welcome back in today's video I'm going to teach you something that will help you improve your
speaking quickly these seven rules for intonation will help you feel more comfortable when you're
speaking English will help people understand you better and will help you understand other people
too before we get started let's talk quickly about what intonation is intonation is the rise
and fall of your voice when you're speaking in groups of words or in sentences so we're
not specifically talking here about word stress where your voice will go up on a stressed syllable
but rather we're thinking of how the voice rises or falls over groups of words or entire sentences
and intonation is important because native speakers use it
as a signal that they need to notice that there's a question or that they have to make a choice
I know this in my own personal experience because when I had kids I noticed that when I
used intonation to ask a question they would turn their head and try to listen to what I was saying
because they realized that the voice going up or down indicated that they needed to listen
and then provide an answer there are a few rules for intonation but they're worth learning
partly because they're not very hard to learn and also because it really will help you
to take your speaking to the next level in today's lesson I'm going to have a bunch of examples that
are all about one topic which is summer vacation summer vacation is right around the corner and I
am thinking about summer plans and even though we can't travel much this year because of covid
I still have summer vacation on my mind the first rule for intonation is about sentences and we have
an example here we're taking a vacation this summer so listen to the voice we're taking a
vacation this summer you're going to notice that we have intonation going across and then we're
gonna go up on vacation and then down we're taking a vacation this summer now why does the voice go
up on vacation because that's what we call the focus word usually in every sentence there's one
word that's more important than the others in this sentence the word vacation is the most important
word because that's probably new information I'm maybe sharing that with a friend of mine we're
taking a vacation this summer she doesn't know that we're going to take a vacation so vacation in
in this sentence is new information and what we do is we make the voice go up sort of extra high and
it's extra strong on that stressed syllable and then the rest of the sentence is going to go down
if my voice falls at the end of the sentence it indicates that that sentence is finished
the second rule is for sentences as questions so often in speaking we take a sentence and we turn
it into a question this is especially common in speaking and we do it with our voice like this
we're not taking a vacation this summer we're not taking a vacation this summer that voice going up
is super important because it indicates that I'm asking a question and the other person
needs to respond this is a yes no question so the answer would be yes we are or no we're not here
are a couple of other examples you're going to Disneyland with your family? yes we are
or no we're not another thing that we can do with this type of sentence that is actually a question
is that we can add a wh word if we want some information so here we would take a sentence and
with the wh word it actually becomes a question for example you're going where this summer?
so I want to know where I take a sentence and instead of saying you're going to San Francisco
I substitute that place with where you're going where this summer so again notice that the voice
goes down and then up and the voice is going to go down on the focus word and then up at the end
to indicate that it's a question next let's look at intonation in questions and you've
probably learned some of these rules already the first one is intonation in a yes no question
for example do you have plans for this summer do you have plans for this summer so again the voice
goes down on the focus word and then up at the end the answer will be yes I do or no I don't notice
that yes no questions can have a variety of words at the beginning we can use do does did am have
like have you heard of Yosemite? we can also use mobile verbs like can should would could
and all of these are going to be yes no questions so the answer will be yes or no
the next kind of question is a wh question and wh questions start with a wh word when where who what
why how what we do for these is we go up a little bit on the wh word and then we go up on the focus
word and then down when does your summer vacation start when does your summer vacation start
the answer is going to be in June or in 10 days another example can be how long will you be gone
how long will you be gone again gone up and then down the next rule for intonation can be used when
you don't hear someone or you don't understand someone and this one is a little bit tricky
so first we have to think about a conversation for example I ask how many days of vacation will
you have so that's a wh question voice going down and then the other person responds 10
and then I realized that I didn't hear him or her so I ask how many
so again listen to the conversation how many days of vacation will you have 10 how many
in the second one for example where are you going to go lake tahoe where so I didn't hear you or I
didn't understand you this is super common when we don't hear someone and we say what or what was
that in the next one we're going to use intonation in a question to indicate that there's a choice
for example are you going to stay in a hotel or go camping are you going to stay in a hotel or
go camping now notice that even though this looks like a yes no question it's not a yes no question
it's a choice question because the person needs to choose hotel or camping they have to choose one
this is a really common question that we get at the store do you want paper or plastic
referring to the type of bag that you want or if you go to a restaurant for here or to go
super common questions and it indicates a choice with the voice going up on the first one and down
on the second one if there are three choices you go up up and then down on the last one so notice
in this question that when you hear that choice intonation you're not going to answer yes or no
you're going to answer by choosing one of them do you want paper or plastic
paper please and the last one is a sort of similar one it's sentences with a list
and we use the same intonation with the voice going up up and then down on the last one
for example we want to go hiking rock climbing and whale watching we want to go hiking
rock climbing and whale watching listen again we want to go hiking rock climbing and whale watching
so up a little bit up a little bit and then down on the last one here's another example we're going
to San Francisco, Monterey, LA, and San Diego so let's take a little quiz to see if you can use
these intonation rules I'm going to show you a conversation and you're going to look
at the sentences and questions and ask yourself what kind of intonation are you going to use so
think about those seven rules that we learned in the video today I'll give you some time to
look at them and think about them and then I will come back with the answers
are you taking a vacation this summer? yes we're going to Redwoods National Park how long will you
be gone? about a week how long? about a week are you gonna drive or take the train? drive what are
you gonna do there? we're gonna go hiking, see the redwood trees, and spend a day at the beach
you're gonna camp? no we're staying in a hotel that's it for today I hope that these rules of
intonation will help you to feel more comfortable in conversation and that it will also help you
to understand people more easily if you enjoyed this video please don't forget to give it a like
and make sure that you're subscribed I so appreciate your support and let me know in
the comments below if you have any questions thank you so much and I'll see you next time