IELTS Writing Task 1: past simple, past perfect

Several people have asked me to explain how the past perfect tense can be used in writing task 1. The example below might help.

Look at the following description:

In 2002, the cost of an average house in the UK was £130,000. By 2007, the average house price had risen to almost £190,000.

Notice the verbs used with "in" and "by":

• I used "in" with the past simple "was" to talk about what happened in one year only (2002).
• I used "by" with the past perfect "had risen" to talk about an increase that happened in the years before 2007 (from 2002 to 2007).

Try writing your own sentences with "in" and "by" to practise describing numbers with the past simple and past perfect.

Comments

[Murad]

* Facebook already had a billion active users in 2012, but by 2015 this figure had increased to more than 1.5 billion.

* Twitter was in second place in 2014 when the monthly number of active Instagram users began to exceed that of Twitter users. By 2017 Instagram had taken a 0.1 billion user lead over Twitter, forcing Twitter into third position.

[paul]

In 2015, I bought e-book and videos from Simon. By 2017, my English in both writing and reading had improved a lot.

[Akter]

In 2013, only 15% of people were under 3G network coverage in Bangladesh. However, by 2017, the figure of 3G user had sored at 95%.

[Pachu]

In 2010,unemployment rate was 2 % in the country.By 2017, unemployment rate had increased to about 5 % in the country.

[cara]

Akter:
In 2013, only 15% of the population in Bangladesh were under 3G network coverage . By 2017, however, the number of 3G users had risen to 95%.['soared' is too journalistic for Task 1.]

OR:
By 2017, however, this proportion had risen to 95%.
[This version substitutes 'proportion' to avoid repeating the same subject.]

[Akter]

Thanks @Cara

[Govinder dhaliwal]

In 2010, the transportation of goods throught rail in the uk was 4 billions . By 2015, the amount of goods had risen to nearly 6 billions.

[tan]

In 1990, population in Taiwan was about twenty millions. By 2010, the number of people had increased about 3 millions.

[O.Berk]

In 2008, Turkish Lira price against American Dollar was 1.29 while by 2018 Turkish Lira price had risen almost to 5.37.

[Linh tran]

In 2000, the town had a great number of green trees. By the year 2010, almost these trees had been cut down to make way for several high building.

[Ola]

In 2005, the number of unemployed graduates was 2 million. By 2019, the figure for unemployed graduates had risen to nearly 20million.

[Zhansaya]

In 2005, the number of people in Kazakhstan was around 15 million. By 2019, the figure for popullation had increased slightly to nearly 18 million.

[Hero]

In 2016 , the number of students used book for study activities ,but by 2018 they have used internet to get theirs formations

[Sanjay Chaudhary]

Global sale of mobile phone games was approximately 11 billion dollars in the beginning year(2000).Afterwards by 2006 this sale had considerably reached at 18 billion dollars as per the column graph.