starts fell ?

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Vivaldi

#269459 Tue, 19 Sep 06 06:03 PM

Can you tell me, please, which of the sentences below are correct? and if all are correct, what is the difference in the meaning between them?

U.S. housing starts fell more sharply than expected to the lowest rate in more than three years. (this one confuses me)

U.S. housing starts to fall more sharply than expected to the lowest rate in more than three years.

U.S. housing starts falling more sharply than expected to the lowest rate in more than three years.

Vivaldi

Joined on Sat, Aug 5 2006

New Member (21)

Asham

#269463 Tue, 19 Sep 06 06:15 PM

No.1 is incorrect because
starts -- present time (something that is happening _now_)
fell -- imperfect (something that has already happened)

The other two ones look okay to me. I wouldn't want to elaborate on which is more correct - I am not that confident in my english skills.

Asham

Joined on Tue, Sep 19 2006

Stockholm

New Member (05)

nona the brit

#269465 Tue, 19 Sep 06 06:18 PM

You are not being clear on what is falling. 'Housing' is not sufficient (unless you mean their houses are falling down). The number of houses being built? The interest rate charged on mortgages (house purchase)? The number of house sales? House values?

nona the brit

Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004

England

Veteran Member (11,354)

The name says it all.

Numbers

Vivaldi

#269474 Tue, 19 Sep 06 06:31 PM

U.S. housing starts fell more sharply than expected to the lowest rate in more than three years.

This phrase 'starts fell' is confusing to me and I found it today here http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060919/bs_nm/economy_dc

It is about falling prices in the US housing market.

Vivaldi

Grammar Geek

#269479 Tue, 19 Sep 06 06:41 PM

"starts" is a manufacturing term. It is a noun that refers to how many orders have been placed, which leads to how much of the product will "start" the production cycle.

"Housing starts" refers to how many new homes are being contructed.

Housing starts fell means that there are fewer houses being started. Housing starts fell more sharply than expected = the number of new houses being started was a lot lower than people had thought. They fell to such a low number that this number was the lowest in more than three years. The original sentence was correct. (It does not refer to prices, either.)

Any type of manufacturing can have starts. When I was at a manufacturing plant, "starts" was one of the most watched numbers. It told us how busy we were going to be.

Does that help?