Ways to Talk about INCREASING in English

Ways to Talk about INCREASING in English

Hi English learners. Welcome to a new lesson. Teachers at My Lingua Academy are putting a lot of effort into providing you with all the material you need to boost and improve your English. In today’s lesson, we will look at different ways to talk about increasing in English. You can visit the lesson about the ways to talk about decreasing here.

The word “increase” can be a verb and a noun. To increase something means to make it bigger in size, degree, number, etc. 

• The company is trying to increase production in some Asian countries. (verb)
• There’s been a sale increase due to inflation. (noun)

Here are some commonly used collocations with the word “increase”:

• There’s been a significant increase in profit in the past quarter. (don’t say an increase of)
• The number of people who stopped smoking has dramatically/drastically increased.
• Our flat increased in value (also: increase in size, price, importance…)
• The charity fund has increased by ￡3,000,000 this year.
• There’s been recorded a fare/price/tax increase.
• The cold weather brought about an increase in electricity consumption.

Here is the list of the vocabulary we are going to go through today, or words and phrases you can use to talk about increasing.

1. Be on the increase
2. Boost
3. Double/triple
4. Go up
5. Grow
6. Push up
7. Put up
8. Rise
9. Rocket/skyrocket
10. Soar
11. Step up 

Be on the increase

Meaning: to be increasing.

• Obesity is on the increase, especially among teenagers.
• The analysis of data shows that silk production is on the increase.

Boost

Meaning: we talk about boosting when we want to increase profits, production, etc.

• They tried to boost sales by lowering the prices.
• The small city car is supposed to boost business for the car company.

Double/triple

Meaning: if we double something, we increase it twice as much and if we triple it, we make it three times biger, higher, etc.

• This lake doubles in size in spring when the snow from the nearby hills melts.
• They managed to triple their profits last year.

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Go up

Meaning: a commonly used spoken phrase you can use instead of increase.

• After the Coronavirus pandemic, all the prices went up.
• The sales of neck pillows always go up in the summer.

Grow

Meaning: to increase gradually over time.

• It was reported that the production of hybrid cars would grow in the future.
• Their friendship grew over the years.

Push up

Meaning: a phrasal verb we use to talk about an increase in level, amount or price.

• The wages were pushed up after the company had signed a contract with a big importing company.
• A price increase pushed up inflation.

Put up

Meaning: a less formal phrasal verb we use to talk about increasing prices, taxes, etc.

• The government has put up the prices of gas and oil just before the winter.
• They put up interest rates in this bank. 

Rise

Meaning: to increase.

• The number of unemployed people is rising, as well as the prices.
• Investments in the building industry rose by 14 per cent.

Ways to talk about increasing in English

Rocket/skyrocket

Meaning: refers to a sudden and rapid increase in number or amount.

• The traffic on our website is expected to rocket because of the sale.
• Hotel prices skyrocketed this summer.

Soar

Meaning: to increase in level, amount, etc. very quickly.

• This summer, the temperature soared to above 30 degrees. 
• Real estate prices are expected to soar after the war.

Step up 

Meaning: another phrasal verb referring to increasing your activities in order to change the situation.

• The government is about to step up its efforts to raise money for the victims of the recent floods.
• If you want to see real results, you should step up the pace of your exercises.

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