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Use Your Voice to Make Your Point:

How Proper Intonation Maximizes Your Message

One area of English pronunciation that is often ignored in language courses is intonation. This is because it’s seen as challenging and can be confusing from a linguistic perspective. Intonation has so many attitudinal factors. We can say the same words in many different ways depending on how we feel about what we’re saying, who we’re speaking with, and the current situation. That’s why you’ve probably heard the common phrase, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it!”

Despite all of this, there are some specific patterns to English intonation which are based on the underlying meaning we are trying to express. By becoming a master of your voice and tone, you will not only be able to include more meaning in your messages, but also speak more fluently.

I obviously can’t explain all the details of English intonation in a short article, but let’s just review some basics by looking at a simple example: “Great job!”

There are many different ways we can use our tone when we say this.

If we are being sincere, and truly want to give someone a pat on the back, this exclamation will end in a fall tone:

This is called an exclamatory fall and it is the default intonation for just about any exclamation.

Now, what if someone is challenging what someone else has said? For example, let’s say that you just told your boss that you think your team has done a great job on your current project. Unfortunately your boss disagrees and he vents his frustration in his voice:

This situation is called a negative statement. It’s one way we show that we don’t completely agree with someone else’s positive statement. The voice also rises on Great in this instance, because the boss is emphasizing his disagreement with that particular word’s meaning.

What if we’re in a situation where we want to clarify something that’s been said? The intonation pattern will look more like this:

This is called an echo question and can signal that we’re looking for clarification, would like the person to repeat what they just said or, in other cases, could also indicate sudden surprise.

All of these uses of intonation are equally correct for their different situations. If you currently aren’t paying attention to your intonation or tend to speak in monotone, you aren’t making full use of the communication tools that are available to you. It’s also possible that people are misconstruing your messages because they are misinterpreting your (lack of) intonation.

So, how can you start to improve? The first step is listening more carefully to the way people speak. Watch different television shows to hear the way the rhythm and tone of English changes in different situations. Try listening to a newscaster followed by actors in a sitcom, for example. If you’re not used to thinking about intonation, or have never been specifically taught proper intonation (the great majority of us fall into this category), then you first need to become more aware. Next, see if you can start noticing patterns in the way people speak.

Here’s a challenge for you:

See if you can determine the default intonation for questions beginning with who, what, when, where, why and how. Is this intonation different from questions which require a yes or no answer?

I’m confident you’ll be able to answer this question yourself, but to be sure, watch for future articles for my answer!

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