Varying voice pitch when speaking English

English speakers go up and down with their voice pitch more than speakers of many other languages. Some of our trainees have remarked that English speakers at first sounded to them as if they were always speaking very emotionally. That’s just the way we speak! English speakers are probably no more or less emotional than people from other cultures.

There is a special way that English speakers go up and down with their voices. At Confident Speech, we have found that this is one of the easiest improvements that people can make. What a tremendous difference it makes in the way you sound!

The secret to varying pitch in English is to highlight the key word in each phrase.

• Start and end each phrase or sentence with low pitch.

• When you reach the key word, jump higher in pitch with your voice.

• From the key word, gradually lower the pitch of your voice until the end of the phrase or sentence.