A Step-by-Step Guide to Perfect British Intonation

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You're in a hurry and you need to have perfect British intonation.

Now, you could spend a year in Britain listening

in to people's conversations, or you.

Are you spying on us?

Why don't you mind your own business?

Watching endless British dramas.

Or you could watch this 15 minute video.

Having good pronunciation is not enough.

I'm sure you do have good pronunciation already.

You should have.

If you've watched this video, you've got to get the pitch, the tone, the rhythm.

To convey your meaning and emotion.

And there are rules.

And today, you're going to learn ten rules for perfect British intonation

by the end of this video.

You'll sound more British than the lovechild of David

Attenborough and Judi Dench.

are you ready for that?

Hello Welcome to LetThemTalk.

Let's start with some open questions.

These are the WH - questions,

maybe the HOW questions which have open ended answers.

And these have a falling tone.

For example, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

Where are you going?

Where are you going? How was the show?

Now, of course you can break this rule, for example, to show surprise

if you haven't seen the person for many years.

You might say, How are you to show surprise?

We'll look at surprise later in this video.

But yeah, how are you, rising tone?

but normally normally it's a falling tone.

And falling tone sounds a bit more serious.

A rising tide sometimes sounds a bit needy.

How are you now? Didn't sound better to say.

Okay, so falling tone for those type of questions.

Now it's your turn.

Read what's on the screen using the correct intonation.

Where's the station?

Where's the station?

Who's that guy I saw you talking to?

With a yes no answer.

end with a rising tone.

So, for example, was it difficult?

Was it difficult?

Do you want some coffee?

Why are you bleeding?

Have you been in a fight?

There are two questions together there.

The open ended question, which has a falling tone.

And then the rising question for the yes, no question.

Why are you bleeding? Have you been in a fight?

Okay, you got it.

Now it's your turn.

Did you enjoy the show?

Are you waiting for someone?

If you use this town correctly, sometimes

you don't need to use the auxiliary verb.

The verb to be or do in.

Do you want questions?

Because it's clear from the context,

from the intonation that you're asking a question.

So, for example, you're going out tonight.

I don't need to say.

Are you going out tonight?

You going out tonight? That's enough.

You also don't need a pronoun if it's clear from the context.

"want some tea?" I'm clearly speaking to you

so the intonation can save you time.

You don't need to say.

Do you want some tea?

Just "want some tea?"

Now it's your turn.

Put the correct intonation here.

Want some more?

Well, I could just say "hungry?".

gosh it's very cold in here, isn't it?

Air conditioning keeps these things cool.

yes, what are they?

I have no idea.

question tags have a rising tone.

If it's a real question and a falling tone,

if it's just said for confirmation.

So, for example, beautiful day, isn't it?

Now, that's not a question.

You can peek out the window and you can see it's a beautiful day.

The sun is shining.

No, you wouldn't say.

Beautiful day. Isn't it? Unlikely.

What about this?

The meeting starts at 5 p.m., doesn't it?

Now, I said that as if it's a

real question, and I'm waiting for a response.

If not, I'll just say the meeting starts of 5 p.m., doesn't it?

Maybe I'm expecting a confirmation, but maybe not.

Now you decide if it's a real question or just a confirmation.

He missed the train, didn't he?

Okay. Confirmation.

He missed the train, didn't he?

She's got a new job, hasn't she?

She's got a new job, hasn't she?

Just confirmation. Only stressed the content words, not the helper words.

Contain words are the verbs,

except possibly the verb to be and have

adjectives, nouns and adverbs.

Helper words are well.

Sometimes the verb to be, prepositions, conjunctions, articles,

sometimes pronouns.

Now these words are usually unstressed

in a sentence and the content words are stressed.

So for example, I'm making scones for my friends at school.

This sentence making scones.

friends school are the content words.

And you notice I put an emphasis on those words.

at the are helper words, I don't emphasize those words.

I'm making scones for my friends at school.

Look at this sentence.

I fell over on the street because it was icy

the content words all fell over.

OVER is a preposition.

But here's part of the verb, part of the phrasal verb TO FALL OVER

So that's the content word.

And remember, with a phrasal verb, you usually stress

the preposition street is a content word.

ICY is a content word on the

because it was are just helper words.

So let's try it again.

Stressing the content words.

I fell over on the street because it was icy.

Fell over on the street because it was icy.

You got it and now it's your turn.

Put the stress on of the content words.

I'm going to the shop to buy a few things.

