What makes a voice sound natural?🤔| Intonation Analysis of Google Assistant | American Accent

85,940 views ・ 2018-05-14

Accent's Way English with Hadar


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hey guys it's Hadar and this is the Accent's Way. A few days ago Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, presented
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an extraordinary demo showing the new capabilities of the Google assistant.
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In the demo, he played a real conversation between the Google assistant
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which is a robot, AI technology and a real human being.
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The stunning thing was that in the conversation the person could not detect
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that she was not speaking to a real person but to a machine.
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And the reason for that is, of course, the algorithm and the ability to use the right sentences according to the
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nuances in the conversation, but also the way it was executed, the sound of the voice, the intonation.
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What makes a voice sound natural?
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What did they do, over there at Google, that made the voice sound so natural that the person could not
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imagine they were speaking to a robot?
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So what we're going to do, is we're gonna analyze the
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conversation together and I'm going to pinpoint the places where the Google voice sounds so natural
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and explain why it makes it sound like a real human being.
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Okay, so she starts with, that's Google assistant right, it's a machine it's not a real person, I know it's crazy.
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'Hi'
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'Hi', right.
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The way of saying 'Hi' this way, is a very welcoming, nice, warm, friendly way of saying it.
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There's always a glide from high to low.
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'Hi'
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And listen to the ending.
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'Hi'
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I'm going down. It's not 'Hi'.
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I'm going up
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'Hi'
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And then there is a little tail going up at the end.
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'Hi'
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That means that something else is coming up, I'm not done. And then she says something like this.
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'Hi'
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'I'm calling to book a woman's haircut for a client'
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Now in English, when you start a new idea, when you start a conversation, when you have a question, you
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kind of start high in pitch.
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'I'm calling...'
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It's not
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'I'm calling to book a woman's haircut for a client.'
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'I'm calling to book a....'
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It's like asking for permission or telling you something new.
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'Hi'
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And notice it, now like start listening to how people start asking questions
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or starting sentences or new ideas.
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There's always this wavy thing at the beginning, like a really high-pitched tone that they begin with
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regardless to what words they're choosing to stress.
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Now in the sentence
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'Hi, I'm calling to book a woman's haircut for a client.'
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'I'm calling to book a woman's haircut for a client.'
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So there is this rise in pitch at the beginning.
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'I'm calling...'
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And 'calling' is a stress word.
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'...to book...'
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That's a little less stress. So it goes down
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'...a woman's haircut...'
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Right, that's the subject, that's what I'm calling to book, that goes higher in pitch
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'...for a client...'
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And then there is this rising-rising intonation, the up-speak, where I go up.
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That means that there is something else coming up, and then she continues
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'I'm looking for something on May 3rd'
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So she stresses the word looking, she starts again high in pitch at the beginning of the sentence
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'I'm looking for something on May 3rd.'
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And then she goes up in pitch at the end.
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Now, look, it's totally okay, and sometimes even better to end it like a statement.
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'I'm looking for something on May 3rd'
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Right, and then it's a rising intonation and then you drop it down.
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However, this rising-rising intonation at the end of a sentence
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even if it's not a question, it's a very common speech pattern in America nowadays.
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Which made it sound even more natural than just a regular ending statement.
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'I'm looking for something on May 3rd'
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And that open ending leaves more room for an answer.
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It means that I'm waiting for an answer from you, but it's sort of like a question.
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And then there is thi s part
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'Mm-hmm'
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Which is fantastic. What sounds more natural than
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'Mm-hmm'
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That's what we say, notice even here there is this glide in intonation.
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'Mm-hmm'
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Again going up in pitch, making it sound more natural.
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Like someone would actually say it like that.
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'At 12 pm'
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Now we can learn a lot just from this one statement.
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Notice that every syllable hits a different note. It's not all on the same note.
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'At 12 pm'
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'At 12 pm'
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'At 12 pm'
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Right and even the 'm' is kind of like gliding down.
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Okay, so it goes up in pitch and then it goes down.
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'At 12 pm'
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'Do you have anything between...'
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'Do you have anything between...'
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A question
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'Do you have...'
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Reduction at the beginning
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'Do you have anything between...'
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Again starting with a higher pitch.
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'Do you have anything between 10 am...'
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Pause
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Because people pause, they want to think about what they want to say
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'...and 12 pm'
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Okay, so it's not 'between 10 am and 12 pm'
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The system knows what hours it's going to suggest, but it takes that little pause to make it sound more natural.
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So phrasing is crucial when we speak English.
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Phrasing, filler words, intonation patterns, stressed words, so the rising-rising intonation.
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But then also the falling intonation at the end, to indicate that I'm done.
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'Just a woman's haircut for now'
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So again, this glide at the beginning, this high pitch at the beginning, just a woman's, and then she goes down
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'...haircut for now.'
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The assistant could have answered 'a woman's haircut'
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but they added the 'just' and for 'now'.
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So 'just a woman's haircut'
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the 'just' is not an essential word here
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but it's a filler word that a lot of people use, which made it sound more natural.
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'Just a woman's haircut for now'
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And 'for now' is just another filler word that says well, let's begin with that and see where we go.
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It's a polite way of saying 'that's it'. I don't need anything else.
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'just a woman's haircut for now'
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So those extra words
