Intonation

Hi
I want to know when the pitch " intonation" is rising and when is it falling ?
Lppk at these 2 examples
How do you feel ? is it up or down ?
Who did you say go home ? is the intonation up oe down ?
Thanls

Not a teacher.

I don't know all the rules for pronunciation, but questions usually end with a slightly higher intonation:

How do you feel?
and
Who did you say went home?

Both of these rise in intonation slightly as the sentence goes on, with "feel" and "home" being highest.

Your other question does not follow this "rule":

Is the intonation up or down?

If I asked this question, I would rise in intonation until the word "up" and then I would lower my intonation for "or down." I don't know why, it just sounds more natural for me.

Also not a teacher.

In regards to "How do you feel?" I would not say the pitch rises for every word. While you would usually either have rising or flat tones for "How do you", there is an emphasis on "feel" so the tone slides down on that word by itself.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jettison

Also not a teacher.

In regards to "How do you feel?" I would not say the pitch rises for every word. While you would usually either have rising or flat tones for "How do you", there is an emphasis on "feel" so the tone slides down on that word by itself.

---

I'd say it generally goes up first.
__ __ __ /\
...............\
How do you feel?

(ignore the dots)

Often, yes, but it depends on the tone you're using. Try it without the uptone, it sounds sort of... Sensitive, and solemn. :-)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raymott

I'd say it generally goes up first.
__ __ __ /\
...............\
How do you feel?

...

---

:up: - though of course there are lots of admissible alternatives, for use in different contexts (both actual and grammatical). For example this (or any other question) changes intonation in reported speech.

(And you can avoid the 'ignore the dots' problem by making them white - although it doesn't work so well when there's a background colour ;-)).

b

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BobK

:up: - though of course there are lots of admissible alternatives, for use in different contexts (both actual and grammatical). For example this (or any other question) changes intonation in reported speech.

(And you can avoid the 'ignore the dots' problem by making them white - although it doesn't work so well when there's a background colour ;-)).

b

---

OK, thanks for the tip!