DESCRIBING TRENDS

Upward trends

Verbs Nouns

rise a rise
increase an increase
go up
climb
grow growth
pick up
expand/boom expansion/boom
(rise dramatically) (dramatic rise)

Annual Sales

• Increased sales led to a rise in profits last year.

• Sales reached a peak of sixty million last year.

Verbs

• Our share of the market has increased by three percent in the last nine months.
• The percentage of people who are unemployed in this region rose from ten to eleven percent last
year.
• In the first quarter of the year, turnover reached 11.3 (eleven point three) billion dollars.
• Our most profitable year so far was 1994 when sales reached a peak of sixty million.
• Annual production went up by 25% (twenty-five per cent) between 1990 and 1994.
• Sales climbed to fifteen million last month which is very encouraging.
• Short-term interest rates rose during the first half of last year and peaked at 8% (eight per cent).
• The year started badly but things began picking up in March.
• Prices have risen rapidly in the last month.

Adjective and nouns

Although monthly demand has fluctuated, the overall trend in the last year has been upward.
There has been considerable growth in exports to the Far East.
There has been a boom in spending since July.

1
Downward trends

Verbs Nouns

fall fall
decrease decrease
go down
drop drop
decline decline
collapse collapse
slump slump
plummet
(fall dramatically) (dramatic fall)

Sales Figures

• Sales fell by 54% in March.

• Sales plummeted to 10 million $ in March.

Verbs

• The level of unemployment dropped last month.

• Share prices reached a peak in October and then slumped.
• Interest rates have gone down by one percent since the beginning of the year.
• Consumer spending decreased by three percent in February.

Nouns and adjectives

• There was a sharp fall in share prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange yesterday. The Nikkei share
index fell by over1,200 (one thousand two hundred) points.
• There has been a decline in interest in this product recently.
• The overall trend in the purchase of our type of products this year has been downward.

2
Stability and fluctuation

To fluctuate
(Jan – Apr)

To bottom out
(Jun)

To level off
(Aug)

To remain stable
(Sept – Dec)

• In 1990 our share of the market stood at 10 percent. Since then, it has risen steadily and is now
nearly twenty percent.
• The dollar exchange rate has fluctuated by large amounts in the last few months.
• Monthly production rose rapidly and then leveled off at two thousand units.
• Interest rates have remained stable since the beginning of the year.
• Sales fell throughout the year, but bottomed out in January this year. Since then; there has been
some improvement.

‘Stand at’ is used to indicate the level or position of something at a certain time.
• In January, sales in this region stood at sixty million.

3
Degree and speed of changing trends

Degree

dramatic substantial slight (slightly)

(dramatically) (substantially) moderate
sharp (sharply) considerable (moderately)
(considerably)
significant
(significantly)

• There was a sudden fall in orders from America which led to a sharp decrease in turnover.
• After a dramatic fall in demand, we were forced to close down one of our branches.
• Prices of raw materials have risen dramatically in the last month.
• Consumer spending increased significantly after the cuts in taxation.
• Profits have risen slightly in the last six months.

Speed (time)

rapid (rapidly) steady (steadily) gradual (gradually)

slow (slowly)
• There has been a rapid increase in distribution costs in the last year.
• The level of investment rose suddenly last year.
• There has been a steady decline in share prices on the London Stock Exchange.

4
Market Activity

active
Active
buoyant

stable

sluggish

Non-active stagnant

• The stock market has been buoyant in the last couple of days.
• The property market is stagnant at the moment, nothing is moving. We hope it becomes more
active soon.
• Demand has been sluggish recently.
• Prices have remained steady over the last year.