Why Your English Sounds Flat — Fix Your Intonation in 10 Minutes

Today we're fixing a big problem that many students don't realize they have and that is that English sounds flat. Not wrong, not bad, just flat. And the problem is that can make you sound less fluent, less confident, and honestly sometimes a bit rude or unfriendly. The good news is we can fix this in less than 10 minutes. Let's start right now. Hello it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy here to help you become a more confident speaker of English and today to help your English be less flat, less monotone right. It's interesting recently I was chatting to a friend in French and I said something and suddenly he smiled at me and I said basically that the idea was a bad idea. I said something like and he just smiled and I went and he said you know not a criticism but sometimes your French just sounds a bit like Google Translate on a bad day like he said it should be more like a and you must do that as well at the same time and I thought it's true sometimes we get so focused on the vocabulary and the grammar we forget the intonation that rhythm and the music that the language has. English I think is a very musical language it goes up and down and you can hear the ddd or all the time and and we forget that and unfortunately it can make us right so I've got to be honest this is not easy to fix but we're going to start fixing it today. One thing you can do and I really strongly recommend is to do a little bit of shadowing one minute every day it's really good for intonation but English people there are certain patterns that we commonly use. These are not rules but they are common patterns. I'm going to show you four today which will help you really get started with focusing on this English intonation okay excellent let's get you sounding a lot more natural in English. Okay the first pattern I'm going to call the friendly up because it's got an up a rising tone okay and we use this when we want to be friendly or showing interest or being polite we often put a rising intonation at the end of the phrase okay you can hear this very clearly in questions okay listen to this question in two different ways what's your name what's your name okay first one what's your name is the way a policeman will speak to you or the head teacher when you've been naughty what's your name what's your name but the other one is much more friendly when you go up what's your name that's how a friend speaks to you or good customer service what's your name that rising intonation makes the world of difference and it's it's clear with questions but it's with other expressions as well like listen really oh nice are you serious oh that's really great that rising intonation makes it friendly compare to this where it goes with a down intonation really oh nice are you serious wow that's great can you see how bored you sound and you know you're going to upset a few people if you speak like that one is friendly one is bored don't be bored be friendly with your english okay don't be a policeman or a police woman let me test you take this phrase on the screen and try and say it in a friendly way okay wow tell me more get it excellent that's pattern number one the friendly up let's move on okay number two i'm going to call the confident down because it's a down intonation generally speaking in english when we make a statement and we're giving information we use a down at the end of the phrase we use a down intonation right a falling tone this is different from things like wow that's great are you serious really right this is different this is more when you're giving information like i live in spain i'm an english teacher um i i took the ielts test last year okay i'm giving information and generally i go down at the end i live in spain it's a beautiful city not always right but generally speaking and i'm aware this is something that's very very common you hear beginner students because they're unsure and unconfident they go up i live in spain i'm a teacher i'm going to take the test next year now i know that rising intonation is slightly more common in american english but if you're a beginner or intermediate the chances are you don't have an american accent you'll just have your local accent which is fine but very often in short sentences statements giving information we go down i live in spain i drive a car okay try it yourselves finish this sentence for me something that's true for you but try and make sure you get that down falling intonation falling tone at the end okay i like to eat hamburgers that's my idea all right that's number two let's move on okay number three i'm gonna call the contrast bell the contrast is where two things are kind of opposite and the bell well like that but it's like up and down like up and down like a bell a bell curve okay this is where our intonation goes okay very very simple so like let me give you two ideas and they're contrasting first with kind of flat intonation then second with this bell idea okay so first of all i like coffee but today i prefer tea flat i like coffee but today i prefer tea i like coffee but today i can you see the bell can you hear how much more dynamic and interesting it is right here's another first flat it was difficult but it was worth it it was difficult but it was worth it can you see the difference can you hear the difference okay great this can also be used for kind of longer sentences like you may use in the ielts speaking test for example some people think social media is harmful but others say it's useful some people think social media is harmful but others say it's useful that is the contrast bell rhythm okay let's try together repeat with me okay repeat after each part it's a nice idea but it's too expensive all together it's a nice idea but it's too expensive another the test was hard but i passed all together wait the test was hard but i passed that's it you've got it you've got the rhythm this is number three pattern number three the contrast bell we've got one more to go let's do it okay pattern number four is the list roller coaster now the roller coaster as you know kind of goes up and down and up and down and up and down when we're giving a list or even telling a story we often use this kind of pattern right not all the time but often let me give you an example here right yesterday actually yesterday that's kind of falling rising yesterday i went to the gym did some weights and then had some lunch so here we've got yesterday i went to the gym did some weights and then had some lunch so it goes up up and down basically in the list each item it goes up and then up and then at the very end the last one comes down as all good roller coasters should that's how it works basically and in english i think in many languages we often talk in in patterns of three i did this i did that and then i did that one two three okay it can go on you can make it longer each thing you add it just goes up right so you might say yesterday i went to the gym did some weights had a swim and then went for lunch you thought you come back down at the very very end okay great for telling stories great for giving a list of stuff it's a very common pattern you don't have to use this when you give a list it's not a rule but it is very common let's practice very simple story together just repeat with me last week i traveled to london visited a few museums and tried some amazing food great i'm trying not to use my hands too much i don't want you going around london going hello and doing this as you're speaking right don't do that keep your hands down but do be aware of this intonation pattern very useful when you're kind of telling events in a list of events in a story great right now i'm going to do a quick one minute intonation drill with you it's a very short dialogue okay and i'm going to do first of all the phrase flat and then i'll do it in natural english you can repeat with me in fact you can repeat the flat and the natural english that might help you notice the difference but really listen to the difference when you use natural intonation okay let's begin first how was your day busy but fun busy but fun oh really what happened oh really what happened i had a presentation did an exam and went to the gym and then came home well i had a presentation did an exam went to the gym and then came home you're still repeating aren't you excellent good can you hear the difference flat english natural english and the truth is right flat english it's not a grammar problem it's not a vocabulary problem it's an intonation problem and often we forget don't forget go back listen to this video again practice these four patterns it's a great start honestly as i said earlier it's not a quick fix it takes time and there are other things to think about also sentence stress plays a role in intonation but it's a great place to start do some shadowing short 30 second clips just repeat them at the same time really good for intonation keep going if you really want to work much more deeply on intonation you can check out my fluent grammar course for ieltspeaking it looks at different grammatical patterns and the natural intonation for them it's basically learning grammar through speaking it's a great i can't say it's a great course can i say that it's it's an interesting course i like it i think you'll like it i'll leave a link if you're interested down below you can check it out otherwise for yourselves keep going by the way if you want to join this channel and get access to extra videos early access and fun emojis join my youtube channel again i'll leave the link down below become a member for the price of a coffee every month and it'll really elevate your english listen it's been great being with you today thank you so much for watching i do appreciate it take care keep practicing and just sound natural as natural as you can all the best now bye