It is what you say AND how you say it

Compare the present unconcern for the proper speaking of English, with a sportsman’s (woman’s) striving for excellence in their sport. Would near-enough be considered good-enough there?

A lazy pronunciation habit gaining prevalence is the rising terminal, the ending of a sentence with an upward inflection. Its effect is to suggest doubt; to question the truth of what has just been said.

Take, the example of the announcement, “Sunday’s game will be really (rising tone) good”!

This way of ending the sentence suggests that, “Sunday’s game will be really good”? There is a strong element of uncertainty on the part of the speaker; is there some doubt that the game actually will be good?

An effective orator seldom ends a sentence on a rising inflection, unless deliberately to introduce a view of uncertainty. In fact, a competent speaker instead may use body language, or dramatic gestures, to re-inforce a statement.

Remember Nikita Kruschev banging his shoe forcefully on the lectern at a UN forum to make his point? Powerful stuff!

Think of how ludicrous classic dramatic phrases would sound if delivered with a rising terminal:

“To be, or not to be - that is the (rising tone) question”.

“Never in the field of human conflict, has so much been owed by so many to so (rising tone) few”.

Although this habit is widespread, the social trend seems to be for this way of ending a sentence to be used mainly among the young, probably due to peer influence. But the habit has spread rapidly to society’s leaders also. It is common to hear politicians, business leaders, even media presenters, fall into this error of unthinking speech delivery, leaving the listeners in some doubt about how to resolve the sentences.

Couple this with frequent “err”s, and “umm”s mid-sentence, mix in a few “like”s, end the sentence with a series of grammatically unconnected words and pauses; put vocal stress on prepositions instead of nouns; for example say that “the fireman raced TO the blaze”, finish a rambling, incoherent sentence with a “yeah”, and one is left wondering if the thought processes are just as flimsy as the speech.

It is not really hard to speak competently - it just takes some practice.