Read the sentence below and go over on each of the words indicated. Now read the sentence again and go under. It will help to move your hand over or under as you speak. There was once a young rat named Arthur, who could never take the trouble to make up his mind.
Over Under
It’s useful to be aware that native English speakers usually go over to stress words, but this doesn’t happen all the time. If we used the over tune to stress every time, our speech would sound too robot-like. But this is a useful starting point – especially if you usually stress by going under.
We want a way for you to build up an instinct about what tunes feel right for English, so that you can speak more like a native.
Building an Instinct for English Intonation Watch Video Lesson
Find a recording of a native speaker and listen to a short sentence. Now repeat the sentence, but only say the sound ‘da’ for each syllable,
concentrate on the pitch changes. For example:
Sentence: I enjoy speaking English You say: da da da da da da da
Say it slowly to check you’ve got it right - then you can speed it up. Once you have done this a few times then say the actual words with the intonation pattern.
