A) Giving a timeframe (Time expressions)
- Over the last 20 years,
- Since the year 2000,
- During the last six months.
- In 2008, OOO…
- When we look at the figures from 2003, …
- Many things have changed since 2000.
- We’ve seen a lot of changes over the last 20 years.
- We’ve seen tremendous advancements in this area over the past 15 years or so.
B) Describing the impact/Making comparisons
- We used to…
- We didn’t used to…
- Now we have…
- When we look at the impact this has had on things like…
- What we’re faced with now is…
- This has been a major shift in…
- This has led to a huge transformation in how…
- We’ve seen a dramatic shift from… to…
C) Describing an upward trend
- climb (past: climbed)
- go up (past: went up)
- grow (past: grew)
- increase (past: increased)
- jump (past: jumped)
- rise (past: rose)
- rocket (past: rocketed)
D) Describing a downward trend
- decline (past: declined)
- decrease (past: decreased)
- drop (past: dropped)
- fall (past: fell)
- go down (past: went down)
- plummet (past: plummeted) = to fall or drop suddenly in amount or value
- plunge (past: plunged) = to fall or drop suddenly in amount or value
E) Describing a stable trend
- maintain (past: maintained)
- remain (past: remained)
- stay (past: stayed)
- Constant
- Consistent
- stable
- steady
- …has remained unchanged
