If percentage – use fractions! if not exact – estimate!

THIRDS

Slightly over / Slightly under // A little more / A little less than /

Just over / Just under // More than / less than // In the region of / Roughly // More or less / Exactly // Nearly / approximately

near, nearly, roughly, close to 10%, in vicinity of 10%, an estimated 10%, hovered at around 10%,

E.g. approximately half, a little over three quarters, slightly less than three fifths. 5% - a small fraction // 52% - a majority // 48% - a minority // 53% - more than a half // 9% - almost 10% // 34% - approximately a third // 4% - a small fraction //42% - in the region of 40% // 64% - around two thirds // 27% - over a quarter // 77% - more or less three quarters // 10% - exactly one in ten // 18% - nearly a fifth // 30% = nearly a third, 52% = over a half of all respondents//a small fraction//exactly 30% of students//roughly a quarter of

33%

a third / one third

66%

two thirds

TENTHS

10%

a tenth / one tenth

QUARTERS

20%

two tenths

25%

a quarter / one quarter

30%

three tenths

50%

a half / one half / half

40%

four tenths

75%

three quarters

50%

a half / one half / half

60%

six tenths

FIFTHS

70%

seven tenths

20%

a fifth / one fifth

80%

eight tenths

40%

two fifths

90%

nine tenths

60%

three fifths

80%

four fifths

DIRECTION

TO: The population level in this city rose to a peak of 6 million.

TIME

ON: on Monday. AT: at noon, at night, at midnight, at 6 pm. IN: in October, in 2007, in spring

PERIODS of time

SINCE: Sales had risen since 2003. FOR: Exports fell for three consecutive years. FROM… TO: from 2003 to 2009

FROM… UNTIL: from 1998 until 2007 DURING: during the first half of this decade

WITHIN: Sales had risen to become the highest within the last 10 years.

SPATIAL relationships

ABOVE: Sales in Brazil were always above those of the other countries.

BELOW: Sales in Argentina were always below all other countries from 1996 onwards.

POSITION

AT: remained at / peaked at / troughed at IN: in Germany / in all 5 Asian countries

OVER: Sales were just over $65,000 UNDER: Sales fell by a little under $27,000

TRANSPORT

ON: on foot BY: by car / by bicycle / by plane

AMOUNT

BY: Sales fell by $37,000. / Pollution levels rose by 62,500m3. OF: Japan experienced a decrease of $5 million in exports.

TO/FROM: Sales increased to US$35,000 from US$18,000. FROM/TO: Exports fell from $6.3 million to $2.7 million.

Prepositions by and to:

Note how these two sentences mean exactly the same: The rate of unemployment rose to 12% in 2010. (from 7%) // The rate of unemployment rose by 5% in 2010.

Prepositions in and of:

This one is harder. We use “in” to describe changes in things and “of” to describe changes in number or amount. For example, There was a rise in the rate of unemployment // There was a rise of 5% in the rate of unemployment.