ESCUELA NORMAL SUPERIOR DEL ESTADO

MODALIDAD MIXTA

OPTIONAL II: SOUNDS THAT MAKE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

CONSONANTS, STRESS, RHYTHM, AND INTONATION

11° SEMESTER
ENGLISH SPECIALTY MIXED MODALITY

PROFR.
MARIO ALBERTO OBREGÓN OCURA

ACTIVITY 16
INTONATION

ALUMNA:

MAYELA LOPEZ BUENTELLO

SAN JUAN DE SABINAS, COAHUILA ENERO 2021

Sounds that make the English Language
 11th. Semester
English Specialty Mixed Modality
INTONATION
Intonation and stress are closely linked. In fact, it's impossible to dissociate them.
Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say, the way the voice
rises and falls when speaking, in other words the music of the language.
Just as words have stressed syllables, sentences have regular patterns of stressed
words. In addition, the voice tends to rise, fall or remain flat depending on the
meaning or feeling we want to convey (surprise, anger, interest, boredom,
gratitude, etc.). Intonation therefore indicates the mood of the speaker. There are
two basic patterns of intonation in English: falling intonation and rising intonation.

In the following examples a downward arrow (➘) indicates a fall in intonation and
an upward arrow (➚) indicates a rise in intonation.
Watch the video and analyze the difference between Wh and Yes/No questions
intonation: https://rachelsenglish.com/questions-intonation/

Falling Intonation (➘) The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence.
Declarative Intonation
1.- Read the statements on the left and listen to the audio to practice the
falling intonation. Then use a downward arrow (as the example) to specify
where the intonation falls.

declarative sentences falling.mp3

Statements Identify the falling Intonation.

Betty lives in London. Here is the weather forecast.

Cloudy weather is expected at the end of

Victor works at a bank. the week.

We should work together more often.

I haven't read this book.

I'm going for a walk in the park.

We went to the theater yesterday.

Underlined syllables represent the last word stress and at the end of this starts to
fall. In the case of one-syllable words, the whole word starts to fall.
Wh-questions (requesting information)
(Questions beginning with 'who', 'what', 'why', 'where', 'when', 'which', and 'how'.)
2.- Read the Wh questions in the box below and listen to the audio to
practice the falling intonation. Then use a downward arrow to specify where
the intonation falls.

wh questions falling.mp3

Wh- questions Identify the falling Intonation.

What is his name? What is your name?

Where does he live? Where do you live?

When did you call him? Which is your favorite sport?

When are you going to London?

Why are you late?

Rising Intonation (➚) The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence. Rising
intonation invites the speaker to continue talking.
3.- Read the Yes/No questions in the box below and listen to the audio to
practice rising intonation. Then use an upward arrow to specify where the
intonation rises.

Yes No question rising.mp3

Yes/No Questions
Yes/No Questions Identify the Rising Intonation

Do you visit them often? Do you know the answer?

Have you seen my keys? Have you ever been in Europe?

Are you ready to star? May I go out?

Can you give me a pen, please? Are you in a team?

4.- Write and record an audio in which you include at least 3 different
statements, 3 Wh questions and 3 Yes/No questions using the correct
intonation.

1.- who is coming to dinner?

2.- why are we going there?
3.- when should we be ready?
4.- is it new?
5.- do you like it?
6.- do I have to tell you?

YOUR AUDIO GOES HERE

 act_16 audio 1.m4a

Numbers
Numbers from thirteen to nineteen are called the “teens”, from twenty to ninety are
called the “tens”. Analyze the next examples (stress is in bold).
thirteen thirty
fourteen forty
fifteen fifty
sixteen sixty
seventeen seventy
When the number ends a phrase or a sentence, word stress falls on the noun.
I have fifteen dollars. This book has fourty-three pages. She’s nineteen years
old.
5.- Write three sentences where you use these kinds of numbers and mark
where the stress falls, look at the previous activity (include at least 10
content words in each sentence).
1.__I was born on July eighteenth, nineteen seventy-eight_____________
2.__Diana has twenty books, and I have fifteen magazines. _______
3. _This book has thirty-six units; I only had read fifty pages____