A question about intonation

D. A.B2Kwiziq community member

A question about intonation

Just curious, does the intonation of the voice rise at the end of the sentence with this type of usage of "que" as it does in yes or no questions in Spanish? 

Or, does it fall, as in declarative sentences in Spanish.

Ex. Que tienes novio?   Does voice rise at end as with a yes/no question or drop as in a statement.

Thanks!

Philip

Asked 3 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hola Philip 

The intonation in this specific sentence that expresses surprise would be:

¿Que tiÉnes nÓvio?

We do tend to rise our voice on the last word, yes. Obviously, we still keep the intonation on the syllable that is meant to have the accent but we exaggerate a bit that intonation to make it sound like a surprise, for example:

¿Que no me das un beso?  ( béeeso)

¿Que te han dado el trabajo? (trabáaajo)

¿Que ya no hay cerveza? (cervéeeza)

Saludos

Inma

D. A. asked:

A question about intonation

Just curious, does the intonation of the voice rise at the end of the sentence with this type of usage of "que" as it does in yes or no questions in Spanish? 

Or, does it fall, as in declarative sentences in Spanish.

Ex. Que tienes novio?   Does voice rise at end as with a yes/no question or drop as in a statement.

Thanks!

Philip

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your Spanish level for FREE

Test your Spanish to the CEFR standard

Find your Spanish level
Clever stuff happening!