Indirect questions intonation

[olast1806]

Hello everyone!

Could you help me with the intonation in the following indirect questions:

1) Could you tell me where I can get some shoelaces?

2) Do you know if they are coming to the party?

Is the tone falling in this kind of question? or rising like in yes/no questions?

I haven't found any general rule for this neither in textbooks about pronunciation, nor in internet..

Thank you!!!

 

[jutfrank]

I can't offer a general rule because I'm pretty sure there isn't one to be found.

There are a few different ways of intonating each of those sentences. If I were modelling them in class, they would each have a differing pattern. I would probably focus on the the final word in each sentence before focusing on each phrase as a whole.

In 1) I would model a rise on shoe and a big fall on laces.
In 2) I would model a slight dip on par and a rise on ty. This is provided there's a stress on com of coming.

But as I say, there's no one correct way to pronounce these questions.

I strongly suggest you don't try to overgeneralise here. It's probably not possible to give general rules for intonating indirect questions.

It makes much more sense to look for rules associated with what the question is actually doing rather than its grammatical form. For example, consider whether the question is asking for clarification, or asking for new information, or making a request, etc. But even then any rules to be found can only be at best very basic and of fairly limited use (in my opinion) anyway.

 

[olast1806]

I can't offer a general rule because I'm pretty sure there isn't one to be found.

There are a few different ways of intonating each of those sentences. If I were modelling them in class, they would each have a differing pattern. I would probably focus on the the final word in each sentence before focusing on each phrase as a whole.

In 1) I would model a rise on shoe and a big fall on laces.
In 2) I would model a slight dip on par and a rise on ty. This is provided there's a stress on com of coming.

But as I say, there's no one correct way to pronounce these questions.

I strongly suggest you don't try to overgeneralise here. It's probably not possible to give general rules for intonating indirect questions.

It makes much more sense to look for rules associated with what the question is actually doing rather than its grammatical form. For example, consider whether the question is asking for clarification, or asking for new information, or making a request, etc. But even then any rules to be found can only be at best very basic and of fairly limited use (in my opinion) anyway.

Thank you for your reply! Learning/teaching intonation seems to be very challenging both for students and teachers :-D as there are so many variations.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

You're right, there are endless variations. I'd go up at then end of those two sentences, but like Jutfrank, I doubt there are any rules. There are lots ways to say each sentence. Personally, I'd STRESS the first syllable of each of the last words but go up on the last syllable of each: SHOE-laces, PAR-ty.

But we all do it differently. I've known a few actors and actresses, and one exercise they enjoy is taking a single short line (for instance, "Thank you" or "Where are you going?") and seeing how many different ways they can read the same words.

 

[olast1806]

Thank you for your reply! As far as I know there are also some differences in American English and British English intonation patterns.