Hi all, I wonder if I can change “INCREASE TO” in this sentence by " INCREASE IN " . I can’t distinguish between " TO" and " IN" .Whether this would transfer meaning of sentence or not . Thank in advance
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The combination “increase to” is followed by a value, usually a percentage, while “increase to” is followed by a unit such as “price”, “size”, “value”, etc.
Please let me know if this makes sense.
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while “increase in ” is followed by a unit such as “price”, “size”, “value”, etc.
yes, thank for your clear answer <3
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Sure, you might also want to check this:
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First the easy one.
Over the past two years the department has increased in size.
This is correct. You can not change the preposition.
Our gross margin increased to 24%.
This is also correct, and you can not change the preposition. But this one is a little trickier.
The 24% was not the percent of increase. Gross margin is always expressed as a percentage. So the 24% is the actual margin, not the percent increase. This affects the proposition.
For example if the previous gross margin was 16% and now it is 24%, that is an increase of 50%.
50% of 16% = 8%
16% + 8% = 24%
So there was an increase in gross margin.
There was an increase of 50% to 24%.
This terminology is more of a mathematics convention than an English convention. The difference between increase of and increase to causes confusion even among native English speakers.
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We could combine the two;
“An increase in gross margin to 24%.”
And, looking at a similar case:
“This is an increase of 3% over last year.”
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The report uses the word increase as a verb and the preposition ‘to’ is correct.
When increase is used as a noun, we use the preposition in.
If the level (like the height of water level in a dam) of something is meant, we may say an increase in the water level by one foot, or the water level increased to another foot’.
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