Introduction: Hello, hello. Hey, beautiful people. My name is Foster, I am an English teacher and welcome to the Prepositions Perfection Challenge. Prepositions are difficult, but we're going to make them easy. Prepositions are complicated, we are going to make them simple. Prepositions make most students anxious and nervous. We're going to teach you how to use prepositions with confidence and we're going to have some fun at the same time. So here we go, 30 days of prepositions, let's get started.

We have this phrase in English. We say ‘low-hanging fruit.’ And love this phrase 'low-hanging fruit.' I suppose a almost direct translation in Portuguese would be something like, “sei lá… fruta que é muito fácil de pegar, ou algo assim, sei lá.” 

Anyways, the idea with 'low-hanging fruit' you're describing something that is really easy to get, something that is really easy to do or achieve and it does not require much effort. So you can literally imagine a piece of fruit that is hanging in a tree, but it is close to the ground, and it’s very easy just to reach your arm up and pick that fruit from the tree. 

It’s like an easy victory. You really don’t need to do much and you win. It’s awesome. 

So, why am I talking about fruit? Because today we are going to get some of the low-hanging fruit of prepositions. 

So there are some extremely common preposition mistakes that almost all of our students always make. And these are really easy mistakes to fix. 

And I wanted to start today with some really easy corrections, some low-hanging fruit, because I think it will really help us gain momentum. And it will give us a little more confidence and get the ball rolling in the right direction. 

So let's get started with an easy one. Almost every single day, one of our students or someone that listens to our podcast says:

“I discovered you and Alexia in Spotify." Or "at Spotify." Or "I discovered you from Spotify.” And I have to politely smile and say, “Oh, you discovered us on Spotify.” 

So, the correct preposition in this case is "ON." If you are listening to this, you probably discovered Inglês Nu E Cru on Spotify. 

So in English, when we are talking about almost any type of platform, we use the preposition "ON" okay? So social media platforms, video platforms, music streaming services, all of these things, right? 

So we say, for example, "you can add me as a friend on Facebook." 

Or “I saw his photo on Instagram.” Or “I found a new job opportunity on Linkedin.” Or “I am studying English on the Internet.” Or “Alexia loves watching videos of cute little puppies on YouTube.” “Game of Thrones is on HBO.” “You are spending too much time watching series on Netflix.” 

Ok, so I think you get the point. 

When we are talking about platforms, like social media platforms, music streaming services, video platforms, almost everything like that, we always use the preposition on.” 

So here’s what I want you to do right now. Stop whatever you are doing, pause this audio and think of 5 examples where you can use the preposition "on" with a platform. Very similar to the examples I just gave you. 

So if you have a pen and paper close to you, that’s great. Write down your examples. If you don’t have a pen and paper, take a quick note on your phone. And I know you have your phone because you're listening to this audio, or you're on your computer. Just write down 5 examples, okay? 

Ok, now you can start the audio again. And remember, next time that you get on Facebook, or you are watching a new series on Netflix, ask the person that you are with, “Hey! Did you know that we always use the preposition on in English when we are talking about platforms in English?” 

And I know this seems like a lot, it seems a little ridiculous doing all of these things, but I promise if you do all of these things right now, you will never make this mistake again and that will automatically make you one of the top 10% of Brazilians that does not make this prepositional mistake. 

OK, another example of low-hanging fruit is when we are talking about days, months, and years. 

So, here we go, this is easy. When we are talking about days in English, we use the preposition "ON." For example, “The meeting is on Tuesday.” Okay? “The meeting is on Tuesday.”

But, when we are talking about months or years, we use the preposition "IN." For example, “The Election is in October.” Or "I will travel to Canada in 2020." Right? It's pretty simple, "ON" for days and "IN" for months and years. "ON" for days, "IN" for months and years. That's it. 

So many of our students ask about the differences between "IN" and "ON." And to be honest, most of their mistakes are connected to this exact thing: talking about days, months, and years. 

And the easiest way for me to remember this is to think about birthdays. 

So for example, my birthday is on October 23rd. And we are using the preposition "ON" in this case, because we are talking about the specific day. On the 23rd, right? So my birthday is on October 23rd. 

And my birthday is in October. And in this case, we are using the preposition "in" because we are only talking about the month of October. My birthday is in October.  

And finally, I can say, I was born in 1989. So here, we use the preposition "IN" because we are referring to the year, 1 989. 

So, if you need a little reminder about the prepositions "on" and "in," you can always think about your birthday. 

Cool, so I think that is enough low-hanging fruit to keep you satisfied for today. Just these really simple things. If you just sit and think about these things for just a little bit and practice some examples for two or three days, you will always be able to talk about platforms, social media, videos, series, a lot of things like that correctly, using the correct prepositions. 

And you will be able to talk about days of the week. You will be able to talk about different months. "When are you going to travel?" "I'm going to travel in July." Or important dates like when... I don't know, your wedding anniversary was, things like that. 

So I think that's it for today, ladies and gentlemen. Just some low-hanging fruit, some easy wins to really get this prepositional ball rolling in the right direction. I will see you guys in the next lesson.