Word Groups and Phrasing

Pauses for Related Thoughts, Ideas, or for Breathing

By now you've begun developing a strong intonation, with clear peaks and reduced valleys, so you're ready for the next step.

You may find yourself reading the paragraph in Exercise 1-15 like this:

Hello my name is So-and-So I'm taking American Accent Training. There 'salot to learn but I hope to make it as enjoy able as possible.

If so, your audience won't completely comprehend or enjoy your presentation.

In addition to intonation, there is another aspect of speech that indicates meaning.

This can be called phrasing or tone.

Have you ever caught just a snippet of a conversation in your own language, and somehow known how to piece together what came before or after the part you heard?

This has to do with phrasing.

In a sentence, phrasing tells the listener where the speaker is at the moment, where the speaker is going, and if the speaker is finished or not.

Notice that the intonation stays on the nouns.