It seems hard to comprehend the intonation of a speaker's voice;
especially with phrases in involving questions without obvious
question words. This is also the case when trying to ask a
particular question; being unsure of where to use intonation. Will
this be clearer through more exposure to the language, or is there
an easier approach?
Understanding Intonation
Matthew-A28
July 28, 2015
Evgenia - Rocket Russian Tutor
July 30, 2015
Hi Matthew,
You are right - Russian intonation is quite flat.. And at the same time the only difference between general questions and statements is in the intonation. All Russian statements are finished with falling intonation. Often English speakers find it challenging to imitate, because most English statements finish with the rising intonation. Russian general questions have the rising intonation. You can try to listen to all the statements first, imitating the intonation as closely as you can. You will soon see the pattern. And then do the same with questions. After a while your ear gets tuned to the difference between a question and a statement..
You are right - Russian intonation is quite flat.. And at the same time the only difference between general questions and statements is in the intonation. All Russian statements are finished with falling intonation. Often English speakers find it challenging to imitate, because most English statements finish with the rising intonation. Russian general questions have the rising intonation. You can try to listen to all the statements first, imitating the intonation as closely as you can. You will soon see the pattern. And then do the same with questions. After a while your ear gets tuned to the difference between a question and a statement..
Horacio222
January 3, 2021
Hello! I think it works like this, if there is a question word, like where, how, etc, there is no intonation at all, because the question word tells you it is a question, but if there is no question word there is the only intonation, but in Russian only intonated only 1 word in a sentence. Usually the last word, and in that word, you only need to raise your voice only at the main syllable… This is well explained with Michel Thomas method. But I really enjoy my lessons with Rocket Russian!