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Intonation: Yes/No questions

Hiya. In this video, we’re gonna check out how to properly intonate Yes/No questions. But, before we dive into it, let’s see what the term ‘Yes/No questions’ means, shall we?

All right. If I ask you ’Do you like cars?’, you would answer either ’Yes’ or ’No’, right? So this is a Yes/No question. Easy. However, if I ask you ’What kind of cars do you like?’, you can’t answer simply with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. Instead, you’d have to tell me a manufacturer or model you like. So, this question is not a Yes/No question.

Now. Suppose, you meet up with your friend or colleague – doesn’t really matter – who’s just returned from Spain. You think he went there, but you’re not quite sure. Here’s how your question goes: ’So, Brian, did you go to Spain recently?’ Note the rising tone here: ‘recently’.

My son came home from football, and I asked him: ’Did you have a good football match?’ Hear the rising tone? ’…good football match’.

These questions are not asking about completely new information. We just want to make sure that we’ve got the correct information. Here are some more questions like that:

Are you Jason’s friend?
Is she your mother?
Have you seen this film yet?
Do you want to talk to him now?

Now, imagine this: A first date with an unknown woman in, say, a Spanish restaurant. The man is anxious but, at the same time, quite excited. He knows nothing about this woman except that she’s gorgeous (beautiful).

The girl appears and takes her seat at the table. Now, the man has to figure out what she loves.

Do you like spaghetti?’ Note the falling tone: ‘spaghetti’. ’
‘Do you like spicy food?’ Again, the tone is falling: ‘spicy food’.
’Do you want ketchup?’ Etc.

Okay. First, I’m going to say them with rising intonation – you know, to make sure that my information is correct. Please, repeat after me. Pause the video after each sentence. Here we go:

Are you Jason’s friend?
Is she your mother?
Have you seen this film yet?
Do you want to talk to him now?
Do you like spaghetti?
Do you like spicy food?
Do you want ketchup? 

Now we’ll do the same exercise. This time, however, we’re going to have a falling tone – you know, all these questions are to find out information that you have no idea about. Please repeat after me. Pause the video after each sentence. Here we go:

Are you Jason’s friend?
Is she your mother?
Have you seen this film yet?
Do you want to talk to him now?
Do you like spaghetti?
Do you like spicy food?
Do you want ketchup?

One last point here: what is a Yes/No question really for? Well, most of the time they’re there to make sure that your information is correct. That’s why Yes/No questions mostly have rising intonation. Is that right? (You see, ‘Is that right’ has a rising intonation because I think it IS right and you understand.)

Great. And with that said we end our mini-lesson there. Now go practise. See you soon.