Podcast 97 B2 - Intonation in English

Today I'm going to talk to you about intonation. And this is a follow-up podcast from podcast 3, where I talked about the change of meaning, depending on the intonation of words, but more importantly, podcast 43, which talked about English as a stress-timed language, compared to other languages, for example, Spanish or Italian or French, which are syllable-timed languages. But the session today is going to be more practical, because I'm going to look at intonation in speech, or when we are reading something and how intonation can make your English sound more native-like, here we go....

It was raining - intonation in English

What is a stressed word?

So I mentioned in podcast 43 how it's important to give additional stress on key meaning words. Now what does stress mean? Well stress (apart from what we feel when we have had a hard day at work!) is also to make words sound louder, I suppose. They sound louder, and they stand out from other words, which are unstressed in a text that we're reading aloud, or when we are speaking as well.

And so an example of stress then, where the words are perhaps louder.

I want to improve my English.

So the key meaning words there are: want, improve and English. And they sound perhaps louder or more obvious. They have more emphasis than the other words in the sentence which are: I, to and mind.

Stressed words in a sentence

So which words are stressed when we are talking? Well, verbs are obviously meaning words, and therefore they will be stressed when we're talking. Adjectives are another important meaning word usually. Nouns - those are things we're talking about, which obviously, have a lot of stress, because they're important meaning words. Occasionally, adverbs, especially if they're adverbs, which are necessary to the meaning of the sentence. And also negative words or auxiliaries, which express negative because they are important, because we want to put more emphasis on the negative rather than the affirmative.

So let's look at some examples of each of these. First of all, verbs... I'm taking these examples from a text that I'm going to read [to] you at the end of this session, which is from the Tudor Conspiracy, which is a B2 book, which I wrote for strong B1 students who want to break into B2 English and beyond! And it's available from Amazon platforms, also as a digital book, or as a standard paperback book as well. But this is an extract from that book, so the examples that I'm going to use are examples from the text which I'll read to you at the end.

So looking at verbs, then, as key meaning words which hold stress,

It was raining. She ran all the way.

So you can really hear those verbs - they stand out as important words in that sentence.

The next one is adjectives and here is an example.

Her wet jacket, her ridiculous umbrella.

Adverbs, well, as I say, especially if they're adverbs which hold a lot of meaning. And here's an example.

It was raining very heavily now.

So 'heavily' is stressed as a meaning word. The other adverb 'now' perhaps doesn't take so much stress is not such an important word as the word 'heavily'.

Nouns. Okay, so here's an example.

Isabel put up her umbrella.

But, in fact, you have two nouns there. You have a proper noun, the name of the girl, Isabel, which will always take stress and the common noun at the end - umbrella.

And here's another example.

She pushed open the door.

So notice 'door', taking a lot of stress.

The negatives.

Her boss often did not think of the most obvious things.

So the word 'not' there is stressed. There, there is no contraction of 'did' or 'not', so 'not' takes the stress. But often in spoken English, we might make contractions and so the whole of the contraction will take the stress, and that will sound like this.

Her boss often didn't think of the most obvious things.

There are some words perhaps you might give lots of stress to depending on the idea we're trying to convey. And here's an example from the text I'm going to read later.

The rain was dripping off her.

Now this is an onomatopoeic word. An onomatopoeic word is a word which sounds like the quality that it is expressing. So for example, to drip, drip, drip, drip, is the idea of drops of water falling onto the floor. When we really want to put emphasis on the idea that something is dripping a lot, for example, we can actually say it as though you could almost hear the drops falling from her.

The rain was dripping off her.

Unstressed words in a sentence

Now I'm going to talk about words which are not usually stressed. For example, prepositions: to, for and from. Articles: the, a, an. Personal pronouns, usually: she, he. Relative pronouns: which, that, who. And some modals perhaps, for example: would and could. And also, auxiliaries: do and did don't usually hold stress.

So let's have a look at those then in order.

First of all prepositions. So what happens here then, is that the sounds actually change. The preposition 'to' becomes /t�?/ the preposition for becomes /f�?/, from - /fr�?m/. This /�?/ sound is called a schwa sound or the neutral vowel [shown in the International Phonetic Alphabet as an upside down e]. When I ask my students to pronounce this [sound], they usually find it difficult. So what I often say is, pretend there's nothing there at all. Just try to join up the two consonants (if there is a consonant before and after) and say nothing between the two of them.

Here are some examples from the text.

It hung /fr�?m/ the ceiling.

So notice that /fr�?m/ really, it's like there is no vowel there at all! The next one,

hundreds /�?f/ books.

Now what happens in that example is that the 's' at the end of 'hundreds' runs into the preposition 'of', and so it becomes hundreds /�?f/ - hundreds /�?f/ books.

The next one is 'to'.

She ran all the way /t�?/ the bookshop.

So 'to' now becomes /t�?/.

There are lots of other examples and I don't have time to go into all of them. But I'm hoping that when you listen to the text that I'll read [to] you later - (and you can read it too) if you come over to Practising English and see the audio script. Well, then you can identify other prepositions there, which are also not stressed.

