When one pronounces the phrase a gorgeous young model in a very normal way (without any special stress to emphasize a specific meaning), which word will be said in the highest pitch, which word will be said in the lowest pitch and which word will receive the middle range? Information added later: Yeah, I mean … Read more
I have been told that rising and falling intonation can change the meaning of a sentence. For me as a non-native speaker of English this may sometimes cause misunderstanding. In the following construction, can be there any differences in meaning in terms of using rising or falling intonation? Do you want me to call Tim’ … Read more
Recently a possibly new speech pattern has come to my attention and I am wondering whether it is genuine or whether I am mistaken. It is young, male native speakers emphasizing a deep, “rough” voice. I’ve heard e.g. Americans and Australians do this, it can sound quite a bit forced and not genuinely “hulkish” (like … Read more
I’m Chinese and am learning English. When I watch video materials from US and UK, I’ve noticed a phenomenon: in British, a word may sound much different when it’s said in a sentence compared to when it’s spoken solely. For example, when saying dangerous [ˈdeɪndʒərəs] all by itself as a single word, British English pronunciation … Read more
Community! Me and my sister decided to find out whose pronunciation/intonation is better. Can you please help us out? Recording 1 (vocaroo) Recording 2 (vocaroo) Answer As far as pronunciation goes, from the point of view of RP standards, the recording 2 is of a somewhat better quality; the reasons are that in the first … Read more
The closest word I can come up with is “dynamic”, but that has positive connotations. I’m looking for a word for someone whose voice is dynamic to the extreme–overly varied intonation. The best I can come up with is pitchy, but that is more appropriate for singing. There is also affected, but that’s overly broad–I … Read more
uptalk or high rising terminals is an intonation pattern where declarative statements occur with yes/no question intonation. “It is used when the speaker is establishing common ground with the listener as the basis for the conversation, and when the speaker is seeking silent affirmation or some factor that would otherwise require explanation before the conversation … Read more
I’m English learner living in Korea and I’ve just studied English ‘intonation.’ I already know when people speak a general sentence, the last word is focused. However, I can’t understand some parts of the book. “If people want to emphasize on the words in the sentence, they can put an intonation on the sentence. For … Read more
Rising or falling intonation? How on earth did you find out? We should use falling intonation when asking wh questions, but we should use rising intonation to express high-energy emotions like anger, excitement or shock. And here we do have a wh question and we also have a high-energy emotion, now what? Answer I can … Read more
When the sentence I went to the theatre last night was said with a rising intonation at the end,… What was the speaker trying to convey or What kinds of situation could she use that type of rising intonation? Answer That rising tone occurs in particular British dialects (RP, etc) and settings. The speaker is … Read more
