”)

(Notice how I de-stressed the “to”)

Series on Intonation in English

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