intervallo

1. : change in pitch or loudness of the voice. 2. a. : the change of form that words undergo to mark such distinctions as those of case, gender, number, tense, person, mood, or voice.

: a rise or fall in the sound of a person's voice : a change in the pitch or tone of a person's voice.

inflection noun (GRAMMAR) a change in or addition to the form of a word that shows a change in the way it is used in sentences: If you add the plural inflection "-s" to "dog" you get "dogs." Fewer examples. In the present tense we say "he sits," because the third person singular inflection of the verb is -s.

Examples of Inflection

inflections are generally for words; intonation generally refers to the rising/falling pattern in full utterances. We say: rising and falling pattern, or rises and falls, not ups and downs. The word "stress" is used in ESL classrooms and textbooks far more often than "inflection".

Inflections in English grammar include the genitive 's; the plural -s; the third-person singular -s; the past tense -d, -ed, or -t; the negative particle 'nt; -ing forms of verbs; the comparative -er; and the superlative -est. While inflections take a variety of forms, they are most often prefixes or suffixes.

inflection noun (GRAMMAR) a change in or addition to the form of a word that shows a change in the way it is used in sentences: If you add the plural inflection "-s" to "dog" you get "dogs." In the present tense we say "he sits," because the third person singular inflection of the verb is -s.

The three main patterns of intonation in English are: falling intonation, rising intonation and fall-rise intonation.

Inflectional endings are added to the end of a word to show tense, number, possession, or comparison. There are nine inflectional endings: -ed, -en, -ing, -s, -es, -'s, -s', -er, and -est.

English inflection indicates noun plural (cat, cats), noun case (girl, girl's, girls'), third person singular present tense (I, you, we, they buy; he buys), past tense (we walk, we walked), aspect (I have called, I am calling), and comparatives (big, bigger, biggest).

Inflection can be broken down into four subcategories (upward, downward, level, and circumflex), but I am just going to focus on two. The first type is an upward inflection which is when there is a change in pitch going from a lower to a higher note.

In many descriptions of English, the following intonation patterns are distinguished:

• Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice rises over time.
• Falling Intonation means that the pitch falls with time.
• Dipping or Fall-rise Intonation falls and then rises.
• Peaking or Rise-fall Intonation rises and then falls.