General English Level 4 Version 2.1 © 2004 acl Pty Ltd GELEV4 Unit 04 Topic 02.doc 2. Falling intonation Falling intonation at the end of a question or statement lets the listener know we are sure. Brad and Maureen say: Brad: So what did you do? Maureen: Well I ran into the house … Brad asks Maureen a question. The question is a WH question. Listen carefully to the question. You will hear the sound of Brad's voice fall (go down) at the end of the question. …what did you do? When we ask a question with who, where, when, what, which, why and how, the intonation falls. Brad and Dave say: Brad: Dave, you and your wife were luckier, weren't you? Dave: Yes we were. Our home is okay. Brad asks Dave about his house but he already knows the answer. He can see Dave's house is okay. Brad asks the question to get Dave to agree with him. His intonation falls. We use falling intonation in the question tag when we want the listener to agree with us. Examples Listen to the examples. 1. What's your name? 2. Where do you come from? 3. When did you start the course? 4. Why did you do that? 5. How do you get to school? 6. It's a nice day, isn't it? Yes it is. 7. It was hot yesterday, wasn't it? Yes it was. 8. Maureen lost her house, didn't she? Yes she did. 123