Language does more than give a person cut -and-dried information. It can also let you know or allow you to let others know how you are feeling; not only by the meaning of your words, but by your intonation and emphasis (stress) on certain words. Intonation and emphasis give the rhythm, or ‘music’ of a spoken language. You can show many moods or emotions with only one word by the way you say it—by the intonation and emphasis you give that word.
Talk to Yourself! Try saying each of these words or sentences at least three different ways (with three different feelings or emotions such as surprise, or anger, or happiness):
You are so funny!
Good morning.
What time is it now?
I enjoy your company.
Talk to me later.
Goodbye.
Need some help?
Say ‘Hi’ as you would say it to someone you know, but are not close too.
Now say “Hi’ as you would say it to your best friend.
Now say ‘Hi’ as if you were talking to a small child.
Finally, say ‘Hi’ to someone you really don’t even like.
NOTE: When you talk to someone in person, your body language and the expression on your face are part of showing some of the meaning of your words. When we talk to someone on the ‘phone or in a computer voice chat, the sound of the voice conveys our feelings. We listen to a person’s voice, and it tells us if that person is happy, or sad, or enthusiastic, or worried etc. etc.
It’s certainly easier to understand the meaning of the word ‘intonation’ by listening to a person speak, but I will try to explain it here. Intonation means the voice is higher or lower in pitch---not in volume. How loudly or softly we say words can certainly be part of conveying the meaning of a sentence, too. In other words, intonation doesn’t mean how loud or soft the voice is. Listen to a child’s voice. It’s always much higher in pitch than the voice of an adult; not louder---higher. When adults speak, the voice changes the highs and lows all the time. The highs and lows (intonation), combined with emphasis (stress) on specific words or on one syllable of a word, is what give meaning to American English sentences.
Some ways you can vary your intonation are by speaking loudly or softly, in a deeper or a higher voice, and by saying the word quickly or more slowly. This way you can emphasize some words or syllables to make them more important.
Now try it with an entire sentence. Emphasize a different word each time you repeat the sentence.
1. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
2. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
3. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
4. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
5. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
6. She didn’t know class was cancelled Friday.
7. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
8. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
Now that you have tried that, re-write the sentences to show the intended meaning.
1. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
2. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
3. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
4. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
5. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
6. She didn’t know class was cancelled Friday.
7. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday.
8. She didn’t know history class was cancelled Friday;
Here's a conversation that has certain words stressed to focus on new information. The words with regular stress are in italics. The words given extra stress are underlined. Try reading this aloud with a friend.
Bobby: I have to leave soon.
Hannah: Where are you going?
Bobby: To the concert.
Hannah: The one at the stadium?
Bobby: Yes.
Hannah: Who's playing?
Bobby: Some new groups.
Hannah: Are you going alone?
Bobby: No, a bunch of us are going.
Hannah: I'd sure like to go.
Bobby: That would be great! Be ready at seven.
Remember, the words you emphasize affect the meaning of the sentence.
The three most used types of intonation are: (The rising part is capitalized)
Falling: (The syllable “real” is high, and when you say “ly”, the voice “drops”---goes lower in pitch, or “falls”.) REAL ly
Rising: real LY? (The syllable “real” starts with the voice at a low pitch, and the syllable “ly” goes UP—goes higher, or “rises”. When the word ‘really’ is said this way, it means the person saying it is surprised.)
Flat: really (Note: A flat intonation would sound rather like a robot talking. This is also called ‘monotone’)
Sentences generally use a combination of these intonations.
A declarative sentence has a slight falling at the end of a sentence, and the nouns are more stressed than the other words: (Say them out loud to hear the slight fall, or listen as a native English speaker says them.)
I am here.
Have some coffee.
Lunch is ready.
Charley likes ice cream, pie, and spaghetti.
1. A 'yes/no' question has a rising intonation at the end. IF you use a falling intonation on a yes/no question, it can sound like the person is annoyed, or rude. (Try the examples aloud both ways. If you have a study buddy, practice together.)
Notice that these questions begin with auxiliary verbs or modals (can, will, would, should, can, could, may, might, must, have, has, had , am, is, are, was, were , do, does, did ) When a question begins with these words, usually it will have a rising intonation at the end of the question.
