Week 02 — Prepositions, word nuance, status updates¶

This week

Grammar: Prepositions and collocations · Vocabulary: Word nuance: affect/impact/influence, ensure/assure/insure · Idioms & phrasal verbs: Progress and delay: behind schedule, move the needle, on track, slip through the cracks, hit a snag · Speaking: Word stress and sentence rhythm · Writing: Clear status updates · Soft skill: Giving feedback with SBI (situation-behavior-impact)

Day 1 — Grammar: Prepositions and collocations¶

⏱ 30 min · Mon

Rule in 60 seconds¶

Prepositions in English are largely fixed by the word before them (verb, adjective or noun). Learn them as chunks: responsible for, depend on, interested in, access to, reason for, increase in.
Time: at + clock time or a point (at 10 a.m., at the end of the sprint); on + day or date (on Monday, on 3 October); in + month, year, period (in October, in Q4, in the morning). By = no later than; until = continuing up to.
Place/level: in the cloud, on the server, at the office, on the roadmap, in the backlog.
Changes: an increase in costs, a reduction in latency, an investment in tooling, a demand for skills, the answer to a question.
Verbs with fixed prepositions: depend on, rely on, consist of, result in / result from, agree with (a person) / on (a plan) / to (a proposal), apologize for, comply with, participate in, contribute to, focus on.
Verbs with no preposition (transitive): discuss, emphasize, attend, reach, enter, answer (the question), mention, contact, address.
The error fluent speakers make: translating the preposition from their first language ("depend of", "discuss about", "responsible of", "interested on") and adding an unneeded one ("emphasize on", "reach to the office"). Different from is safe everywhere; different than is mainly American.

Exercise¶

Choose the correct preposition (or "-" for none).

We are responsible ___ the deployment pipeline. (for / of)
The outcome depends ___ the vendor's response. (on / of)
She is very good ___ estimating effort. (at / in)
Please reply ___ the customer before noon. (to / -)
The new service is similar ___ the old one in design. (to / with)
We agreed ___ a new timeline yesterday. (on / with)
The team should invest ___ observability. (in / on)
Access ___ production is restricted to on-call engineers. (to / for)
The change resulted ___ a 20 percent drop in errors. (in / from)
The review is ___ Monday ___ 10 a.m. ___ the second week of October. (on/at/in, in/on/at, at/in/on)

Answers and explanations

for (responsible for). 2. on (depend on). 3. at (good at + gerund). 4. to (reply to; answer takes none). 5. to (similar to). 6. on (agree on a plan or decision; agree with a person). 7. in (invest in). 8. to (access to). 9. in (result in = cause; result from = be caused by). 10. on Monday at 10 a.m. in the second week (day / clock time / period).

Trap in item 9: "resulted from" would reverse cause and effect: "A 20 percent drop resulted from the change."

Use it¶

Write three sentences about your work using depend on, responsible for and a reduction in. Check each preposition against a learner dictionary (Cambridge or Oxford Learner's).

Day 2 — Vocabulary: Word nuance: affect/impact/influence, ensure/assure/insure¶

⏱ 30 min · Tue

Word	Part of speech	Meaning	Example
affect	verb	to change or have an effect on something (verb; the noun is effect)	The new rate limit will affect every partner integration.
impact	noun / verb	noun: a strong effect. Verb use ("impacts our roadmap") is standard in business English; some writers still prefer affect or have an impact on	The outage had a serious impact on booking volume.
ensure	verb	to make certain that something happens or is true	We run canary releases to ensure a failed deployment never reaches all users.
assure	verb	to tell someone confidently that something is true, to remove their doubt (the object is a person)	I can assure you that customer data was not exposed.
insure	verb	to protect with an insurance policy (in both US and UK usage; ensure is for certainty)	The shipper insured the container for its full value.

Collocations and word family¶

affect vs effect: affect (verb) = change; effect (noun) = the result: "The change affected latency; the effect was small." (Effect as a verb = to bring about: "effect change", formal.)
have an impact on / a positive impact / a significant impact / measure the impact / impact analysis. Influence: influence a decision / have influence over / exert influence / influence on. Influence implies indirect persuasion; affect is a factual change; impact stresses size.
ensure + that-clause or noun: ensure compliance / ensure that...; assure + person: assure customers / assure someone that...; noun assurance (quality assurance, "give assurances").
insure against risk; insurance, insurer, underinsured. Some US style guides accept insure for "ensure" but avoid it.

Exercise¶

Cloze: choose the best word.

