Intonation refers to the rising and falling pitch of one's voice. Intonation patterns can differ across languages and improper intonation in a new language can impact meaning. There are two main intonation patterns in English: rising intonation for yes/no questions and falling intonation for information questions. Question tags also use different intonation patterns depending on whether they are confirming information or asking for clarification. Specific intonation is used with commas, introductory clauses, and other grammatical structures to clarify meaning.

1. INTRODUCTION TO
INTONATION
PREPARED BY ALI KAYA

2. INTRODUCTION TO INTONATION
• Intonation is the rising and falling pitch in one’s voice. If you’ve already looked at
our sections on thought groups and word stress, then you’re already familiar with
how intonation and stress are closely connected. If you’ve ever tried to mimic an
English speaker’s intonation patterns and felt uncomfortable, it may be because
the intonation patterns of your first language are either different and/or have a
wider or lesser range.

3. RISING AND FALLING INTONATION
As one example, listen to the following question and decide if you hear rising or
falling pitch at the end of the question:
While many learners may predict that all questions in English have a rising pitch,
many questions actually have a falling pitch. In fact, if this same question were said
with rising intonation, it’d sound like this:

4. RISING AND FALLING INTONATION
• You can probably detect the difference, but more importantly, the
underlying intent of each question is different. The first question is typical of
introductions; the speaker wants to know a person’s name. In the second
question, the speaker probably misheard the name, or is surprised by the name in
some way (e.g., the person’s name is Harry Potter). Therefore, learning the
intonation of English is more than trying to sound like an English speaker; narrow
or improper intonation can actually negatively impact the meaning of your
message!

5. ASKING QUESTIONS FOLLOWS TWO PATTERNS
• Rising Voice at the End of a Question
• If the question is a yes / no question, the voice rises at the end of a question.
• Do you like living in Portland?
• Have you lived here a long time?
• Did you visit your friends last month?
• Falling Voice at the End of a Question
• If the question is an information question—in other words, if you are asking a question with 'where,' 'when,' 'what,' 'which,'
'why,' 'what/which kind of..,' and questions with 'how'—let your voice fall at the end of a question.
• Where are you going to stay on vacation?
• When did you arrive last night?
• How long have you lived in this country?

6. QUESTION TAGS
• Question tags are used to either confirm information or to ask for clarification. The
intonation is different in each case.
• Question Tags to Confirm
• If you think you know something, but would like to confirm it, let the voice fall in the
question tag.
• You live in Seattle, don't you?
• This is easy, isn't it?
• You aren't coming to the meeting, are you?

7. QUESTION TAGS TO ASK FOR CLARIFICATION
• When using a question tag to clarify, let the voice rise to let the listener know that
you expect more information.
• Peter isn't going to be at the party, is he?
• You understand your role, don't you?
• We aren't expected to finish the report by Friday, are we?

8. END OF SENTENCES
• The voice usually falls at the end of sentences. However, when making a short statement with a word
that is only one syllable the voice rises to express happiness, shock, approval, etc.
• That's great!
• I'm free!
• I bought a new car.
• When making a short statement with a word that is more than one syllable (multi-syllabic) the voice
falls.
• Mary is happy.
• We're married.
• They're exhausted.

9. COMMAS
• We also use a specific type of intonation when using commas in a list. Let's take a
look at an example:
• Peter enjoys playing tennis, swimming, hiking, and biking.
• In this example, the voice rises after each item in the list. For the final item, let the
voice fall. In other words, 'tennis,' 'swimming,' and 'hiking' all rise in intonation.
The final activity, 'biking,' falls in intonation. Practice with a few more examples:
• We bought some jeans, two shirts, a pair of shoes, and an umbrella.
• Steve wants to go to Paris, Berlin, Florence, and London.

10. PAUSE AFTER AN INTRODUCTORY SUBORDINATE
CLAUSE
• Subordinate clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions. These include 'because,'
'though,' or time expressions such as 'when,' 'before,' 'by the time,' as well as others.
You can use a subordinating conjunction to introduce a subordinate clause at the
beginning of a sentence, or in the middle of a sentence. When beginning a sentence
with a subordinating conjunction (as in this sentence), pause at the end
of the introductory subordinating clause.
• When you read this letter, I will have left you forever.
• Because it's so expensive to travel in Europe, I have decided to go to Mexico for my
vacation.
• Although the test was very hard, I got an A on it.

11. PERCEIVE THE DIFFERENCE