Talking about graphs can sometimes be confusing. Most times we tend to use the same words… increase or decrease. Here we show you a number of ways to talk about your graphs in a presentation to help talk about how much and at what pace the numbers on the graph change. To learn more about different ways to say increase and decrease, click here.
USING ADVERBS TO DESCRIBE GRAPHS
- Adverbs describe HOW something happens.
- She ran quickly. (How did she run? quickly)
- He danced gracefully. (How did he dance? gracefully)
- They usually come before or after the main verb
- The interest rates are rising quickly.
- The interest rate are quickly rising.
- Adverbs do not go before the auxillary verb
- The interest rates
quicklyare rising.
- The interest rates
- We also use adverbs to describe adjectives.
- People are slightly happier than before with the product.
- In order to express that something on a graph has increased or decreased in a very significant way, you can use:
- Quickly
- The sales fell quickly.
- Steeply
- The costs rose steeply
- Sharply
- The number of people increased sharply
- Rapidly
- The temperature is falling rapidly.
- Quickly
- To say that there is an important increase or decrease on a graph, you can use:
- Considerably
- The number of likes have considerably dropped.
- Substantially
- However, the visits have grown substantially.
- Significantly
- We are paying significantly more than last year.
- Considerably
- In order to express a consistent increase or descrease on a map, use:
- Steadily
- Sales have steadily increased.
- Gradually
- We are gradually speanding less money on copies.
- Moderately
- People are moderately changing the product.
- Steadily
- To show that there is a slow increase or decrease, use:
- Slowly
- The project is slowly gaining momentum.
- Slightly
- People are slightly changing their behavior.
- Slowly
- Note that we can also use adverbs to describe adjectives.
- People are slightly more likely to change their behavior.
USING ADJECTIVES TO DESCRIBE GRAPHS
- Use adjectives to describe nouns of change.
- The small number reflects the slight drop in sales.
- What kind of number? Small
- What kind of drop? Slight
- The small number reflects the slight drop in sales.
- Adjectives come before the noun they are describing.
- There was a sharp fall in sales.
- There is a significant boost in wages.
- Nouns of change include:
- Rise
- increase
- decrease
- fall
- drop
- decline
- growth
- peak
- recovery
- fluctuation
- There was a sharp fall in participation.
- To use an adjective with a noun of change, use:
- There + be + a + adjective + noun of change
- There is a considerable climb in costs
- There was slow growth over in the third quarter.
- here we do not use ‘a’ because growth in uncountable
- There has been a steady decline in complaints
- There will be a quick recovery.
- There + be + a + adjective + noun of change
- We can also use other structures.
- Subject + verb + a + noun of change
- We observed a large increase.
- They saw a sudden fall in revenue.
- Subject + verb + a + noun of change
COMMON MISTAKES
- Use precision words when speaking about graphs.
- There was a significant increase. (statistically significant)
- There has been a quick drop in sales. (fast drop)
- Don’t use vague language
- Although, ‘There is a very big increase’ is grammaticlly correct, we do not use ‘big and ‘small’ when describing graphs.
- It is hard to know what ‘very’ and ‘big’ refer to since the amount is not exact.
- Remember the difference between an adjective and an adverb.
- If the change word is a verb – use an adverb.
- The cost increased slightly.
- If the change word is a noun – Use an adjective
- There was a slight increase in the cost.
- If the change word is a verb – use an adverb.
GRAMMAR HAMMER
Now that you have seen Talking about graphs, take a look at some of our other Grammar Hammer posts:
Grammar Hammer: good vs well
Grammar Hammer: can, could, be able to
