In various educational institutions we are taught the grammar of the English language, the correct construction of sentences. However, they often do not pay attention to the expansion of vocabulary and the use of oral speech. These knowledge gaps appear at the most inopportune moments, such as when you are asked to write a graph or chart in English, or you must provide such a description in an oral presentation.
To describe the chart, you need to study it - to understand whether there are peaks, whether there is a trend and a forecast. Also, you can analyze recessions, rises, leveling of the indicator, how much the values have changed in percent or in physical terms, etc.
All this can be done with relative ease in Russian. But what if the situation requires a description in English? In most cases, if a person has sufficient vocabulary, but has never had the practice of commenting on charts in English before, he will use limited vocabulary. Most often it comes down to a simple description of the fluctuation of a particular indicator using the verbs (decrease) and e (increase).
In fact, there are tons of words and phrases in English to describe graphs. They can be divided into verbs and nouns showing the growth or decline of the indicator, as well as adjectives and adverbs describing the degree and speed of its change. In this case, the verbs used can be transitive (requiring after themselves a noun that answers the question "who? What?") And intransitive. Some verbs are used in both cases with different meanings.
Example:
- "I saw a fox yesterday" / "I saw (who? What?) A fox yesterday" - a transitive verb, the action passes to the subject.
- "I went to the theater yesterday" / "I went to the theater yesterday" is an intransitive verb, the action does not go over to the subject.
The following words and phrases are used to describe the growth in performance:
The following expressions are used to describe the decline in performance:
The alignment of the indicator can be described:
There are also phrases to describe peak values:
- Reach a peak - reach the peak value,
- Peak - to reach the maximum, tops
- Top out - to reach the highest level, the highest point, to reach the peak
- Reach a low point - reach the lowest point, minimum
- Reach a trough - to reach the lowest point
- Bottom out - to be at the lowest level, to reach the bottom limit
Change rate (a slight growth / to increase slightly):
- dramatic (ally) - sharp, significant / sharp, significant
- considerable (ly) - significant / significant
- sharp (ly) - sharp / sharp
- significant (ly) - significant / significant
- substantial (ly) - significant, significant, significant / significant, significant, significant
- moderate (ly) Moderate - Moderate
- slight (ly) - small, insignificant / slightly, little, slightly, slightly, slightly
Rate of change:
- abrupt (ly) - sudden, unexpected / sudden, unexpected
- sudden (ly) - sudden / sudden
- rapid (ly) - fast, swift / fast, swift
- quick (ly) - fast / fast
- steady (ly) - steady / steady
- gradual (ly) - gradual / gradually
- slow (ly) - slow / slow
Prepositions to use:
- a rise from $ 1m to $ 2m - growth from one to two million dollars
- to fall by 30% - fall by 30%
- to increase to 50% - increase to 50%
- an increase of 7.5 per cent last year - an increase of 7.5% over the past year
The presented words and phrases will help to avoid speech errors while describing the graphs. Of course, they can be used not only for oral presentations, but also for written reports.
Please note that the skill of describing the schedule in English can not only help you defend the corresponding project at the university / school and correctly present information, for example, to the employer, but also allow you to successfully complete some of the tasks in the International Business English Certificate (BEC).
