Professional Documents
Culture Documents
v=mX_50rXbG1k&t=176s
It goes down. So to describe this trend we could use a word like decrease or drop or decline.
For now we will say… it decreased. It could be sales decreased, production decreased, it could
be many things. At the moment I’m interested in the prepositions that come next.
What is the starting point? 10 units.
What is the end point? 4 units.
So we could say:
It decreased from 10 to 4 units.
FROM is used with the starting point, in this case 10,
TO is used with the end point, in this case 4.
Now, what is the difference between 10 and 4. It is a difference of 6 so we could say:
There was a drop, or decrease, or decline, OF 6 units.
There was a drop of 6 units.
We use OF after a noun, in this case the noun drop.
How about if we use the verb form of drop. We would say:
It dropped by 6 units.
Notice how we use OF after the noun form of drop, and BY after the verb form of drop when
showing the change or difference between two numbers.
There was a drop of 6 units.
It dropped by 6 units.
But if we do not include a specific number, we use the preposition IN after the noun.
There was a decrease in the number of X. … OR
There was a drop in the number of X.
Here we haven’t specified a number.
We don’t know if it 6 or 6 million. We just know there was a drop or decline.
Now compare the two together:
There was a drop of 6 units.
There was a drop in the number of…
The preposition changes because the first sentence has a specific number while the second
sentence doesn’t give us a specific number so we say “the number”.
OF + specific number …
IN + the number of …
… and then sales, units, or whatever
If we look at the chart again, what is the time period that the decrease happens?
The decrease happens from one date to another date. Those two dates, or years, are 2010 and
2014. Even though those numbers don’t appear written on the graph, we can see the time
intervals in the bottom axis are divided into two-year periods.
For time periods that include two dates, we can say:
Between 2010 and 2014
From 2010 to 2014
But we cannot mix the prepositions and say:
Between 2010 to 2014 … NO this is incorrect.
Let’s look at another simple graph:
When does this graph start?
It starts in 2004.
We use IN because we are talking about something that happened in a specific year… in 2004.
And what happened then?
Something started. Let’s imagine it’s talking about sales of computer units.
How many units were sold in 2004?
4 units were sold.
So what preposition is used as a part of the simple description?
It started at 4 units in 2004.
We use start + AT + the number.
Then what happened? Sales increased.
They increased TO its highest point.
This highest point is called a peak. Peak can be a noun or a verb. Let’s use the verb:
It peaked at 10 units.
We use the preposition AT after the verb PEAK.
We could also add the time the peak happened… in 2006.
Of course if we say:
It started at 4 units in 2004. It peaked at 10 units in 2006.
This sounds repetitive. We are just doing these simple descriptions to learn the correct
prepositions.
Just so you know, instead of saying: It peaked at 10 units in 2006.
We could say: It peaked at 10 units two years later.
That shows the examiner you can vary your vocabulary.
Then what happened after it peaked?
We can see that sales went down. Sales dropped.
How much did it drop?
It dropped by 8 units.
Why do we use BY in this case?
Because it is the difference between the starting point, 10 units, and the end point, 2 units. The
difference between 10 and 2 is… 8, so 8 units.
To show this difference we use the preposition BY. It dropped by 8 units.
We could also say it dropped TO two units though saying “to two” together sounds strange.
The sales of only two units that year was the lowest amount that was sold, which makes it its
lowest point.
Sales dropped to its lowest point.
So bringing it all together we say:
It dropped by 8 units to its lowest point.
If we want to add the number that is at its lowest point, which is a good thing to do in order to give
a more complete response, then we use the preposition AT after lowest point, in this case it
dropped to its lowest point AT 2 units.
You see we also added IN + the year to state when this lowest point happened, IN 2008. So the
complete sentence is:
It dropped by 8 units to its lowest point at 2 units in 2008.
Then what happened?
We can see the trend going up.
Sales increased again, this time TO 6 units.
It increased to 6 units sold in 2010.
We use the preposition TO after the verb INCREASE when referring to increasing to a number.
Then we can see it didn’t make a change up or down. It remained stable or constant.
What is the time period that it remained stable? We have 2010 and 2012. We can say:
Sales remained stable between 2010 and 2012.
See how we used the prepositions BETWEEN x AND y …
Another alternative is to use the prepositions …. FROM x TO y.
Sales remained stable from 2010 to 2012.
Just remember we cannot mix the prepositions.
BETWEEN is always with AND.
FROM is always with TO.
So, where does the graph finish?
It finished at 6 units in 2012
We use AT with the verbs finish and end. Just like you start at … you finish at.
It finished at 6 units sold in 2012.
This was a simple overview of common prepositions you will be using in Writing Task 1 of the
Academic Version of the IELTS exam. I recommend seeing our other lessons about prepositions
in general.