Question intonation: when to go up and when to go down

Practise one question now

Open the intonation exercise

The exercise opens on one line from Julian Treasure’s talk at 0:29: “How can we speak powerfully to make change in the world?” It is a wh-question, starting with “how”, and questions like it usually fall at the end. Listen for whether the speaker does that on “world”. Listen to it, record your version, then open Compare and play your take beside the original.

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What Sada can and cannot tell you

Sada does not measure pitch. It checks which of your words came across and how your timing compares with the speaker; it does not grade individual sounds, stress or pitch. A question said with a flat or upside-down melody will usually match word for word, so a full match tells you nothing about your intonation.

Comparing side by side by ear is the check for intonation: play your take next to the speaker and listen to the end of each question. Does your voice go up where theirs goes up, and down where theirs goes down? For a precise judgement of your melody you need a teacher who can hear you.

What intonation is

Intonation is the rise and fall of the voice as you speak, and it shows most clearly on the last stressed syllable of a phrase. English has three main tunes: falling, rising, and falling then rising. The tune carries part of the meaning: it can turn a statement into a question, or show whether you are really asking or expecting someone to agree.

Why this is hard for Arabic speakers:

• Standard Arabic marks the question with a word: a yes/no question in Standard Arabic usually starts with هل or with the question particle أ, and that word tells the listener it is a question. In English the melody alone can do it: “You’re leaving?” with a rising voice is a question; with a falling voice, a statement.
• The textbook rule: many learners are taught that the voice goes up at the end of every question, so they raise it on “what” and “where” questions too, which usually fall.
• Reading on one note: English learned mainly by reading tends to come out on a single note. In the same talk, Julian Treasure calls speech with no melody at all hard to listen to.

Intonation in questions: the usual patterns

These are tendencies, not fixed rules. A yes/no question can fall when the speaker already knows the answer and wants it confirmed, and a wh-question can rise when you ask someone to repeat what you missed: “Sorry, where did you say?” British speakers, too, do not always raise yes/no questions. So copy the speaker’s melody in the line itself, not just the rule.

One question, two melodies

In his talk on how to speak so that people want to listen, Julian Treasure says “Where did you leave my keys?” twice in a row with two different melodies, to show that pitch alone shifts the meaning a little. Open the first, at 6:48, then the second, at 6:50, listen to where his voice rises and falls in each, then record both and compare each with its original.

Question intonation practice sentences

All five come from one talk by a British speaker who explains and demonstrates the melody of speech. Each line opens in Sada at its place in the talk. Before you record, listen to the end of the line and decide: does the voice go up or down?

“How can we speak powerfully to make change in the world?”

Julian Treasure · 0:29 · a wh-question (“how”): the usual melody falls at the end; listen to what his voice does on “world” · Practise this line →

“Would you all like to stand up for a moment?”

Julian Treasure · 7:49 · a yes/no question that is also a polite request: these usually rise, but not always; listen to “moment” · Practise this line →

“There's nothing wrong with a bit of silence in a talk, is there?”

Julian Treasure · 6:34 · a statement with a tag, “is there?”, where he expects you to agree: such tags usually fall; listen to the last two words · Practise this line →

“Where did you leave my keys?”

Julian Treasure · 6:48 · the same question said twice with two melodies, to show what pitch does; in this first one, listen to where his voice rises and falls · Practise this line →

“where every sentence ends as if it were a question when it's actually not a question, it's a statement?”

Julian Treasure · 6:03 · statements that end like questions, the habit he describes; the caption ends this one with a question mark, so listen to the end of “statement” · Practise this line →

Common mistakes of Arabic speakers

• Rising on every question: “Where do you live?” goes up at the end, just like “Do you live here?”. Listen to line 1, a wh-question, and compare its end with the end of line 2.
• A flat melody: questions and statements on the same note, so the listener cannot tell whether you are asking or telling. Hum the melody of the line before you say the words.
• Statements that sound like questions: if every statement rises at the end, you sound unsure, as if waiting for the listener to agree. Line 5 describes this habit; let your statements fall.
• A tag with the wrong tune: a rising “isn’t it?” says you don’t know the answer; a falling one says you expect agreement. Line 3 has a tag where the speaker expects you to agree.

How to practise

1. Open an exercise from this guide. Before the words, hum the melody of the line with your mouth closed: up at the end of “Is it far?”, down at the end of “Where do you live?”.
2. Say the examples in the table aloud, overdoing the rise and fall at the end of each question, then tone it down until it sounds natural.
3. Play line 1, then say it after the speaker in Repeat mode, listening to what his voice does on the last word.
4. Record a take, then open Compare and play your recording and the original. Review words and timing; Sada does not grade individual sounds.
5. Move through the lines and compare the end of each question in your take with the original: does your voice go up where the speaker’s does? Your ear is the judge here, because Sada does not measure pitch.

Keep going

The other guides in this series, all written for Arabic speakers: P and B pronunciation, TH sound practice: “think” and “this”, -ed endings pronunciation: t, d or id, V and F pronunciation, Word stress practice and Sentence stress: content and function words. All of these problems in order of how much each affects being understood, with one line for each and a short self-check: English pronunciation for Arabic speakers. For more lines to practise, from famous talks: Celeste Headlee: 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation; Derek Sivers: How to Start a Movement; Cameron Russell: Looks Aren’t Everything. Believe Me, I’m a Model.. For rhythm, linking and melody across whole sentences: how to sound like a native English speaker. To see what Sada checks in every take, read the pronunciation checker. For more British speakers: British accent practice.

Sources: the three tunes, falling wh-questions and rising yes/no questions from Cambridge Grammar: Intonation; yes/no questions that fall when the asker knows the answer from Pronuncian; the two tunes of question tags, and a rise turning a statement into a question, from Intonation (linguistics).

More questions learners ask

• How do I improve my English intonation?