"Written English", often referred to as literary English, is quite different from Conversational English (English for everyday conversation). Literary English tends to count on complex sentence constructions that often become long and robust in structure and grammar patterns. Obviously, when we speak in English in our everyday life, we don't use such unnecessarily long sentences. Rather we prefer to use short expressions with appropriate (exact) words and phrases that can properly convey the "meaning", the "feelings" and the "mood". When the reader reads your written English, he/she can feel a sublime tone (or rhythm) that runs through your expressions....and one that makes your sentences (expressions) sound like those in Conversational English.

If by "undertone" you mean implication, this is a subject that can have more to do with situation or cultural tendencies than language, oftentimes. I'm sure that, in your language, you have often observed people talking about one thing but obviously meaning something else. I don't know of any specific trick to recognizing such things other than life experience. ___________________________________________________________________ While I wouldn't necessarily disagree with what Jura says, she seems to be talking about "tone", "undertone" and "tone of voice" (note: the first two are not always "tone" in the sense of sound) as if they were pretty much all the same thing. Perhaps, if you gave more information, such as a specific instance in which you were confused, this question could be answered more precisely.

Hi Nicole. undertone means speaking in a quiet or hushed tone of voice or it can imply an underlying tone or suggestion in words or actions. For example: his offer has undertones of dishonesty. It depends how you say something. You might say to another girl, "That's a nice dress" if you want to compliment her. If you don't like her, you can say the same thing in a mean voice to imply that you don't like her or her dress at all.