In your company do you need to talk about graphs, statistics or changes? Do you have to write reports, do presentations or hold business meetings to talk about these things in English? Do you sometimes find it hard to find the right words?

Doing any of the above can be difficult in a second language, but learning these verbs and expressions will enrich your English vocabulary and drastically improve your presentations, reports and business meetings.

 

INCREASES

All the following words show an increase in something, for example sales, profits or even social trends, like crime.

Look at the verbs and how they are used. Remember they can be used in any tense!

 

1. To grow

Our profits have grown over the last few years which has allowed us to invest more in company development.

 

2. To improve

I am happy to announce that our sales improved in the first quarter of this year.

 

3.To go up

Prices of raw materials have gone up which means we may need to increase our prices.

 

4. To rise

A report published by the Metropolitan police suggests that organised crime is likely to rise in the coming years.

 

ADDING ADVERBS

You can adverbs to these verbs to show a big or small change. Look at the same sentences but with adverbs added to the sentences and see how the meaning changes.

 

1. Gradually / Steadily (slowly over time)

Our profits have grown gradually / steadily over the last few years which has allowed us to invest more in company development.

 

2. A lot (a big difference)

I am happy to announce that our sales improved a lot in the first quarter of this year.

 

3. Significantly (a big difference)

Prices of raw materials have gone up significantly which means we may need to increase our prices.

 

4. Slightly (a small difference)

A report published by the Metropolitan police suggests that organised crime is likely to rise slightly in the coming years.

 

BIG INCREASES

There are also extreme verbs that have a strong meaning. The adverbs above cannot be added to them as the meaning already means increase a lot.

 

1. Soar

House rental prices have soared since the beginning of the year which has resulted in many younger people choosing to live with their parents.

 

2.Shoot up

The price of olive oil has shot up due to the problems with climate change and extreme weather.

 

DECREASES

There are also verbs that we can use to show a decrease in something.

 

1.Drop

Our sales figures show that trade in countries has dropped, so we plan to do a Europe-wide marketing campaign.

 

2. Fall

As you can see from the chart the number of flu cases fell last year.

 

3. Go down

Birth rates in Germany have gone down for the last ten years and experts expect these figures to keep going down.

 

4. Decline

The popularity of some social networks, like Facebook, have declined whereas others have become more popular.

The same adverbs from before can be used with these verbs to give more detail.

 

BIG DECREASES

And like with the verbs showing an extreme increase, we also have verbs that show the opposite. These verbs are used to emphasise a dramatic decrease in something.

 

1. Plummet

We are extremely concerned that housing prices have plummeted in this area meaning we may see an economic crisis in the coming year.

 

2. Slump (refers to prices, value and sales)

Our figures show that car sales slumped significantly last year.

 

YOUR TURN!

Look at the graph at the top of the blog, which shows sales for products in a surf shop. I chose surf products as my husband has a surf brand, but it could apply to any product or information. Choose the correct option in each sentence below. You can find the answers at the bottom of this blog post.

1. Our sales in surf accessories dropped / plummeted steadily last year.
2. The number of surfboards we sold rose / fell between April and May. However, they grew / slumped between May and June before declining / soaring again from June to July.
3. We had a slow start to the year with our new product, bodyboards, yet in April sales declined / improved and in may they plummeted / shot up.
4. Demand in wetsuits slumped / soared significantly in April. After May we saw sales go up slightly, but we may need to change our sales strategy to try and sell more and capture new clients.

 

 

Want to learn more?

British Council has a great class for teens with online exercises. It is presented as an activity for teenagers preparing for C1 exams, but really it is great practise for any business person.

 

Or if you are looking for more ways to boost your Business English and learn more vocabulary that you can use in the workplace check out my other posts.

 

 

 

Answers

1. Dropped
2. Fell, grew, declining
3. Improved, shot up
4. Slumped