Have you ever listened to the music of English? It’s fun to tune in on it!
If you listen to the following sentence in Dutch:
Als ik Nederlands praat, praat ik meestal in dezelfde toon.
The emphasis is only on the word Nederlands, the rest stays the same!
But:
If I speak English, it goes up and down like a yoyo
The emphasis is on the main content words, such as English, up, down, and yoyo
The main word is mainly the last content word in a group or new information. It is also used to emphasize a message or emotion to convey the underlying meaning
SO, you think you can speak English? So, YOU think you can speak English?
So, you THINK you can speak English? So, you think YOU can speak English?
So, you think you CAN speak English? So, you think you can SPEAK English?
So, you think you can speak ENGLISH?
Another way you can ‘sing’ in English is by using intonation in questions:
If you ask open questions with ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘when’, who, and which, you usually end with a fall.
E.g. Where does she work?
How did he get here?
Why did he do that?
However, it ends with a rise in closed questions.
E.g. Do you drive to work?
Does she always talk to him in English?
Has she got a car?
The best way to learn this is to listen to as much spoken English as possible and practise.
