Do you sound angry when you speak?

It's not just what you say, it's also how you say it that gives your message meaning. To communicate effectively, your pacing, tone, and articulation will add depth of meaning to your words.

You will come across as either too relaxed when you need to express urgency,

or you may often sound angry.

I work with people who are striving to speak English more effectively. Recently, I advised someone that he sometimes needed to speak more quickly. This advice surprised him because in his mind, when he hears people speaking quickly, they often sound angry to him, and that is not the impression he wanted to make.

No, it's not just speech rate that communicates anger.

There's more to it.

But does speaking quickly communicate anger? Since his perception is not uncommon, let me share with you one small example of how speech rate alone does not indicate anger in English.

Take for example the phrase "NOW is the time to work towards sustainability." We can say this in a number of ways. The image below shows two ways of delivering the same message.

What you see are the same words said at nearly the same duration, and in the same vocal range (although the pitch is not clearly visible here).

If you could hear the audio that's depicted in the image above, you could detect the differences. These differences in sound are made visible in that image.

Have another look at that image. What differences do you notice between Versions A and B? Which one looks more smooth? Which one looks more staccato? Yes, Version A is more smooth, and Version B is more staccato (sharply pronounced/articulated).

Now, both of the versions were spoken at nearly the same rate, and I can guarantee that one of them sounds angry, and the other does not. Would you like to guess which one sounds angry? Go on, what's your impression?

The angry delivery is Version B. As you can see, there is more force and volume behind many of the sounds in Version B, as indicated by the longer vertical lines that punctuate many of the syllables. (Not sure how to read a waveform? Check out this article that I wrote a while back.)

Rate + Force of Articulation + ...

So, if you would like to speak effectively so that others understand exactly what you are trying to convey, remember that the relative force or smoothness with which you speak can communicate how you feel.

You will want to vary your delivery accordingly. Just like how you need to speak more quickly on some occasions and more slowly on others, you will need to articulate your words more crisply or forcefully when conveying certain feelings.

Why should you vary your delivery? Well, the risk of always speaking smoothly or always speaking with crisp, staccato articulation is that you will be unable to convey a certain depth of meaning. You will come across as either too laid back when you need to be stern or express some urgency, or you will often sound angry.

And it's not just speech rate and force of articulation--there are also other factors that influence how your messages are understood, such as pitch movement, tone, volume, stress, vowel length, pausing, body language, and more.

If you are being misunderstood and overlooked despite saying the right words in a logical order, perhaps the problem is with how you are saying those words.

Being able to vary your speech rate, your articulation, your tone, and other such factors are skills that you can learn and use to your advantage. And in this way, you will be able to speak effectively and be understood.

Watch a free training video here to learn more about how you can speak English more effectively and confidently in less than 3 months so that you can do your part to promote sustainability.