hello everybody this is Sabrah from love English hello everybody this is Sabrah
from love English hello everybody this is Sabrah from love English so hello
everybody and welcome back to love English now what did you notice about
the difference between those three different introductions other than that
perhaps one was more interesting than another what was the difference?
So of course guys the difference was the tone, forget my facial expression which
obviously could convey some meaning as well but the tone changes the meaning so
this lesson is a highly requested lesson all about intonation now information is
one of the biggest ways in which we express meaning in which we really show
what's important if we're going to continue speaking or if we wish the other
person to speak all of that actually comes from the tone of the voice the
voice is like a musical instrument so today guys we're going to learn all
about how you can improve your intonation and we're going to look really at
the rules of intonation so I guarantee this is going to help you sound more
natural and improve your speaking
as you know guys I'm Sabrah and I'm a university English teacher don't forget
to subscribe to our channel if you haven't already hit that notification
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get our free ebook at our website www.loveenglish.co.uk so having good intonation is an
integral part of having good pronunciation in English so English
mainly has two tones a rising and a falling intonation so we're going to
look a little bit at the rules now for when to use the rising or the falling
intonation the first one is in yes-or-no questions
we usually use a rising intonation a yes-or-no question means where we can
answer either yes or no or something that is very clear the answer is black
and white for example are you British the answer would be yes or no let's look
at a few more examples do you love English do you love English
will it be sunny at the weekend will it be sunny at the weekend are your fluent
English speaker are you a fluent English speaker you
will hear with all those three sentences that the tone at the end goes up , are you
a fluent English speaker? The tone at the end goes up this is for yes or no
questions. In most other questions we actually used a falling intonation which
seems a little bit strange as it is a question but that is actually correct
let's look at some examples which is the quickest way to get to the University?
which is the quickest way to get to the university? What do you think the answer to
this question is? what do you think the answer to this question is? how often do
you practice your English? How often do you practice your English? Who here loves
chocolate? Who here loves chocolate? You will hear at the end particularly the
last syllable the voice falls so in questions where the answer is not yes or
no the tone will fall at the end the next rule is when we're making
statements so general information facts things like that again our tone will
fall at the end for example I've been an English teacher
for 10 years I've been an English teacher
years I'm a fluent English speaker I'm a fluent English speaker it's probably
going to rain at the weekend it's probably going to rain at the weekend
you can hear this very clearly in the clip I'm going to show you from the TV
show America's Got Talent listen to how the contestant answers
when he makes statements my name is Lee Odell. How old are you leo? I'm 15 years
old. What do you do? I am a stand-up comedian the next rule is that when we
list things usually the final word is more stressed and the tone goes downward
this is to convey that we are finished I love chocolate strawberry and pistachio
ice cream I love chocolate strawberry and pistachio ice cream can you hear
that my voice fades downward towards the end I do love all those flavors of ice
cream and many many more we can also use intonation to emphasize specific words
to show how important they are for example don't forget to bring the laptop
charger I really need that today which words were stressed? So of course it was
really and today and a little bit laptop charger because these are key words that
need to be emphasized let's look at another example
I hope you brought your warm coat I hope you brought your warm coat in the first
sentence warm was more emphasized because the speaker wants to convey the
importance of the coat being a warm coat however in the second sentence the
speaker emphasizes coat suggesting that it's just important that they bring a
coat finally the last rule of intonation is when we contrast things in a sentence
usually when we contrast two things in a sentence
quite often two nouns we will have a rising tone on the first and a falling
tone on the second or it can be vice versa but your tone will be different
and this is to emphasize the difference let's look at some examples I thought he
liked dogs but he actually likes cats did you know that people from the north
of England are usually friendlier than people from
the South of England could you hear in those sentences how my voice went more
up on one of them and more down on the other? That is to
show contrast so in a minute guys I'm going to test your knowledge of how much
you've learned from this video and give you some sentences and I want you to
think about whether they should have a rising or a falling intonation and which
words you think should be stressed so number one this would of course have a
rising intonation because it's a yes/no question are you going out tonight? Are
you going out tonight? Number two
this would actually have a falling intonation because it is not a yes/no
question it's a normal question so it will fall at the end. What time does the
shop close? What time does the shop close?
This would actually have a falling intonation because it is a statement the
UK will not be leaving the European Union on the 12th of April so here you
would vary your tone on these two things that are being compared Liverpool are
having a good season but Manchester City are slowly catching up Liverpool are
having a good season but Manchester City are slowly catching up okay guys well
done if you've got all of those correct great job so we've come to the end of
our lesson on intonation everybody but I really hope that you put into practice
these rules that I've taught you today because I promise you it's going to make
you sound a lot more natural and really improve your speaking make sure that you
have fun practicing your intonation it shouldn't be a boring thing it should be
something that you have a bit of fun with particularly if you can practice
with someone else you can try emphasizing certain words and some of
them might sound quite funny so make sure that you turn this into a fun
exercise we'll see you soon on love English everybody thanks for watching
bye bye