On Day 26 of 30 Days of Intonation, we look at one of my favorite expressions, most commonly used to make polite requests or invitations:

I was wondering

If you're not already using "I was wondering" when speaking English, I'd like to encourage you to integrate it into your vocabulary!

Starting a sentence with "I was wondering" shows the other person that we are about to make a suggestion, but that we're not being demanding.

It's an option, not a command. It's one of the simplest and most effective ways to make a polite request or invitation.

To make sure use you use "I was wondering" effectively, be sure to show hesitation with your intonation. The holding intonation signals that you're planning to continue with your request.

You can even start from a higher pitch to show the politeness in your request, if necessary.

You'll sometimes hear people use statement intonation with this short phrase in order to respond after hearing an update they were interested in.

Last but not least, an annoyed parent might show authority through a steep pitch drop to signal that they were left waiting and quite literally wondering where their child was or what they were doing.

Related Examples: