INTONATION
Intonation
is the unique melody of each spoken language.
Simply stated, the intonation of standard American English is a "step
up-step down" rhythm pattern. For
those who tend to speak in a monotone or have a foreign rhythm pattern,
changing intonation will help your speech.
A step up means volume increases, pitch goes up, and/or
the vowel lengthens. These upward steps
happen on words that are important to the thought—usually nouns and verbs but
can be other words. A step down means
loudness decreases, pitch lowers, and/or the vowel isn’t stretched. After stepping up, you step down, syllable
by syllable, until the next important word.
If your pitch stays the same for several syllables in a row, you risk
sounding monotone.