A Sample sentences. Ш Our turnover rose last year, but our profits dropped.

Ш Our turnover rose last year, but our profits dropped.

Ш The banks have raised their interest rates twice this year and this has pushed up the cost of borrowing.

Ш There has been a slight increase in the value of the dollar, but the pound is down again.

B Form

Trends are changes or movements. These changes are normally in numerical items, e.g. costs, production volumes or unemployment. There are three basic trends

For each trend there are a number of verbs and nouns to express the movement. We can divide the verbs into transitive and intransitive:

ь after a transitive verb we must put an object:

The banks have raised their interest rates twice this year.

ь after an intransitive verb we cannot put a direct object:

Our turnover rose last year, but our profits dropped.

Now let's look at the language of trends in more detail.

	Verbs	Nouns
	Transitive	Intransitive
	increase raise put/push/step up   extend expand	increase rise go/be up grow extend expand boom	increase rise   growth extension expansion boom (dramatic rise)
	Verbs	Nouns
	Transitive	Intransitive
	decrease   drop put/push down   cut reduce	decrease fall drop go/be down decline     collapse slump	decrease fall drop   decline cut reduction collapse (dramatic fall) slump (dramatic fall)
	Verbs	Nouns
	Transitive	Intransitive
	keep/hold...stable/constant maintain... (at the same level)	remain stable stay constant	stability

Other expressions

to stand at: we use this phrase to focus on a particular point, before we mention the trends of movements:

In the first year sales in our region stood at 109,000 units.

to reach a peak of:

In the sixth year sales in our region reached a peak of 24,000 units.

Sometimes we need to give more information about a trend, as follows:

There has been a slight increase in the value of the dollar. (the degree of change)

Share prices fell rapidly on the London stock exchange today. (the speed of change)

Remember that we modify a noun with an adjective (a slight increase); and a verb with an adverb (to increase slightly).

Describing the degree of change

dramatic(ally)

vast(ly)/huge(ly)/enormous(ly)

substantial(ly)/considerable/considerably/ significant(ly)

moderate(ly)

slight(ly)/a little

Describing the speed of change

rapid(ly)

quick(ly)

swift(ly)

gradual(ly)

slow(ly)

C Uses

1 Describing the difference:

This year turnover has increased by 5 per cent.

This year there has been an increase in turnover of 5 per cent.

2 Describing the end point:

This year turnover has risen to Ј3m.

This year there has been a rise in turnover to Ј3m.

Notes

rise and raise

verbs:

rise is intransitive: Interest rates rose by 2 per cent last year.

raise is transitive: The bank has raised interest rates by 1 per cent.

nouns:

BrE: We review wages in October and introduce the annual rise in January.

AmE: We review wages in October and introduce the annual raise in January.

Do not use up after increase, raise and rise; do not use down after fall, drop and decrease.

3 Some common verbs

	dramatic movement	slight movement	amount of increase
↗	rocket soar boost surge jump	edge up ease up firm creep up slip back	double triple quadruple increase tenfold
↘	dive plummet plunge slash	edge down ease down dip slip back	halve

4 If there has been little or no movement we could say that:

The market has been	morose slack sluggish gloomy stagnant steady	Sales	peaked levelled off bottomed out

5 If there has been more activity:

The market has been

active buoyant firm

6 A record high or low figure can be referred to as an all-time high or an all-time low.

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