How to describe DATA and GRAPHS - Business English vocabulary lesson.

If you need to talk about statistics an data at work then the vocabulary in today's lesson will help you to sound native and natural when communicating with colleagues, customers, and managers. Today we're talking about data and numbers going up and going down, increasing and decreasing. We're going to explore vocabulary like, "surge", "stall", "soar" and "fall off a cliff. We'll also discuss some common mistakes that you need to avoid. The episode is particularly useful if you're preparing for the academic IELTS test because the vocabulary we discuss is really useful for your academic writing task 1.

If you speak English at work and want to sound more native and natural when talking to colleagues, customers, or clients, then I hope that the vocabulary, grammar, and communication tips in today's episode will be useful for you. 

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Also, if you're studying for the IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English tests and exams then you might find some of the vocabulary in this episode really useful.

This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast.

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Transcript

Welcome back to the breakout business English podcast. My name is Chris. I am a business English and communication coach. And I've personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals just like you to improve the way that they communicate at work in English. Thank you so much for your time and for listening. And our topic today is how to talk about data graphs and charts. As many of you know, my full-time job is coaching international professionals to improve their English and communication skills. As part of that, I'm often helping people to prepare for IELTS tests, which they need for things like visa applications and university admissions. And a frequent component of that is describing graphs and charts. I work with a lot of people who speak great English, but as soon as you ask them to explain the information shown on a graph or a chart, or walk you through some data, they struggle. They struggle to talk about these changes and the differences between numbers from one day or one quarter to the next.
So, today we're going to do just that. We're going to hear some natural and native ways to talk about numbers going up, numbers going down, and how to make comparisons between the two. This is quite a big topic, so let me know on YouTube or through the website if you are interested in me making a part two. I might do it regardless, there's so much to talk about here, but let me know if that's something that would interest you.
So, with that said, let's listen now to some natural and native-sounding ways to talk about numbers going up. Sales have grown exponentially this year. And this exponential growth is expected to continue into the new year. Sales have grown exponentially this year and this exponential growth is expected to continue into the new year. After the merger, Downloads surged and our daily active user numbers skyrocketed. After the merger. Downloads surged. And our daily active user numbers skyrocketed. Sales climbed to new heights this year, soaring to over 140% of target. Sales climbed to new heights this year.
Soaring to over 140% of target. Let's talk about the verb 'to grow'. Just like a plant. Or indeed a person, numbers can grow. I think this is a relatively well-known way to talk about data. However, there are two reasons that I included it in this first example. The first is that I wanted to show the contrast between the verb and the noun. One thing that I frequently hear is something like the grow is expected to continue. Again, the grow is expected to continue. This is a mistake. Grow is a verb. In the second half of the sentence, I used the noun growth. Growth. That's G-R-O-W-T-H. A good way to know which one you need is that when you use the You're almost always going to need growth after it, not grow.
So if your natural feeling is to include the in the sentence, then growth is what you probably want. The first example was sales have grown exponentially this year and this exponential growth is expected to continue into the new year. Sales have grown exponentially this year and this exponential growth is expected to continue into the new year. The other thing that I want you to notice... Is that at no point in the sentence did I use the phrasal verb to grow up. To grow up. Another common mistake is to use grow up and simply grow on its own to mean the same thing. However, to grow up is usually used to mean the process of going from being a child to being an adult. There is one more, less common usage, but as a general rule, we almost always use this to talk about becoming an adult. Because of this, we basically never want to use the phrasal verb grow up when talking about data or even our careers. It's usually wrong in a professional context. In the same sentence, we heard the adverb exponentially. And the adjective exponential. If something such as a number changes exponentially, then it becomes greater over time. If sales increased by 1000 in 2021, then by 1300 in 2022, then by 1800 in 2023, then maybe 2400 in 2024, we can see that our sales are not just increasing. But the number by which they're increasing is getting bigger and bigger. Every year. This is exponential growth. It's not steady and predictable. It's greater and bigger every time it is tracked. There are some common themes when it comes to describing data. One of these is comparisons to climbing and mountains. Another is comparisons to birds and flying. Let's take the climbing ones first. In the third example, We heard, sales climbed to new heights this year. Sales climbed to new heights this year. Just like a rock climber making their way up a wall, we can use this word to talk about data on a graph. Although this can be used to describe very quick increases, It can be used for more gradual increases. After all, climbing is rarely something people do quickly. Slow and steady wins the race is an idiom that I think we can definitely use to describe that sport. For this reason. We can use FIME. In sentences like We got off to a slow start. But over the course of a year, sales climbed to be well above target. We got off to a slow start. But over the course of a year, Sales climbed to be well above target.