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extra phrases, extra sounds, make it sound more natural and not like a robot.
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And the thing is that these extra sounds and extra words are not usually used by non-native
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speakers because we use efficient English. The way English is being taught is by very concise sentences
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'this is how you say it'
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and then you learn that people use all these extra phrases and sounds
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'hmm'
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'aah'
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'well'
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'for now'
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'just'
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Okay, all these extra phrases that make it sound more conversational and that's a way to communicate
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and make it sound more friendly and polite.
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'10 am is fine'
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Again, that rising, rising intonation. She could have said
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'10 am is fine.'
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'10 am is fine.'
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but
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'10 am is fine.'
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makes it sound a little more friendly, a little less aggressive, a little less determined
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'10 am is fine.'
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I'm still waiting for an answer. I need you to approve it still.
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'10 am is fine.'
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And again notice that high pitch at the beginning
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'10 am is fine.'
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Again, up-speak at the end.
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'The first name is Lisa'
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It's not a question. So why does she go up in pitch?
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Because that's a common speech pattern which makes it sound so natural.
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You as a non-native speaker don't have to use it.
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You can definitely go high in pitch and drop down at the end.
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'The first name is Lisa.'
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I'm a fond of this kind of conversation, where you go up and close it at the end.
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But notice that these are the patterns that they chose to use, knowing that it would make it sound more natural.
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'Okay, great!'
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'Okay, great!'
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She could have said just
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'Thank you!'
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'Okay, great!'
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That's how people comment on something that they're happy about.
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'Okay, great!'
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'Thanks!'
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And there is a build up here in terms of the intonation.
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That shows that, one thing is a little more important than the other.
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'Okay, great!'
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'Thanks!'
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Rising, falling and then rising intonation at the end.
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So to conclude, in order to answer our question
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What makes a voice sound more natural?
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We look at what the people at Google did, to make their Google assistant sound like a real human being.
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So when it comes to intonation, it wasn't monotonous.
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'Hi, I'd like to book a woman's haircut'
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But it had that nice glide
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'Hi, I'd like to book a woman's haircut'
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So every syllable had a different note.
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Also, at the beginning of an idea or a sentence, it started high in pitch.
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Every important word stuck out.
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So it was a little higher in pitch and longer.
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And at the end, every sentence ending, ended up with rising - rising intonation.
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Almost like a question even though it wasn't always a question.
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Why? Because up-speak is a common speech pattern in U.S. today, whether you like it or not.
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Another thing they added is those extra words
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'just'
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'for now'
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'hmm'
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Extra sounds.
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'Mm-hmm', that made it sound more natural and even here intonation played a major role.
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Because it wasn't flat. '
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'Mm-hmm'
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'Mm-hmm'
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Right, it was really like music.
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'hmm'
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And the last thing was phrasing, taking small pauses to indicate that the person is thinking
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I mean the machine is thinking, I mean the assistant is thinking.
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I don't even know how to call it anymore. This is how actually people speak. They take small pauses between
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chunks, parts of the sentence, not between words and not only at the end of the sentence.
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As I said, we want to recognize these patterns as we just did today and recognize what makes it sound more
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natural, more conversational and then take these elements and add them to our speech in English.
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And it's also great for you as a speaker, because sometimes you need to come up with the right words
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so it doesn't have to be 100% concise.
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Because it's not concise for American speakers as well and it can give you time, those extra filler words like
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'hmm' and 'well'
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And the phrases and the pauses and the extra words like
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'just' and 'okay'
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That can give you some, that can buy you some time to come up with a right word, in order to
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convey what you want to say.
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And as a side note, to all you non-native speakers out there
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when we look at the presentation, we see that Sundar, Google CEO, is not a native English speaker.
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And he is a phenomenal presenter.
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This is to say, that you don't have to lose your accent to be a great speaker in English.
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In fact, the accent is an advantage, it reveals some layers that you have as a speaker
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It shows that you carry your history behind you, that you have an interesting story.
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You don't want to lose your accent. You don't want to hide your accent.
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You do want to use the elements of speech to sound great.
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To convey your message, to be a strong speaker, to speak slowly, to be clear, to be understood.
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But it doesn't mean that you need to lose your accent.
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So when you work on your accent, and intonation, and rhythm, and stress, your goal should not necessarily be
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lose your accent, speak like a native speaker.
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But be the best speaker that you can.
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With or without a foreign accent, because that doesn't really matter.
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What matters is how you feel about yourself and how you convey your message
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and if you're clear and communicative.
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Now I have a question for you.
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What other elements of speech, whether it's specific words or phrases or intonation patterns, do people use
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that make them sound more natural? What have you noticed? What are you using?
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So let me know in the comments below
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'So' is one of them, I use 'so' all the time, you've probably noticed.
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That's it! Thank you so much for watching.
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Please share this video with your friends if you liked it and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
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and click on the belt to get notifications
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there are a lot more videos coming up about American intonation, so you don't want to miss it out.
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Have a wonderful week and I'll see you next week, in the next video.
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Bye.
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