However, sometimes in a sentence, one

word is more important than another.

And what do you do in that situation?

Well, simply you stress it.

Normally a statement will have a falling intonation,

but you need to leave room for a spike

to emphasize a key word.

So in a neutral sentence would be something like

She promised to give me a cheese and tomato sandwich.

She promised to give me a cheese and tomato sandwich. Okay.

With a sort of a falling tone. and in normal conversation.

That's how you'd say it.

However, sometimes you want to stress to the listener

that one part of the sentence one word is more important than another.

So each word in that sentence

could be stressed to change its meaning.

So, for example, she promised to give me a cheese and tomato sandwich.

Not him. Why does he give it to me?

She promised to give me a cheese and tomato sandwich,

but she didn't keep her promise.

She promised to give me cheese and tomato sandwich.

She promised to give me a cheese and tomato.

not ham and tomato.

She promised to give me cheese and tomato sandwich,

not cheese and cucumber. She promised.

Give me a cheese and tomato sandwich.

No cheese and tomato.

Something else that I

can't think of right now.

But yes, you get you get what I want to say.

Okay. You can always leave

a spike for the important word in a sentence.

Okay. So it's pretty simple in English.

If you want to emphasize something, then you emphasize it.

You don't need to add extra words as sometimes you do in other languages.

So anyway, try this at home

with your own key word spike.

I'll say it in a flat way and you can try the different versions.

So I promisedd to buy her a bunch of red roses.

I promise to buy her a bunch of red roses.

Next, let's move on to lists.

There are two ways to give the items in a list.

You could go [flat], [flat], [flat], up

for the final item or [flat], [flat], [flat], down.

The important thing is to change the tone at the end,

to indicate to the listener that there are no more items on the list.

So, for example, I went to town to buy a hat,

some gloves, a dictionary and a toothbrush.

rising tone at the

end, it could equally work with a falling tone.

At the end, I went to town to buy, had some gloves,

a dictionary and a toothbrush.

Now it's your turn.

I went to town to buy a coat, some shoes,

a pair of scissors and a bottle of wine.

I went to town to buy coat some shoes,

a pair of scissors and a bottle of wine.

Now let's move on to a few ways that you can use

intonation to express emotion.

And first of all, surprise,

shock or disbelief, but in a good way.

And for this, you will need to increase the volume of your speech.

Speak with a steady, raised tone until the last content word

where you will raise the tone even more and

elongate the syllable

stressed part of that word and then drop it off.

Does that make any sense? Probably not.

I'm even more confused in you, I'm sure.

But you'll see it'll become perfectly clear if I give you some examples.

And here's the first one.

I don't believe it.

I don't believe it.

So that da da da DA da da da da DA da.

I don't believe it.

I've just been accepted into Oxford University.

This is unbelievable.

Now it's your turn.

This is amazing.

I just won the lottery.

However, sometimes you're surprised

in a negative way, and this is kind of the opposite.

Instead of a rising tone, you keep it flat and aggressive.

Then you lengthen the stressed syllable of the last content word.

But with negativity, it goes down rather than up. Once again

it'll be much easier if I just give you some examples.

This is unbelievable.

This is unbelievable.

I don't believe it.

I don't believe it.

I don't believe God.

Okay, now it's your turn.

This is ridiculous.

Fast, aggressive tone which drops

on the last content word, for example.

I wish to speak to the manager.

I wish to speak to the manager.

The digital editor did it.

Are you the manager?

I am the owner, madam.

But I am the owner.

I want to speak to the manager.

Get me some coffee.

I told you not to do that.

Now it's your turn.

What do you leave me alone?

Now, this usually has an up- down, up- down tone.

I won't go into this in great detail.

I'll just give you an example.

You look at your CV, you know, Microsoft Windows

Who, and you've got GCSE in German.

Aren't you clever?

They see the up and down tone.

But we don't like being sarcastic.

So, you know, I wouldn't give you any exercise on that one.

But just be familiar with that tone and we'll move on

to the next one, which is Fury.

If you're absolutely furious, you could try this.

It's the slow but aggressive.

Slow, slow, fast. Okay.

For example, you like this.

I told you not to do that.

These people drive me crazy.

Now, you tried.

Why don't you listen?

Why won't they answer?

Oh, no. It's the end of the video.

Take a red double decker bus.

Your favorite pub, drink some warm beer, enjoy a Marmite sandwich while listening

to the Beatles to celebrate your newly acquired Britishness.

It's unbelievable. Goodbye.