Okay, now, the next one is then, modals. So in this example, we've got an unstressed modal.

There was little she /c�?d/ do about it.

So 'could' becomes /c�?d/.

The next one is articles. And let's just have a look at one example from the text where 'an' becomes /�?n/.

/�?n/antiquated electric heater.

The next one is relative pronouns. That is: 'that', 'who' and 'which'. So in this text, we have 'which', which is a relative pronoun. And it loses stress so 'which' becomes /wh�?ch/.

She pushed open the door, /wh�?ch/ rang a little bell.

Now the next one is 'there is', 'there are' and all the other derivatives: 'there was', 'there were' etc. And it really is the 'there' which becomes /th�?/.

/th�?/ was a light on in the bookshop.

And the next one is auxiliary 'do' or 'did'. You know, this may happen a lot in questions, for example. And in the text, we have a question.

D'you need a towel? You look wet.

So the 'do' and the 'you' sort of run together so you get D'you need a towel? You look wet.

Sometimes I think as teachers we talk about putting stress on more words to make the intonation more correct. But sometimes I wonder if it's perhaps the other way around. Or rather, is it that the unstressed words actually become less stressed? And therefore, the meaning words sound louder and more obvious. So I could refer back to an example I used earlier. And without stress, T

There was a light on in the bookshop.

Now really, those meaning words become more stressed, perhaps because I am unstressing the unimportant words.

/Th�?/ /w�?s/ /�?/ light on in the bookshop.

So notice that really that 'light', 'on' and 'bookshop', they stand out because the other words have lost stress, and not only do they lose stress, they are shorter, and said more quickly. So that might be something to think about. Perhaps not say those words louder, because it may sound a little bit ridiculous. For example,

There was a LIGHT ON in the BOOKSHOP.

No! It's not that! Perhaps it's more that those unstressed words are shorter, briefer and the sound changes.

/Th�?/ /w�?s/ /�?/ light on in the bookshop.

Right. Okay, so that's enough of the theory. I'm going to read a text from The Tudor Conspiracy. There are other parts of speech, which are stressed and unstressed. And I haven't had time in this podcast to go into, but as I say, listen to this example text and try to identify yourself the unstressed and stressed words there. And I recommend, if you can afterwards, to try to read the text yourself, putting the correct stress on the words, you can listen and then repeat after me. To help you I have highlighted in bold the words which are stressed.

Extract from The Tudor Conspiracy for intonation practice

bookshop - intonation in English

It w�?s raining very heavily now. Isabel put up her umbrella, wh�?ch suddenly looked ridiculously small. She ran all the way t�? the bookshop resigned t�? the fact th�?t she w�?s going t�? get wet, �?nd th�? w�?s little she c�?d do about it. When she arrived, she pushed open the door, wh�?ch rang a little bell, �?nd almost fell inside. The rain w�?s dripping off h�?, �?nd she w�?s breathing heavily.

The first thing Isabel did w�?s t�? take off h�? wet jacket. She hung it on a hat stand next t�? the door – a hat stand, thought Isabel, wh�?ch looked exactly like the one in the James Bond films. She folded up h�? ridiculous umbrella �?nd dropped it dripping into the umbrella stand. Then she pulled h�? long black hair forward �?nd squeezed it – drops �?f water fell ont�? the wooden floor. I need a bigger umbrella, she thought.

Isabel looked down �?t her boots, wh�?ch she wore over h�? jeans. They w�? wet on the outside, but inside h�? socks felt dry. Isabel w�?s also wearing a woollen jumper, which, fortunately, w�?s still dry. It w�?s cold in the shop, so she decided t�? keep h�? scarf on.

Th�? w�?s a light on in the bookshop. One single ugly light bulb without a shade hung fr�?m the ceiling. Now, with the door closed, the shop seemed like another world far removed from the different reality outside. Th�? w�?s a deep silence mixed with the smell �?f hundreds �?f books arranged, not very neatly, onto shelves – just wood �?nd paper.

'Mr Fanshawe,' Isabel called softly. 'Are you there?' Still the silence. After a while, a door �?t the back of the shop slowly opened. A grey-haired man looked through the gap. 'Good morning, Mr Fanshawe!' said Isabel. 'Lovely weather, isn't it?' She smiled shyly �?t her joke.

'Good morning, Isabel,' said Mr Fanshawe �?nd smiled back. His voice w�?s pleasantly sonorous. 'Your hair! D'you need a towel? You look wet!' Isabel sometimes wondered if he ever realised what w�?s happening outside the little world �?f his own shop.

'No, I'm fine. Really. Just a little rain this morning, that's all.' Then she shivered. 'But shall we put the heating on? It's a little cold in here.' Isabel knew h�? boss often did not think �?f the most obvious things.

'Please forgive me! �?f course, �?f course! I'll put it on straight away!' he said �?nd bent over t�? plug in �?n antiquated electric heater.

So that's all from me for now!

Until next time!

Goodbye!

You can buy The Tudor Conspiracy as a paperback book or in digital version. This is a historical thriller for strong B1 learners studying for B2 or for B2 level students.