The migration will ___ how we handle every customer's data. (affect / effect)
We added checks to ___ that no invalid records enter the warehouse. (ensure / assure)
Please ___ the client that we are treating this as a priority. (ensure / assure)
The cargo was ___ against loss at sea. (insured / ensured)
The latency spike had a serious ___ on conversion. (impact / affect)
The audit had no ___ on our release date. (effect / affect)
Senior engineers ___ decisions even without formal authority. (influence / ensure)
Which is a noun: affect, effect (in everyday business use)?

Answers and explanations

affect (verb). 2. ensure (make certain). 3. assure (object is a person: the client). 4. insured (policy). 5. impact (noun, after serious). 6. effect (noun after no). 7. influence (persuade indirectly). 8. effect (affect as a noun exists in psychology only).

Use it¶

Write three sentences about a change you made recently, using affect, ensure and assure. Say them aloud.

Day 3 — Speaking: Word stress and sentence rhythm¶

⏱ 30 min · Wed

Prompt (60-90 seconds)¶

"Explain to a new team member how we handle deployments and what could go wrong. Use the words process, production, approval, rollback, monitoring."

Structure¶

Say the process as a sequence with signposts ("First..., then..., finally..."), then one thing that could go wrong.

Pronunciation micro-drill¶

English is stress-timed: content words (nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, negatives) get stress; function words (the, of, to, and, is) are short and weak. Beats stay roughly evenly spaced; the unstressed words squeeze in between.

Practice: "DEploy to STAGing, RUN the TESTS, and APprove the RElease." (Tap on the capitals; keep the small words fast.)
Word stress that changes meaning: RE-cord (noun) / re-CORD (verb); PRO-cess (noun) / pro-CEED; OB-ject / ob-JECT; PER-mit / per-MIT.
Word stress in your everyday vocabulary: de-VEL-op, de-VEL-op-ment (same stress in both), e-CO-no-my, e-co-NOM-ic, INF-ra-struc-ture, ar-chi-TEC-ture, a-VAIL-a-BIL-i-ty.
Suffixes shift stress: -tion, -ic, -ity, -ical put stress on the syllable before the suffix: con-fig-u-RA-tion, ex-pla-NA-tion, pro-duc-TIV-i-ty.
Weak forms: "for" /fə/, "to" /tə/, "and" /ən/, "of" /əv/: "a lot of bugs" sounds like "a LOTta BUGS".

Self-check¶

I stressed content words and let small words shrink.
I got at least 8 of 10 stress patterns right (compare with a dictionary audio).
I used first / then / finally to signpost.
I did not stress every word equally.
I recorded once and listened for rhythm.

Day 4 — Idioms & phrasal verbs: Progress and delay: behind schedule, move the needle¶

⏱ 30 min · Thu

Expression	Meaning	Example
behind schedule	later than planned; neutral, common in all registers	The integration is two weeks behind schedule because of vendor delays.
move the needle	make a measurable difference; informal, US business	Renaming variables won't move the needle; fixing the cache miss rate will.
on track	progressing as planned; neutral	The migration is on track for the 30 November cutover.
slip through the cracks	be overlooked or forgotten (a task or a person); informal, common	The security fix slipped through the cracks during the handover.
hit a snag	run into an unexpected small problem; informal, common in UK and US	We hit a snag with certificate renewal but resolved it in an hour.

Exercise¶

Complete: "The project is ___ schedule, so we need to cut scope."
Which idiom describes work that makes a real, measurable difference?
"Nobody followed up, so the ticket ___ through the ___."
Choose: "We're on ___ / off ___ / at ___ for the deadline." (track/road/path)
Rewrite idiomatically: "We encountered a small unexpected problem during testing."
Rewrite plainly: "That optimization won't move the needle."
True or false: hit a snag suggests a serious, project-ending failure.
Which is more suitable in a formal report: "We hit a snag" or "We encountered an issue"?

Answers and explanations

behind. 2. move the needle. 3. slipped, cracks. 4. track (on track). 5. "We hit a snag during testing." 6. "That optimization won't make a noticeable difference." 7. False: a snag is minor. 8. "We encountered an issue" (more neutral; the idiom is fine in team chat).

When NOT to use them

Slip through the cracks implies someone failed: in a postmortem, use it carefully or describe the process gap instead. Do not use move the needle if you can name the metric; the number is stronger than the idiom.

Day 5 — Writing: Clear status updates¶

⏱ 30 min · Fri

A good status update answers: Where are we? (RAG: red/amber/green) What changed? What is at risk? What do you need? Keep to the facts; use dates and numbers.

Bad draft¶

Hi all, quick update on the payment project. Things are going okay overall. We did a lot of work this week on the stuff we talked about and testing is happening. There were some problems but the team is working on it. It might be delayed a bit. We'll see. Let me know if you have questions.

Task¶

Rewrite under 100 words, with: overall status (amber), what was completed, the main risk with a date impact, and one clear ask.

