British Intonation Exercises: Stress and Meaning
/↗↘/as in rather
Use stress and pitch to show which word carries your meaning.
Intonation depends on meaning, not just nationality. Both British and American speakers use pitch and stress. A word recording is a starting point; the sentence exercise below changes the emphasis.
Listen once, repeat the word, then use it in a sentence. Practise the melody.
Compare
same emphasis
Practice target
stress the key word
What to listen for
Try stressing a different word in the same sentence and listen for the change in meaning.
How to practise
Choose the word that answers the question and give it emphasis. Let the rest of the sentence follow naturally.
A short practice session
- Say: I wanted the BLUE one. You are correcting the colour.
- Say: I wanted the blue ONE. You are distinguishing an object.
- Now answer a question in your own words and stress the part that matters.
Try it in a sentence
I wanted the blue one.
Would a listener hear which word you are correcting? Do not add a rise and fall to every word.
Read a line for a free accent assessment, or follow the British accent learning guide.
Practise words
Hear how you do on rather.
BritSpeech scores melody on your own voice, on your phone, in seconds, then offers exercises to practise it.