Intonation Essay for BA students

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Intonation

Intonation means using a tone while speaking.

The use of proper tone is important in our day – to – day communication.

If a proper tone is not used the listener may misunderstand us.

The two important tones are Falling Tone and Rising Tone. Falling tone is marked by down arrow and Rising tone is marked by up arrow as seen in the diagram.

Intonation Patterns

1.Falling tones are used in ordinary statements

Eg. Kamala is a dancer.

My Brother is a lawyer.

Sona is a pretty girl.

Our college starts at 10.

Mala is a singer.

2. Wh-questions ( who, when, where, how, etc ) are falling tone.

Eg. What are you doing?

When will the school start?

Who is your class teacher?

What is your name?

When are you going to London?

3. Commands are uttered with a falling tone.

Eg. Shoot a sight.

Do not bear False witness.

Follow me.

Be mute.

4. Exclamation are spoken with a falling tone:

Eg. What a lovely scene!

Alas!

O Lord how great thou art!

What a piece of work is man!

What a surprise!

Wow what a great surprise!

5. Yes or No questions are asked with a rising tone.

Eg. Can you drive?

Can you speak English?

Are they your sisters?

Can you fly?

Did you attend the meeting?

6. Polite requests, invitations, suggestions are made with a rising tone.

Eg. May I open the door.

Shall I help you.

Could you please open the door.

Shall we go for a tour.

May I sit here.

7. In a complex sentence the first half of the sentence is spoken with rising tone and the second half is spoken with falling tone.

Eg.  It was getting dark, and we weren't near the cabin yet.

 Cats are good pets, for they are clean and are not noisy.

 We have never been to Asia, nor have we visited Africa.

He didn't want to go to the dentist, yet he went anyway.

if you work hard, you will pass.

8. When a few things are enumerated, the beginning part of the sentence have a rising tone followed by falling tone.

Eg.Mala is good in dancing, swimming, singing and eating.

 I like to play tennis, swimming and chess.

I like gold, silver and diamond.

Gold, silver and platinum are very precious metals.

 China, India and Russia are highly populated countries.

Tone mainly depends on contexts.

For example the word Reena is spoken in different tones on different occasions may mean different things.


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