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Intonation
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Definition:
Intonation refers to the pitch of someone's voice. The last syllable of each rhythmic group inside the sentence is pronounced at a higher pitch than the rest of the sentence, while the final rhythmic group's final syllable is pronounced at a lower pitch. The only exception to this is questions: in this case, the last rhythmic group's final syllable is also at a high pitch.
In French, intonation and accent are a property of the phrase, rather than the word. Discussions of French intonation commonly assume that there is an obligatory rising accent assigned to final full syllable of a phrase (For Example: "un enfant SAGE" - 'a good child') and an optional early rise that occurs somewhere before the late rise (For Example: "un ENfnat SAGE"). A number of factors have been observed to influence the appearance of the early rise, including number of syllables in the phrase, rhythmic context, morphological status, and segmental characteristics of a word’s first syllable. Basic French Phrases:French Phrases for Meeting and Greeting |
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French Grammar