American English INTONATION - How to Understand Native English Speakers Better

Comments · 2.2K

• HA

  @hadar.shemesh · 8 years ago · pinned

  American Intonation is the missing link in Spoken English for non-native speakers! &nbsp;it is not always addressed in English studies although it is one of the most important elements of speech. <br>Let me know what is the most important element for YOU? Is it stress? Rhythm? Or melody?

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• FL

  @flar7137 · 7 years ago

  As an American and a native English speaker, I find it interesting watching things like these. It makes me realize things about my language that I do every day without realizing. It&apos;s also interesting taking a look at what it would be like to learn English as a non-native speaker. I often wonder what English sounds like to those who don&apos;t know it.

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• SE

  @sehergulkonuk · 7 years ago

  hi from Turkey! you’re so good at this job. congratulations 😘

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• AS

  @aslanmemmedov228 · 7 years ago

  Çilemden gelenler?

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• LE

  @leaharvey5201 · 5 years ago

  I am from Quebec, Canada, so my native language is French. I always knew something was wrong whenever I try to speak English, but I had never learn anything about intonation and stressing words in my English classes at school... Only in an Advanced English class at University, the teacher slightly touched that subject, and since then I try to improve those things by practicing by myself, but it&apos;s hard. In French, all the words in a sentence are on the same tone, so stressing the words is a challenge for me!

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• TE

  @tequilyps · 7 years ago

  I&apos;m a native english speaker and soooooo happy I watched this video!!!<br>So much awesome advice! And it&apos;s given me a whole different, &nbsp;and better, perspective when I&apos;m learning other languages! &nbsp;<br>FULL PROPS<br>KEEP EM COMING

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• КН

  @кнаая · 7 years ago

  Çilem abladan geldim 😄

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• MA

  @marydc6147 · 8 years ago (edited)

  You need to do more videos about this topic. &nbsp;Pronunticion is important but intonation and rhythm is more and difficult to learn for me ( my mother league is Spanish). I looking &nbsp;forward &nbsp;for more videos like this. Thank you!

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• NA

  @nashs.4206 · 7 months ago

  I&apos;m a native speaker, and one thing I notice is that when I watch english pronunciation/accent videos (because it&apos;s interesting to see how non-native speakers think/study the language), I get a little &quot;self-conscious&quot; about my pronunciation/intonation/pitch/rhythm/etc. For example, at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FStyKn4V8cE&amp;t=758">12:38</a> Hadar says the sentence &quot;there are three coins in the box&quot; in a different way (i.e. different stresses) than I do, even though our accents are identical. Hadar stresses &quot;three&quot;, &quot;coins&quot; and &quot;box&quot; (because they&apos;re content words, like she says) but when I said that sentence out loud, I only stressed &quot;three&quot;. Something like &quot;There&apos;r thrEE coinz&apos;n&apos;th&apos;box&quot;. <br><br>As such, I think context is also important. The sentence &quot;there are three coins in the box&quot; for example can be said with different stresses. For example:<br><br>1) There are THREE coins in the box.<br>2) There are three COINS in the box.<br>3) There are three coins in the BOX.<br><br>Each of these variations imply/connotate different meanings. The first sentence focuses on <b>how many</b> coins there are, rather than focusing on what is actually in the box (coins), or where the coins are (in the box). The second sentence focuses on <b>what</b> is in the box, rather than how many there are (three) or where they are (box). The third sentence focuses on <b>where</b> the coins are, rather than how many there are, or what is in the box. <br><br><br><br><br>Sometimes, you can even stress the functional words; e.g.<br><br><br>&quot;There ARE three coins in the box&quot; emphasizes that there really/truly are three coins in the box. I.e. someone accuses you of lying about how many coins are in the box, so to imply that you are telling the truth, you emphasize the &quot;ARE&quot;: &quot;there ARE three coins in the box&quot;. <br><br>So you see, saying sentences in a vacuum is good practice for learning how to pronounce words correctly, but to truly learn when/what words to stress, you have to take into account the context in which the conversation is being had/the sentence is being spoken.

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• MO

  @MohammedAsif-cc2no · 5 years ago

  Please do more videos on the same intonation concepts with more examples

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• PU

  @Puotlam17 · 2 days ago

  thanks so much for the lessons Hadar. I am from South Sudan and my native language is Nuer.

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  @6043qys · 7 years ago (edited)

  I’m from Korea. First of all, thank you so much for making this so meaningful video and sharing with us. I’m so grateful that I happen to know this video. I will never give up and keep studying with you! Thank you so much😭♥️

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