20 Verbs Describing Downward Trend [IELTS Writing Task 1/Vocabulary]

IELTS Writing Task 1 gives you a chart or a diagram. Then, it asks you to write an essay with at least 150 words to describe the given chart. That’s why we need to add more words related to figures and trends to our vocabulary. Do you know that there are up to 20 verbs describing downward trend?

In this article, we will give you full information about such words. This will help you know more different words you can use in your writings. That can bring you closer to achieving lexical resource points – which accounts for 25% of total points. At the end of the article, we will share some tips that can help you remember these words. With these tips, you don’t have to worry about forgetting vocabulary due to exam stress.

What makes eJOY’s list of 20 words describing downward trend different

Instead of giving you a list of words with their meanings, we’ve been working hard to put in other necessary information. We also give you some examples of how you can use these words. Putting these words and phrases in certain context will help you recognize the differences between them. As a result, you will remember them more easily. This table includes:

Pronunciation

If you know how to write words, but don’t know how to pronounce them you will still easily forget those words, and won’t be able to use them in formal presentations or even in daily conversations. That would definitely be a waste.

English definition

When we learn new English words, we tend to look up for only the meaning in our mother tongue. That habit is bad for the language learning process, as you can only learn English with your first language mindset. That would be a major block to making your lexicon broader and knowing how to use words.

It’s important to remember that Vietnamese and English are two different languages coming from different cultures. It can be hard to fully understand the meaning of a word and use them fluently. To be able to do that, you should learn both English definition and your mother tongue meaning.

Languages go hand in hand with culture (Source: Unsplash)

Past form of verbs

The data you see in IELTS Writing Task 1 are usually taken from the past. That means you need to pay attention to tenses of the verbs.

Some verbs in English are irregular verbs. That means the past form of them is not the original verb with an “-ed” suffix like the regular verbs. For instance, the past form of “sink” is “SANK”. Adding past forms of the verbs reminds you to pay attention to irregular verbs.

Examples

The final column of the table includes examples of how to use these words. This part helps you use the words correctly and naturally like native speakers. So don’t miss this important section.