Model answer and what changed

Payment gateway: status AMBER (week of 6 Oct)

Done: API integration complete; 80 of 120 test cases passing. Risk: 12 failing cases involve refunds. The vendor's fix is due 10 Oct; if late, go-live moves from 24 Oct to 31 Oct. Next: finish remaining tests by 15 Oct. Ask: Priya, please escalate to the vendor's account manager if the fix is not delivered by 10 Oct.

Status label (RAG) in the title.
Numbers replace "a lot of" and "some problems".
The risk states cause and date impact.
"We'll see" was replaced with a trigger date and an ask.
Structure (Done / Risk / Next / Ask) makes it skimmable.

Day 6 — Speaking record: Word stress and sentence rhythm (2-minute recording)¶

⏱ 30 min · Sat

Task¶

Record 2 minutes. Prompt: "Explain a delay that happened on one of your projects: what caused it, what you did, and what you would do differently." Focus on stress-timed rhythm and clear content-word stress.

Structure¶

Situation (25 s) -> Cause (30 s) -> Actions (35 s) -> Lesson (30 s).

Scoring rubric (1-4)¶

Criterion	1	2	3	4
Clarity	hard to follow	main idea recoverable	clear	effortless
Structure	no order	partial	clear start and end	signposted
Fluency	frequent long pauses	noticeable hesitations	occasional	smooth
Grammar accuracy	blocks meaning	frequent errors	occasional	rare
Vocabulary range	basic	some variety	good	precise, varied
Pronunciation	unintelligible in places	needs effort	mostly clear	clear stress and rhythm

Shadowing task¶

Shadow a clear speaker for 8 minutes: a BBC Learning English "6 Minute English" episode (bbc.co.uk/learningenglish) or a TED talk (ted.com). Copy the rhythm first, then the sounds.

Log your score: date, total /24, weakest criterion, three stress mistakes.

Day 7 — Soft skills + weekly review: Giving feedback with SBI¶

⏱ 30 min · Sun

Scenario¶

A senior engineer, Dana, joined your design review 15 minutes late and interrupted a junior engineer twice. The junior engineer stopped talking afterward. You are her lead and want to raise it privately.

Task¶

Script your feedback (about 150 words) using SBI: Situation (when and where), Behavior (what you observed, no judgment), Impact (the effect on you, others or the work), then a question.

Model response and techniques

"Dana, do you have five minutes? I wanted to talk about this morning's design review. When we were discussing the queue design (situation), I noticed you interrupted Sam twice while he was explaining the trade-offs (behavior). After that he stopped contributing, and we lost his view on the failure modes (impact). I know you're keen on getting to the answer quickly, and your experience is valuable. How did the discussion feel from your side? What could we do so everyone gets to finish their point?"

Techniques: private setting, specific situation, observable behavior, not personality ("you interrupted", not "you're rude"), concrete impact, open question, positive intent stated once.

Weekly recap (20 items)¶

"Responsible ___ / depend ___ / good ___ / similar ": fill in. 2. Preposition with access? 3. "Discuss about" or "discuss"? 4. Result in vs result from. 5. " Monday ___ 10 a.m.": prepositions. 6. Affect vs effect: which is the verb? 7. Who is the object of assure? 8. Ensure vs insure (US business use)? 9. Give a noun for assure. 10. Difference between impact and influence. 11. Define behind schedule. 12. What does move the needle mean? 13. Slip through the cracks: when do you avoid it? 14. What does RAG mean? 15. What four things does a status update answer? 16. What is SBI? 17. Why describe behavior rather than personality? 18. Which words get stress in a sentence? 19. Stress: develop / development. 20. Stress shift: record noun vs verb.

Answers

for / on / at / to. 2. to. 3. discuss (no preposition). 4. result in = cause; result from = be caused by. 5. on / at. 6. affect. 7. A person. 8. Insure = insurance policy; ensure = make certain. 9. assurance. 10. Impact = size of effect; influence = indirect persuasion. 11. Later than planned. 12. Make a measurable difference. 13. In blame-free postmortems; describe the process gap. 14. Red/amber/green status. 15. Where are we, what changed, what is at risk, what do you need. 16. Situation-Behavior-Impact. 17. Behavior is observable and changeable; labels trigger defensiveness. 18. Content words. 19. de-VEL-op / de-VEL-op-ment. 20. RE-cord (noun), re-CORD (verb).

Self-score¶

I got 8 of 10 preposition items right on Day 1.
I can explain affect/effect and ensure/assure/insure.
I could clap the stress beats in a sentence.
My status update had a status, a risk and an ask.
I used SBI at least once (or scripted it).

Error log: write your top 3 recurring mistakes this week (for example: wrong preposition after a verb).