So you can see there not a dramatic and quick increase, but something slower. And more gradual. Let's take a look at the rest of that third example now. And there we heard the verb 'to soar'. To soar, S-O-A-R, to soar. As in, sales climbed to new heights this year, soaring to over 140% of target.
Soaring to over 140% of target. This is a word that we most associate with birds. We say that a bird soars when it rises very quickly. Or simply flies high in the sky. We use this to talk about very tall buildings soaring above the city. Or maybe even a professional basketball player. As they jump and fly towards the basket. One thing that has been soaring in a lot of places over the past few years is the price of houses and housing. We often hear things on the news like house prices are soaring.
So, When we use this So. When we use this to describe data, We simply mean that it increases quickly. Usually to a particularly high number. It might not be common to say that sales soared from 4% to 8% of target. In fact, that might even sound a little sarcastic, a little bit like a joke. We're more likely to use this word for particularly impressive numbers. Sales soared from 4 to 400% of target, for instance. Now. Have you ever been in a power cut when all of the lights go out? And you need to use flashlights or torches and candles until the power comes back on. One thing that sometimes causes this is a power surge. A power surge. This is when too much electricity floods into the system and overwhelms it. And this can even damage any sensitive electronics or equipment that have been plugged in. In this second example, we heard After the merger, downloads surged. And our daily active user numbers skyrocketed. After the merger, downloads surged. And our daily active user numbers skyrocketed. We can use the verb surge therefore, S-U-R-G-E. To describe a situation of a sudden and powerful increase in something. In a professional context, you'll often hear this when talking about numbers or activity that grows very quickly in a short amount of time. For example, A company might see a surge in online orders after a successful marketing campaign. Or a website might experience a surge in traffic during a big sale. It gives the feeling of a big wave of water moving forward with a lot of force. Which is exactly how it feels when your workload or your customer demand suddenly jumps. You can use surge to talk about many different professional situations, like a surge in interest for a new product or a surge in energy prices. In a sentence, you might say, we've seen a surge in support for the new project this week. All. The team is working hard to keep up with the surge in customer inquiries. Using this word is a great way to sound more natural when you want to describe growth that isn't just steady, but is actually happening very fast and with a lot of impact. And if you want your English skills to not just climb gradually, but really surge, then maybe we can work together. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills.
So, If you need English to do your job, but you don't speak it natively, then I'd love to meet you. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinessenglish.com and find out more. Starting on our first call, we can focus on the specific opportunities that you personally have to improve your English and communication skills, and the mistakes that you make most often or cause the biggest problems with your communication. And right now you can use the code PODCAST30, that's PODCAST30, at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking of 30, 45 or 60 minutes.
Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy. So, if you have trouble finding a time that works for you, then you can always send me a message through the contact page on the website and ask if I have any time to fit you in. I've worked with well over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Equally, if you're interested to see what it's like when we might work together, then you can take a look at the YouTube channel. There are a few videos on there of me breaking down things like vocabulary on the news and the mistakes and opportunities that some famous international English speakers have to improve their communication skills. Okay. As I often do, I've kept the negative vocabulary to the second half of the podcast.
So, let's take a listen. To some natural and native sounding ways that we can talk about numbers going down. Our sales have fallen off a cliff since last quarter. And this decline is showing no sign of slowing down. Our sales have fallen off a cliff since last quarter. And this decline is showing no sign of slowing down. New user acquisition seems to have stalled and we're actually seeing a decline year over year. New user acquisition seems to have stalled and we're actually seeing a decline year over year. We've observed a plunge in applications since the new legislation was introduced. We've a plunge, since the new legislation was introduced. Okay, what is a cliff? C-L-I-F-F. What is a cliff?