20 verbs describing downward trend

No.	Words	Pronunciation	English definition	Past form	Example
1	decline	US UK /dɪˈklaɪn/	to become less, worse, or lower in value	declined	Milk production could *decline* by 15% or more in the late summer months.
2	decrease	UK /dɪˈkriːs/ US /ˈdiː.kriːs/	to become less, or to make something become less	decreased	The country’s total exports *decreased* by 6% in 2009.
3	drop	UK /drɒp/ US /drɑːp/	to move or change to a lower level, or to make something lower or less	dropped	The temperature *dropped* nearly 50 degrees in 24 hours.
4	fall	UK /fɔːl/ US /fɑːl/	to become lower in size, amount, or strength	fell	Salaries in the public sector are expected to *fall* by 15 percent this year.
5	go down	UK /ɡəʊ daʊn/ US /ɡoʊ daʊn/	to be reduced in price, value, amount, quality,level, or size	went down	The company’s shares *went down* 7p to 53p.
6	plummet	UK /ˈplʌm.ɪt/ US /ˈplʌm.ɪt/	to go down in amount or value very quickly and suddenly	plummeted	plummet (by) sth First-half advertising revenues *plummeted* 13%, compared with the same period a year ago.
7	plunge	UK /plʌndʒ/ US /plʌndʒ/	to go down in amount or value very quickly and suddenly	plunged	*1) plunge to sth* Share prices *plunged* $16.74, or 44%, to $20.51 a share. *2) plunge by sth* The Dow was 40 points ahead, having *plunged* by 60 points shortly after the opening bell. *3) plunge from sth* Visitor numbers *plunged* from 25 million in 2010 to 22.8million – but they are now recovering.
8	reduce	UK /rɪˈdjuːs/ US /rɪˈduːs/	to make something less in price, size, amount	reduced	*1) reduce sth by sth* The bank planned to *reduce* its staff levels by around 20% by 2012. *2) reduce sth from sth to sth* The reorganization will *reduce* the number of managers from 15 to no more than 8.
9	slip	UK /slɪp/ US /slɪp/	to become worse, lower, or less in value	slipped	*slip (from sth) to sth* 1) February crude oil *slipped* 1¢ to $18.96 a barrel. 2) The proportion of shares held by UK individuals *slipped* from 14% to 13% last year.
10	dip	UK /dɪp/ US /dɪp/	to go down to a lower level, often by a small amount or for a short time	dipped	1) House prices are likely to *dip*in the first three months of the year. *2) dip from sth to sth* Employment gains *dipped* from 2.6% to only 1.7%. 3) Group sales *dipped* by 4% last quarter.
11	slump	UK /slʌmp/ US /slʌmp/	to fall suddenly in price, amount, or value	slumped	Home computer sales *slumped* dramatically last year.
12	crash	UK /kræʃ/ US /kræʃ/	to suddenly lose value, in a way that is serious	crashed	*crash from sth to sth* Its share price has *crashed* from nearly £7 in November to just £0.50.
13	sink	UK /sɪŋk/ US /sɪŋk/	if prices, profits, shares, etc. sink, they fall to a lower level	sank /sæŋk/	1) Bond prices *sank* and stocks rose today. *2) sink to sth* The dollar *sank*to a record low against the euro. 3) Shares *sank* 3% Wednesday to close at $39.35.
14	tumble	UK /ˈtʌm.bəl/ US /ˈtʌm.bəl/	to fall a lot in value in a short time	tumbled	Share prices *tumbled* yesterday.
15	shrink	UK /ʃrɪŋk/ US /ʃrɪŋk/	to become smaller, or to make something smaller	shrank	1) The company’s profits have *shrunk* from $5.5 million to $1.25 million. 2) The productivity improvements have *shrunk* our costs by 25 percent.
16	lessen	UK /ˈles.ən/ US /ˈles.ən/	to make something smaller, less noticeable	lessened	Corporate executives are keen to embrace “green technology” in order to *lessen* their dependence on fossil fuels.
17	lower	UK /ˈləʊ.ər/ US /ˈloʊ.ɚ/	to reduce the level, price, etc. of something	lowered	Landmark legislation requires California to *lower* greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020.
18	deplete	UK /dɪˈpliːt/ US /dɪˈpliːt/	to reduce something in size or amount, especially supplies of energy, money, etc.	depleted	If we continue to *deplete* the earth’s natural resources, we will cause serious damage to the environment.
19	diminish	UK /dɪˈmɪn.ɪʃ/ US /dɪˈmɪn.ɪʃ/	to reduce or be reduced in size, importance, or value	diminished	Over a period of several years, these securities *diminished* in value and the corporation went bankrupt.
20	collapse	UK /kəˈlæps/ US /kəˈlæps/	to suddenly fall to a much lower level	collapsed	1) *prices/shares collapse* Share prices *collapsed* after news of poor trading. 2) Without computers the whole economic system would *collapse*.

References

How can you remember those verbs?

To master verbs describing downward trend, you need to:

Write them down in your notebook
Practice constructing sentences with those verbs
Repeat the word learning process until you can use them fluently

However, this process might not be simple for some of you. Being too busy with work and have too little time might be the main reasons. Or maybe, you get discouraged by the boring and seemingly never-ending note taking process.

Let me share with you a very useful tip. With technology developments these days, you are just one click away from all of these steps.

My 4 steps of enhancing IELTS vocabulary

S1 – Download eJOY Extension on Google Chrome.
S2 – Select the new words, double click on them or click and drag to look up for your mother tongue and English definitions.
S3 – Click +Add to save the words with the suitable meaning in your online Wordbook.
S4 – Play games with those words regularly.

use eJOY extension — Looking up words using eJOY Extension

The special thing is, you don’t need to worry about when you should come back to the words. The eJOY extension already helps us do that thanks to the improved spaced repetition algorithm. When you’ve done studying some words, as you move on, the previously learned ones will soon be forgotten. The solution to that problem is simple. Just when you’re about to forget some of the words you learnt, eJOY will remind you to come back to them every day.

eJOY reminds you to study — eJOY reminds you to learn words everyday

Not only that, our development team also links eJOY extension to Youtube videos that contain the words you’re learning. That way, you can practice using such words within the context that the natives usually use.