Now if you're in the numbers business I'm sure you'll have loads of fancy ways of graphically displaying data, but here are three classic graph/chart types which never fail!

• pie chart
• bar graph / chart
• venn diagram

However, if you are really old school, you might have your data in...

• table

This would be divided into:

• columns
• rows
• cells

The table will probably have..

• a header
• a footer

Trends and movements

Verbs related to data changes over time:

• to go up
• to go down
• to increase
• to decrease

The corresponding nouns

• A rise
• A fall
• An increase
• A decrease

Let's see this vocabulary in action:

• Les ventes ont augmenté de 30% depuis 2016.
  Sales have increased by 30% since 2016.
• Cette année, nous avons vu une augmentation de bénéfice de 20%.
  This year has seen a 20% increase in profits.
• Le taux de chômage a baissé de 5% l’année dernière.
  Unemployment fell by 5% last year.
• Il y a eu une augmentation de 40% sur les frais de production.
  There was a 40% rise in manufacturing costs.
• Il n’y a pas eu d’augmentation sur les frais de main d’œuvre cette année.
  There has been no increase in labour costs this year.

Comparisons

The typical forms for making comparisons are:

• higher than
• lower than
• the same as

Hopefully, you'll have positive news to report:

• Les ventes cette année ont été bien meilleures que ce que nous pensions.
  Sales this year were much better than we expected.

Adverbs and Adverbial phrases

Once we've mastered the basics, let's use some adverbs to add a bit more subtlety to our presentation:

 

• a lot
• a little
• greatly
• slightly
• rapidly
• slowly

 

Let's see these little fellas in action:

• Le prix de l’essence a augmenté rapidement au cours des quatre derniers mois.
  The oil price has risen rapidly over the last four months.

 

Time units

Don't forget your time markers.

 

• week
• month
• year
• fiscal year
• quarter
• period

 

Our conclusions

Let's put a spin on things, shall we?

• Nous sommes très contents des résultats de cette année.
  We are very happy with this year's results.

 

Feeling a bit downbeat?

 

• Les résultats n’ont pas été aussi bons que ceux que nous espérions.
  The results were not as good as expected.
• Nous sommes bien sûr déçus de l’augmentation de nos coûts.
  We are obviously disappointed that our costs have increased.

And finally...

At the end of the day, remember:

• Mensonges, que des mensonges et des statistiques.
  Lies, damn lies, and statistics

Some other stuff here