Types
Bar
Pie
Line
Chart
Graphs
Key for this page
! = a little
!! = significant amount
!!! = dramatic amount
Otherwise, rates / amounts are not specific
Describing Upwards change
*Usual
to go up
to increase / an increase
to rise / a rise
to grow / a growth
** Quite common
to improve / an improvement
to get better
to recover / a recovery
to take off / a take off !!!
to climb / a climb
to soar
*** Rare
to creep !
to rocket !!!
to shoot up !!!
What happened between April and May?
Describing Downwards change
*Usual
to go down
to decline
to decrease / a decrease
to fall / a fall !!
to drop / a drop !!
**Quite common
to deteriorate / a deterioration
to get worse
to worsen / a worsening
to slump / a slump (falling for a long time)
to crash / a crash !!!
to slide / a slide
***Rare
to collapse / a collapse !!!
to plummet / a plummet !!!
to plunge !!!
to dive !!!
to stagnate (remained low)
What happened between May and Jun?
Speed of change
rapid -rapidly !!
steady -steadily
gradual -gradually !
slow – slowly
How did the disease spread?
Degree of change
sharp -sharply !!
exponential -exponentially !!!
dramatic -dramatically !!!
significant -significantly !!
moderate -moderately !!
slight -slightly !
marked – markedly !!
steep – steeply !!!
substantial -ly !!
considerable -ly !!
How much did the price of Iphones rise?
What happened between Jan and Feb?
Other
to remain stable
to flatten out
to hold steady
to level out
to reach a peak
to peak / a peak
to fluctuate / a fluctuation
to bottom out
to reach a low point
to hit a low / a low
to rally
to dip / a dip
to bounce back / to rebound
negative growth
What happened between June and September?
THE Future
The outlook seems …
The period looks…
We predict
The forecast is
We’re optimistic that / about
The past
Unexpectedly !!!
Suddenly !!!
As forecast
As suspected
As predicted
Feelings
Disappointing
Elated
Happy / Happily
Sadly
Unfortunately
Positive
Depressing
Gloomy
Delighted
Explain what happened in February to your shareholders and your prediction for the next quarter.
Prepositions
to stand at
from…to…
by an increase of…
The rate of growth increased by 20%
Starting with £5
Sales increased to £10
There was an increase of £5 (total is £10)
Sales increased by £5 (total of £10)
… doubled (£10)
… tripled
… quadrupled
…
Time
Increased over the third quarter
Through the period (week month etc)
Continue
Through the quarter
Estimations
Just under
Just over
Well under / over
Approximately
Around / about
Roughly
Nearly
Using comparisons for a pie chart
If this were the results of an election, how would you describe them?
It is different if we are online or in front of it.
To bring the audience’s attention to it, you can precise the part of the chart:
On the right, we can see “light blue” accounts for nearly 45% of the vote.
Can you name the other areas?
As you can see,
Here
Over here
Over there
On the left/right
On the upper/lower part of the chart
On the right, we can see “light blue” accounts for nearly 45% of the vote
What other expressions can we use instead of “accounts for”?
accounts for
makes up
stands for
represents
On the right, we can see “light blue” accounts for nearly 45% of the vote. On the left, we can see “dark blue” represents 15%.
Now how can we connect these two sentences?
On the right, we can see “light blue” accounts for nearly 45% of the vote while in comparison, on the left, we can see “dark blue” represents 15%.
What other expressions can we use to compare sizes?
On the right, we can see “light blue” accounts for nearly 45% of the vote, as opposed to “purple” which makes up 5%.
On the right, we can see “light blue” accounts for nearly 45% of the vote, versus “purple” which makes up 5%.
On the right, we can see “light blue” accounts for more than 35% of the vote, while in comparison “purple” makes up less than 5%.
To compare, we can see “light blue” accounts for nearly 45% of the vote, while in comparison “purple” makes up 5%.
On the right, we can see the majority voted for “light blue” with 45% of the vote, while in comparison only a small minority voted for “purple”, making up 5%.
On the right, we can see “light blue” accounts for nearly 45% of the vote, compared to “purple” which makes up 5%.
On the right, we can see “light blue” had a far greater share of the vote with 45%, while “purple” had a much smaller share, with 5%.
To recap:
- This is small, while in comparison, that is big.
- The numbers are bigger.
- The numbers are bigger than expected.
- My brother had a much bigger share of the pie.
- My brother had a far greater share of the pie.
- This piece is far/much bigger.
- The price of the engine is €500, which is 50% of the total cost.
- The price of the engine is €500, which makes up 50% of the total cost.
Pie Charts Exercise
minority, accounts for, as you can see, comparison
__________ here, “light blue”____________ nearly 45% of the vote, while in __________, purple makes up 10%, meaning X is in the ________.
Test 1
Look at the following graph.
Adverbs: Slightly / dramatically/ rapidly / gradually
Adjectives: stable / huge/ slight / rapid
Verbs: Fall / rise / jump / shoot /
Nouns: a + fall/ drop /increase / rise /
Now complete the following sentences using the appropriate words:
- Sales went up _____ in 2001.
- Sales_______ from 752K in 2000 to _____ in 2007.
- Sales ________ (verb) _________ (adverb) from 2001 to 2006.
- There was a ______ (adjective) _______ (noun) between 2001 and 2006.
- Sales ______ (verb) _______(adverb) from 2007 to 2010.
Test 2
The number of arrows shows the degree of change required
1. Well Mary, sales are ____________ (negative feeling), could you tell us why sales have __________ ↓ ? The board wants an explanation.
2. Sales ________ ↑↑ in January reaching a ________ (top limit) of 6,700 before __________ ↓↓ to 5,800 in just a week!
3. June was a _________ (the figures didn’t really change) month, with sales ____________ (going up and down) ___________ 5 and 6,000.
4. Our twitter followers __________ ↓↓↓ in August because of the outrage, _______ 2000 _______ 500!!!
5. I’m not sure about the data, it seems our reach ________ ↑ to _______ (unsure) 10.5K
6. We are quite __________ (good feeling) about the future, we __________ (to guess the future) sales ____ (preposition) approximately 200k