Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry where we try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language.

And in the lesson today, we're looking at trends, okay, and this is advanced English, and these are co-locations for trends.

Trends are things that are happening around this time, okay?

So trends can be in fashion, the trend can be in sport, the trend can be in cooking.

Now, in these particular trends, we're focusing on business English and business English trends, and a lot of them, therefore, are to do with economics.

Okay, so I'm going to go through these particular co-locations for trends.

Remember, advanced English co-locations for trends.

There are 12 of them in total.

I'll give them to you, and then I'll go through and give you an example as to when you might hear them or when you might use them.

Okay, let's go.

Remain broadly stable.

So there's a mouthful.

To remain broadly stable.

To fall gradually, to drop slightly, decrease sharply, go up dramatically.

Rates rise substantially.

Increase steadily.

Prices are set to rocket.

Consumer spending collapses.

Inflation soars.

Debt shoots up by a percentage.

And finally, growth rates or growth rate picks up.

Growth rate picks up.

So as I said, they're very, very business English orientated.

They're very economical in their approach, but they're also using words that are really good for describing trends in different directions.

Trends upwards, trends downwards.

So whatever is happening.

So we'll try to give you some examples of those.

So let's go.

To remain broadly stable.

When something is broadly stable, it tends not to move a lot.

So there's no volatility, there's no up and down.

So prices can remain broadly stable.

The level of a certain stock market index can remain broadly stable.

Interest rates can remain broadly stable.

The profits of the company can remain broadly stable.

It means they are level.

They don't change.

They don't go up and they don't go down.

Okay, so broadly stable.

So it's not all of the time, but broadly means on average.

Okay.

To fall gradually, well, when something falls gradually, it's not sudden.

Okay, it's gradually bit by bit by bit.

Every day or every week or every month, there's a fall.

Okay, so for example, the performance of a company can fall gradually.

So one month it's 2% less than the previous month.

The next month it's 3% less.

The next month 5% and so on.

So it falls gradually.

But over the period of time, there could be quite a big or steep fall, but it's not all at once.

It happens bit by bit, step by step, week by week, month by month.

So it falls gradually.

To drop slightly, well, slightly means ever so small.

Okay, so the interest in somebody buying our products has dropped slightly.

So two months ago, we were selling five items a day.

Now we are selling four items a day.

So there's been a slight drop in the sales.

Or the profitability of the company is down 1% from the previous year.

It has dropped slightly.

It's not dramatic.

It's just a 1% drop.

So it's dropped slightly.

So slightly means ever so small.

So it can be anything about the interest in a product, the level of profitability.

Prices can drop slightly.

So there's obviously some improvement in the supply or some improvement in the market.

It has dropped slightly.

Prices have dropped slightly.

Decrease sharply.

So again, decrease is about going down and sharply means very quick.

Okay, so it's gone from here to here, very sharply.

Okay, so if the price of a litre of petrol was two Euro and then two days later, it was one Euro 60, and then two days later, it was 1 Euro 20.

Well, you could say the price of the liter of petrol in a week had decreased sharply from 2 Euro to 1 Euro 20.

So it was a sharp decrease or it had decreased sharply.

You can put it either way, a sharp decrease or had decreased sharply.

The meaning is exactly the same.

Okay, so a sharp decrease using sharp as the adjective, decreased sharply using sharply as an adverb.

So it, but it means very quick from here to here in a very short space of time.

To go up dramatically, so this is the opposite of decrease sharply.

To go up dramatically, it goes from here and goes up very, very quickly.

So if we look at the reverse of those petrol prices, so you know, at the beginning of the summer, petrol might have been 1 Euro 80 per litre and within three weeks, it was 2 Euro 35.

So we could see reports in the media saying, oh, really bad news.

The price of a liter of petrol has gone up dramatically.

So really, really quickly, gone up dramatically.

Something dramatic is very sudden, something that gets your attention.

So it's gone up dramatically.

The price of flour has gone up dramatically.

So if you're buying your croissant in the morning that used to cost one Euro 30 cents, it might now cost two Euro.

Ah, two Euros, not a lot of money, but a 70 cents increase is a over 30% increase.

So it's really, really expensive.

So it's gone up dramatically because of the price of flour and other ingredients.

So to go up dramatically.

Rates rise substantially.

So if we're talking about interest rates and the markets are very sensitive to interest rates.

So usually governments around the world tend to increase interest rates at a time of higher inflation.

They try to control the economy and stop people spending money.

Okay, because usually when you spend money, you purchase inflation.

So rates rise substantially.

So the central banks, the Bank of England, the Fed in the US, they have their policy committee meetings every quarter or every month, and they have decided to increase interest rates.

Now for them, substantially could be one half of a percent or 75 basis points.

So that can be very, very substantial if you see that normal interest rates are only 1.25 or 1.5.

And if they increase them by 50 basis points or 75 basis points, that's a half a percent or three quarters of a percent.

Well, then you can see that is a substantial increase in interest rates.

Okay.

And that will affect people's mortgages.

