English Listening: How to Express Frequency, Percentages, and Rankings with Data

Now, let's discuss how we describe relationships when presenting data. We often need to express how frequently something occurs. "Two out of three" is a very common expression. For example, two out of three customers preferred the blue one. One out of every seven minutes is spent on Facebook. And did you know that one in four Americans eats fast food every day? The important thing to note here is the phrases: two out of three, one in four, but also the verb. It agrees with the first number. So two out of three is plural. One out of seven minutes is singular. You might wonder why not just say 66% instead of two out of three. The reason is for emphasis. Saying 66% of the people seems general, but saying two out of three seems more striking. Or we could say 15% of the time people are online, they are on Facebook. But saying one out of every seven minutes online is spent on Facebook sounds much more dramatic. You can use this to emphasize frequency.

Percentages are important in many cases when reporting data. We say "point" for the decimal and "percent" for example, 18.5%, or she got 49.2% of the vote. When using percentages in sentences, the noun determines whether the verb is singular or plural. Consider count and non-count nouns. For example, 20% of the jobs are part-time (plural) versus 20% of the work is already finished (singular). After these quantifiers, countable nouns use plural verbs: the majority of people speak English; the number of students increased. Note the difference in meaning with "number": The number of students is surprising (singular), but a number of students are finished with the course (plural). There's a difference between percent and percentage. Use percent with a number (20% increase). Use percentage when referring to a rate or value: the percentage was greater in the second quarter.

Next, let's look at lists ranking things first to last. The chart shows how much tourists spend abroad. Chinese tourists spend the most. You can describe the ranking: China was first in tourist spending abroad; the US was second; China was number one in tourist dollars spent abroad; Germany was number three; Brazil ranked 10th. Knowing ordinal numbers (first, second, third…) is useful.

We previously discussed comparisons in meetings and negotiations. To compare two cities, you can say: Pokkara isn't as expensive as Zurich, or Pokkara is less expensive than Zurich. Zurich is more expensive than Pokkara. Add an intensifier: Pokkara is much less expensive than Zurich, Zurich is a lot more expensive than Pokkara. If the difference is small, use slightly or a little. Informally: a little bit. For formal speech, slightly.

You can also express how much: Kuzko is more expensive than Pokkara; twice as much: Kuzko is twice as expensive as Pokkara; four times: Zurich is four times as expensive as Kuzko. Use the superlative: Pokkara is the least expensive; Zurich is the most expensive; the cost in Zurich is the highest, in Pokkara the lowest. Intensifiers like "by far" are possible. You can also describe cost with the verb "cost": It costs less to stay in Pokkara; Zurich costs the most.

Returning to the tours and spending chart, you can compare using subjects: Chinese tourists spent more abroad than US tourists; tourists from Brazil spent less than Chinese tourists. Adjust intensity with much more or slightly more. Use the superlative when considering one group against all others: US tourists spent the second highest amount; German tourists accounted for the third highest. You can also use twice as much or half as much. Ranking and comparing help describe similarities or differences effectively.