The Importance of Intonation in English Pronunciation

In this lesson Rebecca explains the importance of intonation in English pronunciation. Given examples show how the intonation mistakes could change the meaning of whole phrases or sentences.

In this lesson we would talk about the English intonation and why it really matters.

You might ask: what about sounds? Aren’t the pronunciation of sounds is more important than intonation?

Yes, the right pronunciation of sounds in the English language is very important. If someone mispronounces many English sounds his speech will be very difficult to understand. But only a few pronunciation mistakes in sounds (though unpleasant by itself) is certainly not enough to cause serious misunderstanding of the essential message being said.

But if you just make one mistake with intonation, the whole meaning of your sentence could change. Sometimes one sentence can hold two, three and maybe even more meanings with just a mere intonation change (see some examples on video).

It’s also important to know that intonation varies from language to language. So, the way you would stress certain words in a sentence in your native language, is not always pronounced the same way in English.