And of course, on the other side, it will affect people beneficially if they have money on deposit because interest rates on bank deposits will increase as well.

So substantial rate rise or substantial increases in interest rates.

Increase steadily.

Well, before we had to fall gradually.

So here's the opposite, to increase steadily.

It's not sudden, it's not dramatic, but it's bit by bit.

Okay, so the cost of living has increased steadily.

Today it was X, tomorrow it's X plus, and the next day it's X plus plus.

So it's a steady increase.

Or the price of petrol, you know, 1 Euro 50, the next week 1 Euro 55, the next week 1 Euro 60, the next week 1 Euro 65.

It's not sudden, it's not dramatic, it's a steady increase.

But when you get to the very top, you can see, wow, there's a substantial increase over three or four months, but it was a steady increase, not all at the same time.

So we have these steady increases or increased steadily.

Again, no difference in the meaning, just using adjective or adverb.

Prices are set to rocket.

Well, we know what a rocket is.

A rocket is something that goes straight up.

So if we feel that something is going to happen in the economy, perhaps the price of houses, perhaps the price of petrol, perhaps the price of flour, if those prices are going to increase very dramatically, then you might see headlines in the media.

Prices are set to rocket, meaning they're going to go up very, very quickly.

Unfortunately, salaries don't always rocket at the same time.

So when prices rocket, everything else seems to be left behind.

So prices set to rocket means, whoosh, they're going to go up very, very steeply.

Consumer spending collapses.

So it's a bit of a mouthful.

Consumer spending collapses.

It means that you and me and other people, we are the consumers, we are spending less money.

Why are we spending less money?

We are spending less money because either we don't have money in our bank accounts, we are paying too much tax, or interest rates have increased, so we don't want to borrow money and use our credit cards.

Whatever the reason is, we stop spending money and therefore consumer spending collapses, which is what the governments want because they want to control inflation.

But when it falls very dramatically, it's not so good news for jobs, okay?

Because if people stop spending money, they're not going to buy goods.

If they don't buy goods, they're not going to be made, blah, blah, blah, blah.

It goes round in a vicious circle.

So here, consumer spending collapses.

To collapse means to fall very, very quickly, like sticking a pin in a bubble.

It will pop and collapse.

Okay.

Or if you open the oven door too quickly when you're baking a cake, the cake will collapse and it will fall down flat very, very quickly.

Same meaning.

Inflation soars.

Well, this is the sort of news headlines that we don't like to read.

To soar means to go up very high, like a bird.

Birds soar high in the sky.

Inflation soars.

It reaches new heights.

And we also have to tighten our belts a little bit and control our spending.

Debt shoots up by a certain percentage.

Debt is money that we owe to the banks on our credit cards, on our mortgages, borrowing money to buy that car we wanted, household debt.

Okay, debt is money you owe to somebody else.

And so when debt shoots up by, to shoot up means goes up very, very substantially.

So if people are not paying off the mortgage because they don't have the money, if people are borrowing more money on the credit cards because everything is more expensive, then that debt will shoot up, the level of debt per person in the economy.

It would be measured by economists.

So debt levels shoot up by 10%, 15%, 20%.

So there's an increase of the level of debt among people in the economy.

And then finally, we have growth rates pick up.

Ha ha, this is what everybody will be looking forward to, that when economies begin to recover, growth rates, the growth in the economy, the economy will expand and growth rates pick up, meaning they will get better.

So it might be slow, but any green shoots, as they call it, will be welcome.

It's like at the end of the winter and the spring, you see little green shoots of grass.

That's exactly what you want to see in the economy, a recovery.

Growth rate picks up, meaning improves, increases a little bit, but not dramatically.

Okay, so picks up means to improve.

Okay, so sorry for all the economic jargon, but these trends are very definitely linked to percentages and figures and all sorts of ways of analyzing the economy.

So you have to use them.

You have to understand what they are.

And if you're studying business English or you're involved in the accounts department, whatever it is, you'll need to understand some of this terminology because you're going to see it in the media all over the place.

So let me go through them one more time.

One, remain broadly stable, remain broadly stable or flat.

Fall gradually, bit by bit.

Drop slightly, ever so slightly, small bit.

Decrease sharply, go down very quickly, decrease sharply, to go up dramatically, very quickly in the opposite direction.

Rates rise substantially, so money is more expensive, rates rise substantially.

They increase steadily, or prices increase steadily, bit by bit, but all the time going up.

Prices set to rocket, whoosh, set to rocket, go up really, really quickly and fast.

Consumer spending collapses, like the cake in the oven collapses.

Inflation soars, goes really high.

Inflation soars.

Debt levels or debt shoots up by a certain percentage.

People are borrowing more money and then growth rate picks up.

We begin to see an improvement in the economy.

So they're very, very specific expressions, very specific co-locations with this trend, advanced English co-locations connected with the trend.

So you need to understand them.

You need probably to listen to this once or twice.

You need any more information, you can ask me.

You can consult the internet in terms of economic terms, but I'm always happy to help you to hear from you on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.

As always, thanks for tuning in.

This is Harry saying goodbye.

Join me again soon.