Guide to English grammar

54 Stress and intonation

1 Stress
In speech some words have greater stress than others; they are spoken with greater force.
I'll see you next week.
They've built an enormous new shopping centre.
The stress usually falls on the vocabulary items, the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, e.g. week, built, enormous. It does not usually fall on the grammatical words, e.g. I'll, an.
If the word has two or more syllables, there is still only one stressed syllable, e.g. enormous.

NOTE
We can give a word extra stress to emphasize it. • 51 (1)

They've built an enormous new shopping centre.

2 Intonation

1 Syllables with a fall or rise
The voice can rise or fall on a stressed syllable. The greatest movement of the voice is usually on a word near the end of the clause.
I'll see you next week.
They've built an enormous new shopping centre.
Have we got time?
A practical guide to English grammar 55
The greatest fall or rise is on the new and important information. Which word is important depends on the context.
People round here are well off. Our neighbors have just bought acaravan.
If you want to know about caravans, ask our neighbors. They've just bought a caravan.
I know someone who's got a caravan. Our neighbors have just bought one.

2 Intonation in statements and questions

These two sentences are the same except for the intonation.
I'll see you next week.
I'll see you next week?
The intonation shows that the first sentence is a statement and the second a yes/no question. A falling intonation is normal in a statement. A rising intonation means that the speaker is unsure if something is true or not.
A yes/no question asking for information usually has a rising intonation. But a wh-question usually has a falling intonation because it is not about whether something is true or false.

Yes/no Wh

Will I see you next week? Do you sell k matches? When will I m see you? What does it cost?

A fall on a yes/no question sounds abrupt and impatient.
Are you ready? Come on, hurry up.
A rise on a wh-question sounds tentative.
What are you  doing? Please tell me.
Requests, suggestions, offers etc in the form of a yes/no question often have a falling intonation.
Can you pass me the salt, please?
Could you wait for us?
The meaning of a tag depends on the intonation. • 34(3)
You'll be here next week, won't you? (fairly sure)
You'll be here next week, won't you? (less sure)

3 Rising intonation in statements

A rising intonation shows that something is incomplete. The rise is not as great as in ayes/no question.
Hopefully. (I'll be here next week.)
In my opinion. (it's quite wrong.)
If you're ready. (we can go.)
Even in a complete sentence, we can use a rising intonation.
It's a long way to walk.
I like your new suit.
The meaning here is that the conversation is incomplete. The speaker expects the listener to respond.
It's a long way to walk. (Do you think we ought to go by car?)
It's a long way to  walk. (I won't walk, and that's final.)
The rising intonation makes the statement more like a question. Compare these replies.
Have you heard the news? - No. (What's happened?)
Have you heard the news? - Yes.
I've got a new job. -Oh,  have you? (Where?)
I've got a new job. -Oh,  have you?
The fall suggests that the conversation is complete. In this context it sounds uninterested and so rather impolite.