Hi everyone and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy and this is our 55th episode.

We're entering a new area in our American English pronunciation podcast today,

the world of intonation and pitch, otherwise known as the way humans can make their voice go up and down.

The words intonation and pitch are very closely related.

Intonation is the use of pitch, just like mathematics

is the use of numbers. Now, some people use these words interchangeably because the world of

teaching is usually more concerned with helping students understand a concept than staying within the

somewhat strict linguistic terminology.

I'll use the word intonation more broadly and the word pitch to refer specifically

to the highness or lowness of the voice.

The best known use of intonation is to make a statement into a question.

Listen to the difference between the following sentences.

You drove to work.

You drove to work?

The first sentence, you drove to work, is a statement, and the second sentence,

you drove to work, is a question.

Well, I'm sorry to say that the previous overused example has caused a major oversimplification

of the uses of intonation. I'm hoping to help you

understand the very complex aspect of the American English intonation beyond the simple,

make a statement into a question, use. I hope you're ready to think, because the next few weeks podcasts are probably going

to challenge your English listening perception, as well as improve your listening comprehension,

...