Task 1: Numbers and Comparisons

Why this is a vocabulary lesson

Figures are marked twice: once for accuracy under Task Achievement, once for range under Lexical Resource.

An answer that writes every figure as a bare number - 42%, 52%, 58% - is accurate but flat. An answer that varies between exact figures, approximations, fractions and multiples shows range without ever leaving the data.

The catch is that every one of those alternatives can be wrong. Roughly a third is precise language; roughly a third for 41% is an error. This lesson is about being varied and correct at the same time.

Per cent or percentage points?

This is the single most common numerical error in Task 1, and almost no free resource mentions it.

Take a figure that moves from 20% to 30%. There are two correct ways to describe that, and they give different numbers:

A rise of 10 percentage points. That is the arithmetic difference between the two figures.
A rise of 50 per cent. That is the change relative to where it started - 10 is half of 20.

Both are right. What is wrong is a rise of 10 per cent, which means something else entirely - it would take 20% to 22%.

If you are not confident, use the safe wording: rose from 20% to 30%. Stating both endpoints is always accurate and never penalised. Reach for percentage points only when you are sure - but when you use it correctly, it is a clear signal of precision.

Approximation - when not to use the exact figure

• Just over / just under: just over 40% (41%), just under a fifth (19%)
• Roughly / approximately / around / about: around 50% (48 to 52%)
• Nearly / almost: nearly 60% (57 to 59%) - only for values below the number
• Well over / well under: well over half (60% or more)
• A little / slightly more than: slightly more than a quarter (26 to 27%)
• Approximation is not vagueness. It is a deliberate choice that reads as fluent - but it must be true. Nearly 60% for a value of 52% is an accuracy error.

Fractions and proportions

• 25% - a quarter, one in four
• 33% - a third, one in three
• 50% - half, one in two
• 66% - two thirds, twice as many as
• 75% - three quarters, three in four
• Under 10% - fewer than one in ten, a small minority
• Use the fraction when it is close and the exact figure when it is not. 24% is roughly a quarter; 29% is not - write almost 30% instead.

Multiples and comparisons

• Twice / three times as many as: Services employed roughly twice as many workers as manufacturing by 2020.
• Doubled, tripled, quadrupled, halved: Technology almost quadrupled, from 6% to 23%.
• Comparatives with a margin: considerably higher than, marginally lower than, far greater than
• Superlatives: the largest, the smallest, the fastest-growing, by far the steepest
• Naming the gap: a gap of 16 percentage points, separated by only six points, closed to within four points
• Careful: three times higher and three times as high are read differently by careful readers. As high as is unambiguous - prefer it.

Right or wrong?

Based on employment shares moving from 42% to 58% for services, and 34% to 15% for manufacturing.

Two rules worth keeping

• Never write a figure without its unit. Rose to 58 is incomplete; rose to 58% is not. In a chart measured in thousands, that unit belongs in the sentence too.
• When in doubt, state both endpoints. Fell from 34% to 15% cannot be wrong. Every fancier construction can be.

Where to go next

• Vocabulary for the shape of the change: The Language of Change.
• Putting figures into grouped paragraphs: Body Paragraphs and Grouping.
• Underlying grammar: Comparatives and Superlatives, Modifying Comparatives and Numbers and Prices.