Advanced Intonation in English: Adding Information - Speak Naturally!

My grandmother, who was a big part of my childhood, was a collector.

Her small house was packed with things,

from salt and pepper shakers to stamps.

I want to share one of her collections with you.

Or at least some things from that collection.

We'll also talk about intonation used for giving additional information.

I gave you an example already when I said:

[title]

When we talk, we don't usually have a script.

A thought comes to mind, and words come out.

We don't always know what we're going to say.

But usually when we speak,

our thoughts are grouped together.

A short sentence can be one thought group.

A longer sentence can have two or more thought groups

Each thought group has its own intonation pattern.

There are different situations when we add information to a statement,

and this information basically interrupts our main idea, our main thought.

We use our voice to signal that this information is a little less important.

But it's still something we want to add.

If we were writing, we'd use commas, parentheses, or even dashes

to separate this additional information

and mark it off as an independent thought group.

Here are some examples.

So how do I use my voice to signal additional information?

A few different things can happen.

First, I pause

I frame the additional information with short breaks

Listen.

Second, my voice tends to drop to a slightly lower pitch

and possibly even to a lower volume

when I give additional information.

I'm signalling with my voice that these words are slightly less important.

Listen.

That additional comment had a drop in pitch,

and there is a bit of a drop at the end.

There's falling intonation.

The intonation pattern could change if we moved it to another position.

Especially if it's at the beginning.

Well, as you recall, at the beginning we can have a low-rise or a fall-rise.

I could say...

Lastly, we might speed up our speech when we give additional information.

That's probably because we don't want to interrupt

our main thought for very long with less important information.

Listen.

It's your turn to try this pattern.

Listen closely.

I'll say each statement a few times.

Then you repeat.

Through the model sentences you might have noticed

words that we use to add information

or to insert an explanation or a comment.

Let me highlight some of those for you.

Similar phrases we use to comment include:

To give examples, we may use words like these:

To give additional information about a noun,

we might use an adjective clause.

It's the kind of clause we set off in commas

because it's not really needed to identify the noun.

We're just giving additional information.

Here are just a couple more ways we might add information.

Do you have a coin collection or a collection of foreign currency?

I'm very happy that my grandmother's collection is still with me today.

Money, as we all know, has value all on its own.

But for me, the real value of the collection I just showed you

is that it came from my grandmother.

That's all for now. Thanks for watching and happy studies!