To contrast two items, Germans put one at the beginning of a spoken sentence and the other at the end and give each extra stress. They "announce" the first item by its high pitch and mark the second item by a rise-fall intonation of above average intensity, i.e. more melodic and rhythmic variation than usual.

The resulting two-hump construction frequently places the contrasted items as the first and last word of a several word utterance. Contrastive intonation is a common German sentence pattern, particularly where negation is involved, and it can result in word order patterns that depart radically from straightforward statements:
 

Contrastive intonation is tricky for beginners to master, but, as a listener, you should be be aware of it.

Examples of Contrasting Intonation

• Ärgerlich, aber nicht mehr gefährlich.
• Geschlafen habe ich nicht.