4.5. Language for Numbers
The phrases that make a figure precise: the right tense, a word for the size of a change, by against to, and how to say a share or a comparison.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The table below shows the share of electricity generated from four sources in one country in 2010 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
| Source | 2010 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Gas | 70 | 45 |
| Wind | 8 | 28 |
| Solar | 2 | 12 |
| Other | 20 | 15 |
Write at least 150 words.
The short version
A finished year takes the past simple: rose, fell. A process takes the present: is pressed.
Fell by 25 points is the change. Fell to 45% is the new figure.
Match the word to the size of the change: slightly, sharply, more than tripled.
A share is said as a fraction of one whole: nearly half, just over a quarter.
What you have to do
The test shows a chart, table or diagram with an instruction line above. You write at least 150 words in about 20 minutes: an introduction, an overview and two detail paragraphs with figures. Half the mark is vocabulary and grammar. Every figure you report needs a verb in the right tense, a word for its size, and the right preposition. This lesson is the phrase bank for those choices.
The phrase bank
Finished years take the past simple: gas fell. A process or a present-day map takes the present simple: the oil is bottled, the church stands in the centre. A forecast takes will or is expected to.
Small: rose slightly, edged up, dipped. Large: rose sharply, fell steeply, soared, plunged. None: remained stable, stayed level at. Multiples: doubled, more than tripled.
Fell by 25 points names the change. Fell to 45% names the new figure. From 70% to 45% gives both. At 45% names a level, not a movement.
Accounted for nearly half, made up just over a quarter, took the largest share, at 45%, a fifth of the total, roughly one in eight.
Twice as high as, almost double the figure for, well ahead of, far behind, the same as, ahead by a narrow margin.
A sharp fall in gas, a steady rise in wind, a slight dip in the rest. Switching from verb to noun stops every sentence starting the same way.
By against to, on the table above
Gas fell by 25 percentage points between 2010 and 2020.
Gas fell to 45% in 2020.
Quiz time5 questions
Each drill gives you the figures it needs. Choose the phrase that fits them exactly.
Choose the phrase for a share
Read the four slices, then choose the sentence that reports the electricity figure correctly.
Read thisPie chart: how households heated their homes in 2022. Gas 52%, electricity 24%, oil 13%, wood 11%.
Which sentence reports the electricity figure correctly?
Choose the words for the size of a change
Three figures, two movements. Choose the pair of phrases that fits their size.
Read thisBus passengers, millions per year: 12.0 in 2010, 12.4 in 2015, 6.2 in 2020.
Which pair of phrases fits the two movements?
By, from or to
Type one preposition in each gap.
Read thisUnemployment rate, %: 8 in 2012, 5 in 2019.
Unemployment fell three percentage points between 2012 and 2019, 8% 5%.
Write no more than 1 word in each gap.
Choose the comparison
Three countries, one year. Choose the sentence that compares France with Germany accurately.
Read thisCinema admissions, millions, 2023. France 180, Germany 95, Poland 45.
Which sentence compares France with Germany accurately?
Which tense?
Two sentences describe the diagram and two describe the graph. One uses the wrong tense. Choose it.
Read thisTwo visuals: a diagram of how a hospital appointment is booked, and a line graph of appointments made each year from 2015 to 2022.
Which sentence contains the error?
The full model
Below is a line graph and the same fall on it said two ways, the change first and the new figure second. Weekday passengers went from 44,000 in 2018 to 18,000 in 2020. Check each phrase in the exercises against the graph.
Weekday and weekend passengers at four dates. The axis is in thousands, so 44 on the graph is 44,000 passengers.
by versus to
Weekday traffic fell by 26,000 between 2018 and 2020.
Weekday traffic fell to 18,000 in 2020.
Your turn to write3 questions
Check
Choose the correct sentence.
The figure started at 40 and ended at 70. Which sentence is correct?
Which tense?
All three sentences describe the ferry graph. One uses the wrong tense.
Which sentence contains the error?
Match the size of the change
Match each movement on the ferry graph to the phrase that fits its size.
Tips
- Say it once as a verb, once as a noun
Gas fell sharply in one sentence, a sharp fall in gas in the next. The examiner marks range, and the noun form is range.
- Check the preposition against the number
If the number is the new level, the word before it is to. If the number is the gap between two levels, it is by.
Recap
Past simple for a finished year. Present simple for a process or a map.
By gives the size of the change. To gives the new figure.
Pick the word that fits the size: slightly, sharply, almost tripled.
Next: the essay, which is worth two thirds of your mark.