student asking question

What is the difference between "drop", "fall" or "down"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

In this context, all three verbs would be appropriate in describing these statistics. Ex: Airbnb demand has dropped 70%. Ex: Airbnb demand has fallen by 70%. Ex: Airbnb demand has gone down by 70%. In general usage, "fall" and "drop" both mean to go down, but "drop" is more connected to actions involving an object being acted upon, whereas "fall" usually indicates an action that occurs alone, without something or someone causing the action. Ex: The man dropped the book. Ex: The tree fell down. In this context, "down" indicates a negative trend, and is commonly used when describing data or statistics. Ex: The stocks are down 2%. Ex: Economic activity has gone down by 7%.

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