2. A ‘question word’ (who, when, where, which, why, what, how) doesn’t usually rise at the end; it’s just a request for information. If you use a slight rise at the end instead, it shows that you are impatient, or amazed, or need the question repeated. Try saying these aloud with both kinds of intonation also.
What are you doing?
Why did you say that?
When will they arrive?
How do you know that?
Where are my sunglasses?
Who took them?
Which movie would you rather see?
In English, we don’t stress every word. Nouns are the words most often stressed. Once you have used a particular noun into your sentence, the following times you use it or a pronoun substitute, the verb is more stressed. The words that are written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS means that word is stressed.
SARA likes CHOCOLATE.
In fact, Sara LOVES chocolate.
She BUYS it every chance she gets.
If you are a non-native speaker of English, this may be a bit difficult for you. You may miss someone’s meaning, or the meaning you intended to give might not be understood. Other languages may use word order to show changes of meaning in a sentence, and some languages use a different pitch or tone of a particular word to show different literal meanings. In English, however, a lot of the time the word order stays pretty much the same; we can’t always change the word order to emphasize something. American English uses a rising or falling pitch, or a combination of both to give emphasis to the feelings we are expressing when we speak. Mistakes in pronunciation don’t necessarily prevent others from understanding you. Many times, mistakes in intonation can be the reason someone misunderstands you.
More about Stress
The length of a sentence doesn’t always have to do with how much time it takes to say it. That’s because in English, some words are simply spoken more swiftly than others, no matter how long the word. Not every syllable receives the same importance. This is what adds the rhythm to English. It creates the 'beat' of our speech.
Compare these two sentences. You say them aloud, and then have a native speaker say them.
An apple a day can be good for your health.
Do you say it like this? "An ap-ple a day can be good for your health." That way gives equal stress to each word and syllable. If a native speaker says these words, the sentence would probably sound like this: "anAPpul aDAY kinbe GOOD feryer HEALTH."
The words ‘an’, ‘a’, ‘can’, ‘be’, ‘for’, ‘your’ are spoken quickly—connecting to the next word. They are barely pronounced. The time between each stressed word is the same, even if there are a different number of syllables between one stressed word and another. We say the unstressed 'structure' words faster to keep the rhythm of the stressed 'content' words even.
Words that English speakers stress ( called 'content' words) are:
Nouns
Most principal (main) verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
These are called 'content' words because they are the words that really tell you what the sentence is about. You need these words in order for the sentence to make sense. If you receive a message that says 'left town no address', you would still understand it--even though it isn't a grammatically correct sentence. That is because all the words are 'content words' (verb, noun, adjective, noun). They give you all the important information you need to understand the message.
The structure words listed below make the sentence a correct sentence. They give it structure or form and make it a grammatically correct sentence.
Words that English speakers do not stress (called 'structure' words) are:
Pronouns
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Auxiliary verbs
Articles and other determiners
If you add some structure words to "left town no address", the sentence would read like this: 'I left town suddenly and I have no address yet.' The sentence is now correct, but you really don't have much more important information than you did before.
A sentence like: "The shimmering silver light of the full moon gave the deserted house an eerie glow." takes longer to say than: "We can take the car around the block, but we can't take it out of the neighborhood."
The first sentence has 21 syllables and 15 words. The second sentence has 21 syllables and 18 words, but it has only six stressed words. The first sentence has ten stressed words, so it takes longer to say. The syllables and words written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS are the ones you stress.
The SHIMmering SILver LIGHT of the FULL MOON GAVE the deSERted HOUSE an EERie GLOW.
We can TAKE Dad's new CAR around the BLOCK, but we CAN'T TAKE it out of the NEIGHBORHOOD.
Sometimes however, we do stress the structure words. This can show strong agreement or comparison:
Did Ray give Lisa a diamond ring or a ruby ring? He gave her a diamond ring AND a ruby ring.
(The "and' emphasizes that she got both rings, not just one of them.)
You can't you carry that by yourself. Yes, I CAN carry it.
(The "can" emphasizes that you are definitely able to carry it without help.)
What a great book that is! It IS a great book, isn't it?
(Emphasizing the strong agreement that the person responding feels.)
You don’t have to say the unstressed words perfectly clearly to be understood, but you do have to pronounce the stressed words clearly. That is the trick to being understood and to understand spoken English.