In Intonations^x

CalifJim wrote: Here's my take (exaggerated for illustrative purposes): Don't you have some books for me? is a reminder. It can be said with eagerness. You are supposed to have some books for me. You said you had some books for me, but I don't see them in your hands. Did you accidentally...

statement -falling intonation .. yes/no question : rising intonation...wh-question: falling intonation..command:falling intonation... request: rising intonation; good practice - record yourself immitating a real English native speakersdialogue, pay attention to the main words ( stressed...

Aaaargh! Is it really so different in English? I'm going to go crazy if I have to be careful of this difference too. I've never paid attention to this.GG wrote: >>You are assuming that what you want will be given to you, not politely requesting it.So do negative questions always sound like...

Marc: Hey, look. The old lady is wearing a strapless bra. John: And your point is? I am not sure of this. I always use formal and long sentences. I wouldn't utter this. But I don't think with the right intonation it will be a problem in spoken English. Marc: Nobody told you? Only hot chicks...

CalifJim wrote:For example, all of the following are wrong: Did everyone understand any questions? Did you give both of them any help? Are all of the employees expecting to take any vacation time during the coming week?Aaaargh! This thread literally made me swear, lol. Darn some and any,...

Hi, So what would you advise Kooyeen with regard to the pronunciation of the words he asked about? As far as specific lexical items are concerned, I would advise him to look them up in an American dictionary. More generally, I would suggest he spend time training his ear in order to recognise...

Hi Anon,what Jim said makes a lot of sense, and we discussed it a little in another thread, I think.The point was that teaching completely descriptively is impossible. The teacher would have to say: Mr X says this, Mr Y says that, and Mr Z says another thing. Now learn what they say and then...

Yes, exactly. (In fact, I considered not putting a question mark at the end, because usually it is pronounced with the intonation of a statement, as though it had an exclamation point at the end. But then I figured it is a question -- a rhetorical question, I guess -- so it got the question...

Hey, Barb, do you want to give this another look? "A lot of other people" does sound like "many people." Without the word "other" - she requries a lot of people - the phrase could be used for someone with high expectations of others. To me, "she requires a lot of people" is just as likely to be...

I've seen i've with a. english lots of times. I would agree with this only when "have" is used with a past participle. "I've seen that; I've heard that, I've done that" all sound fine to me. But using "I've" to show possession ("I've an idea") does not sound at all natural to me (even with a...