Stress and Intonation Information
Intonation
�Intonation� is the way our voices go up and down when we speak. English uses four levels of pitch for intonation. For use here we will assign the number 1 for the lowest and number 4 for the highest.
4 -------------------------
3 -------------------------
2 -------------------------
1 -------------------------
The most frequent is the 2-3-1 pattern. This means that a sentence begins with level two then rises to level 3 and drops to level 1.
Question Answer
2 - 3 - 1
Example: Where's yours? It's over here.
2 - 3 -1
What's this? It's a map.
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Variation of the 2-3-1- pattern is the 3-1 pattern used in phrases and short sentences.
3 - 1
Example: Thank you
3 - 1
Open it
3 - 1
Tell me
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Variation 3 - 2 pattern.
3 - 2
Example: Hi, Sue
3 - 2
Fine, thanks
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Variation 2 -3 pattern used for questions.
2 - 3
Is this yours?
2 - 3
Do you have change?
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You can change a statement to a question by changing the intonation pattern.
2 - 3 - 1
Example: This is his.
2 - 3
This is his?
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