For Day 28 of 30 Days of Intonation, we're going to look at a common expression often used to start a conversation topic:

Guess what?

This short question contains a lot of meaning within its intonation.

So often non-native speakers learn fun and interesting phrases and expressions, but forget to study the way you should say them. This ends up sounding awkward, not natural.

Let's look how you can ask "guess what?" more effectively:

When you ask the question with neutral intonation, it encourages the other person to engage with you. This is an invitation into the conversation to hear something interesting or surprising.

With a higher pitch and a more enthusiastic tone, you show your excitement and emotion, which suggests that your news is going to be surprising or shocking, in a very good way!

With flat or even mocking intonation, this phrase can be used to show annoyance or sarcasm towards the other person. You might hear this if the person isn't able to be genuinely excited for you because they are jealous, negative, or competitive.

Last but not least, falling intonation the short question can actually indicate bad news. You might preface an announcement of losing a job, getting rejected from a college or program, or receiving disappointing results with this question. The low, falling tone signals the negative outcome.