Well, the UK has some quite famous cliffs on our south coast at a place called Dover. The White Cliffs of Dover, as they are called. Equally, to revisit the first part of the podcast, a cliff is something that you might find a climber trying to get to the top of. A cliff is a very steep, usually completely vertical, rock face. And very often leads to the ocean. Certainly at the bottom often leads to the ocean. You can stand on the edge of a cliff and maybe even look over the edge if you are brave, but whatever you do, Make sure to hold on to something. Because you definitely don't want to fall off a cliff. However, one thing that does fall off a cliff from time to time is data. If we take that image of a cliff, that image of a flat piece of land suddenly dropping hundreds of feet to the ocean, then we can imagine what a graph showing data like this might look like. We might see a graph fall off a cliff when a major problem causes investors to abandon a company. I think a lot of airlines and travel companies saw this happen to their bookings and definitely their stock prices in 2020. They definitely saw their bookings fall off a cliff when everyone had to stay at home for almost two years.
So. When numbers fall off a cliff in business, this is almost never a good thing. Now, if you personally fall off a cliff... The next thing that happens is that you're going to plunge towards, well, probably the ocean. Wow, this podcast script is starting to get a little scary now.
So let's talk about plunging. That's to plunge. P-L-U-N-G-E. To plunge as a verb. Simply means to fall very quickly. If you fall off a cliff or maybe out of a plane, that's exactly what you're going to do. When we use this word to talk about data, we often use it with "to". D.O. Followed by the lowest point of the data. For instance, conversion plunged to 7%. Conversion plunged to 7%. In fact, we can use "from" and "to" here to talk about our origin and our destination. For instance, conversion plunged from 45% to 7% when we updated the app. Using plunge instead of just saying fell or decreased helps your colleagues to understand the speed and the scale of the drop you are talking about. Declining, falling or decreasing numbers are bad, but plunging numbers are really bad.
Well, I guess it depends on what you're measuring. If you're measuring abandoned cats on your online store, then I guess plunging numbers are good. But usually when someone says that this number has plunged over the past few weeks, they're talking about something else. Art. This number has plunged over the past This number has plunged. Over the past few weeks. Okay, let's go for a drive. Now, these days I drive an automatic car. I remember the first time I drove an automatic, it felt like driving a toy car. After around a decade of driving a manual car, suddenly I didn't really have to do much. I didn't need to change gears, and I only needed to use one foot. One more thing that changed when I got an automatic car is that I was far less likely to stall. Far less likely to stall. That's S-T-A-L-L. You might have this happen when you're trying to drive slowly up a steep hill. Or maybe while you're parking or doing some kind of complicated maneuver in your car. We say that you stalled your car when the engine stops suddenly and unexpectedly. This is usually because you've made a mistake with the pedals.
So, if we say that a car stalled when the engine stops suddenly, What do I mean when I talk about data or numbers stalling? If we describe the data on a graph as having stalled, We mean that it was going in the right direction, but then it stopped. We were making progress, things were going well, then suddenly everything came to a And stopped. As a graph, this might look like a line that goes up and to the right, increasing over time, and then suddenly stops increasing. And goes just straight to the right. Think about user growth of an app. 100 daily active users in week 1, 150 in week 2, 250 in week 3. This sounds like things are going well. Users are increasing. 350 users in week 4, 500 users in week 5. This is going great. But then week six is the same. 500 users. Then maybe 508 users in week 7. And only 515 users in week 8. It seems like new user growth st, The user base is no longer growing. It's not decreasing or declining. That's good to hear. However, it's definitely not increasing. We can say that user growth has stalled. We can use this as a noun. As in, there's been a stall in new user growth. There's been a stall in new user growth.
So as I've been reading through this script, I've realized that yes, there is a lot more to be said with the way that data is described. So next week, I think we should explore this idea further. I think we'll take a deeper look at some ways to describe some slightly more complex ideas in data. Don't forget that if you would like to discuss any of the ideas, vocabulary or grammar, etc. In today's episode or work on your ability to describe data and graphs and charts for work, then you can book a session with me to work on your English communication skills by going to www.sportsth.com. Breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the title of the website, breakoutbusinessenglish.com, or clicking the link in the show notes. And use the code PODCAST30. That's podcast30 at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English on those platforms. If there's a topic that you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I'd be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or a comment on any of my YouTube videos and I look forward to hearing from you. Equally, I'm on Red Note these days, which is a Chinese social media app.
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