Speech tip: Information questions in English

Information questions begin with words like who, what, where, when, why, which, and how. It is crucial to use the correct voice pattern for this type of question.

The voice intonation pattern for information questions is much like that for regular sentences. Start with a low pitch. Jump up higher in pitch on the key word, often near the end of the question.  Step down in pitch on each syllable until the end. The end of the question should be low in pitch.

Consider the following question.  

How do you know that?

We start the question with a low pitch. On the word know, we jump up higher in pitch. For the last word that, we end with a low pitch.

Click on the video above, to hear this and other examples of information questions.

An accent training program at Confident Speech includes learning how to use the voice correctly for different phrase and sentence patterns.  Explore our web site to find out about the range of our training options.  Or contact us