4. "Do you really want to hurt me?"
Introduction to English intonation
A good exercise to show the variety of meanings through intonation changes is to take a single sentence, try stressing each word in turn, and see the totally different meanings that come out.
- I didn't say he stole the money.
- I didn't say he stole the money.
- I didn't say he stole the money.
- I didn't say he stole the money.
- I didn't say he stole the money.
- I didn't say he stole the money.
- I didn't say he stole the money.
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| Autor: Pilar Acero Banco de recursos del ISFTIC C.Commons |
Now that you have listened to these sentences repeat them aloud yourself.
Listening activity
Listen to the song: Do you really want to hurt me?, by Culture Club. It is one of Paco's favourite ones. Paco likes music a lot and he also learns English through songs.
English is a very rhythmic language because only certain, important words are accented.For this reason, you should practice listening as much as possible.
Notice the rising intonation in some questions you are going to listen to in this song.
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AV - Reflexión
Every language has melody in it; no language is spoken on the same musical note as the time. The voice goes up and down and different pitches of the voice combine to make tunes. That is intonation. Watch the following video about intonation:
Listening/ Speaking exercise
Let's see some examples of intonation in context:
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Rising intonation.
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Falling intonation.
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Rising intonation.
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Falling intonation.
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Finally, in section five, we will learn some vocabulary related to leisure time (always spare time or free time)