Today I specifically want to talk with you about English intonation and why it matters.

First and foremost, intonation is a musical term. 

We talk about intonation when someone is singing or playing their instrument.

In music, your intonation is either right or wrong. There are no grey areas.

So, if I sing flat, I sing under the notes that I am meant to be on. And it sounds pretty terrible. 

If I sing sharp, I sing slightly higher than the intended notes, and that too sounds shocking. In fact, bad intonation gives me the giggles. I can’t deal with it. Musicians aspire for good intonation, and some are lucky enough to be born with perfect pitch which is basically being hardwired to always produce and identify the perfect note. 

But how does this relate to speaking English?

 Now, over to your tutorial,

In  this tutorial, you will learn how intonation is part of speaking clarity.

English Intonation helps you to:

• Organise your sentences clearly for your listener

• Increase listener comprehension

• Add suspense and interest when you tell stories or explain things

• Protect yourself from being interrupted

• Emphasise the important parts of your message

• Express your emotions clearly for your listener by using the right speech melodies.

So dive right into it and when you are done, let me know what you think!

If you want to get some insight into how your intonation is going, you should definitely check out Your Personalised Pronunciation Audit.

Not only do you get a tailored and comprehensive audit into every single sound of English so you know precisely which sounds you need to work on but we will also assess your speech intonation factors: pitch, tone, word stress, emphasis to make sure your message is transferring clearly.

Don’t panic. 

My German, Italian, French, Russian and Spanish are definitely out of tune at times with the intonation when I speak the texts that I need to sing as an opera singer and that’s ok.

What matters is, what am I doing to get better?

What have I tried to understand about the intonation in the languages I need so that I can communicate my message more clearly?

That can always be learned and as you have seen today, there are lots of details underneath the pronunciation sounds. 

If you are wanting to work on your English pronunciation clarity, don’t just focus on the sounds of the language, focus on the melody as well and if you are getting confused or stuck, you know where to find us. 

Our advanced pronunciation clarity program (the Platinum Pronunciation Clarity program in particular) will really ground you in the main concepts you need to understand about English intonation so that you can link your feelings and thoughts directly to your message.

Got a friend or colleague who could really do with this tutorial to help their English speaking and pronunciation practice? If you share your smile (I always do!) you should definitely share these English Intonation Tips. Because let’s never forget, we are in the communication game together.

Ciao for now,

XO