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Cinthyaaruj Posted 16 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Intonation

Hi everyone! I want to know in which word I have to place the rising tone in the question: "What did you say?". I know that rising tones are used WHEN ASKING FOR REPETITION. Can anyone help me? Thanks a lot xxx
  

Top answer

Dear friend, you should first identify the type of question you are working with. It is a special question ( wh -question). Questions of this type are usually used with the falling tone, in which case they sound serious, searching, and business-like.

— Andriy Lapin

  • Dear friend, you should first identify the type of question you are working with.
  • It is a special question ( wh -question).
  • Questions of this type are usually used with the falling tone, in which case they sound serious, searching, and business-like.
  • However, the Fall is not the only possibilty with special questions.
  • As I understood, you need to resort to the Rise for some reason, so you should be aware about its meaning with this question.
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2 Answers
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Dear friend,

you should first identify the type of question you are working with. It is a special question (wh-question). Questions of this type are usually used with the falling tone, in which case they sound serious, searching, and business-like.

However, the Fall is not the only possibilty with special questions. As I understood, you need to resort to the Rise
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If I were asking for repetition, I would place the rise on What.

CJ
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