Non-final Intonation

Mastering the American Accent » Non-final Intonation

Non-final Intonation

With “non-final intonation,” the pitch rises and falls within the sentence or word. This type of intonation is used in various situations which are outlined below.

Unfinished Thoughts

Non-final intonation is often used to indicate that you have not ended a thought. To indicate that you have something more to say, raise your pitch at the end of the phrase. For example, “When I saw him...” or “If I study hard...”

Sentence Pairs for Practice

The first sentence in each pair has falling intonation which indicates that the thought has ended. The second sentence contains rising intonation indicating that the thought has not ended.

1.	I bought the book^↘.	I bought the book^↗, but I didn’t read^↘ it.
2.	I finished school^↘.	When I finished school^↗, I moved to New York^↘.
3.	I’ll study hard^↘.	If I study hard^↗, I’ll get an A^↘.
4.	I’m going inside^↘.	I’m going inside^↗, to get something to drink^↘.

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