Describing trends with verbs and adverbs
Going up – Here are some verbs you can use to describe an upward trend:
- increase
- improve
- go up
- rise
- climb
- jump (increase quickly)
- rocket (increase very quickly)
Here are some examples:
- Sales increased by € 5 m last month.
- Wages went up by 2.5 % last year.
- Inflation jumped by 3 % last year.
- Sales have risen this year.
- Sales have jumped from € 1.2 m to € 3.5m over the past six months.
Going down – Here are some verbs you can use to describe a downward trend:
- decrease
- fall
- drop
- go down
- decline
- plunge (decrease dramatically)
- plummet (decrease dramatically)
Here are some examples:
- Sales decreased by € 5 m last month.
- Wages fell by 2.5 % in the depression.
- Inflation has declined by 3 % over the past three years.
- Sales have plummeted this year.
- Sales have gone down from € 1.2 m to € 3.3 m over the past six months.
Unchanged – Here are some verbs you can use to describe an unchanged trend.
- remain unchanged (neutral)
- remain constant (neutral)
- remain stable (positive)
- stagnate (negative)
Here are some examples:
- Sales remained unchanged last month.
- Growth has stagnated this year.
- Wages have remained stable.
Here are some adverbs we can use to describe trends
- sharply
- quickly
- rapidly
- steeply
- considerably
- significantly
- substantially
- steadily
- gradually
- moderately
- slightly
- slowly
Here are some examples
- Sales increased dramatically last month.
- Growth has risen moderately over the course of the year.
- Unemployment has fallen slightly compared to the same month last year.