Day 18 | Spoken English Practice: Prepositions, Tenses और Modals सीखें

Main ideas / lessons (Day 18)

• Spoken English practice focusing on grammar through prepositions + tenses + modals
  • The session emphasizes that correct sentence formation comes from combining:
    • Tense (time/situation/mood knowledge)
    • Prepositions (position/relationship words)
    • Practice/testing (students form sentences during a guided test)

Methodology / learning approach used

• Warm-up and revision

  • Revisited earlier prepositions and contrasts, including:
    • near vs front/opposite vs side (using classroom/exam positioning and distance examples)
    • front vs opposite/facing
      • Example: “teacher in front of students”
      • If a child stands in front, the reference for front shifts
    • side/near/beside/beside vs at (used to show closeness/adjacency)

• Direct teaching of new prepositions

  • Each preposition is taught with:
    • Meaning explanation
    • Short example sentences
    • Quick comparisons with similar prepositions

• Guided sentence building with tenses

  • Students were shown models such as:
    • Present Continuous + preposition
    • Past Continuous + preposition
    • Simple past + preposition
    • Mixing conditionals/modals (e.g., should/can/will/have to) with prepositions

• Frequent mini-tests

  • A “test round” where learners must:
    • Convert prompts into correct English sentences
    • Use newly learned prepositions + tense + modal structure
  • The teacher corrects mistakes and reinforces correct grammar.

Prepositions taught (with core meanings)

Near / Close-related

• near

  • Meaning: close to a person or place
  • Example: I live near the market.

• nearby

  • Meaning: a small distance away; still “nearby”
  • Example: The nearest grocery shop is 5 km (far), nearby if 1–2 km/500 meters.

• beside / next to / right next to

  • Meaning: immediately adjacent
  • Example: I live next to my home office.

• front / opposite / facing

  • Meaning explained using classroom/exam seating:
    • In an exam hall, students face the front.
    • If someone stands in front, the “front” reference changes from your point of view.

Against

• against

  • Core physical meaning: support/leaning with help of

  • Example patterns:

    • Lean against the wall.
    • The ladder is against the wall.

  • Additional contrast meanings mentioned:

    • protest / opposition
      • He is against me
      • Everyone is ready except Rahul
      • Worked against difficulty (conceptually)

  • Key clarification: “against” can also mean support, not only “opposition.”

Along

• along
  • Meaning: moving in the direction of a path/line
  • Examples:
    • He walked along the river.
    • We walked along the road.
    • I like walking along the seashore.
  • Often pairs with continuous tenses:
    • We were walking along the river.

Around

• around
  • Meaning: surrounding / all sides
  • Examples:
    • We sat around the table.
    • Shops around my house.
    • People were standing around the car.

Beyond

• beyond

  • Meaning: past a limit/boundary/place

  • Examples:

    • The village is beyond the mountain.
    • Don’t go beyond this point.

  • The teacher also linked across as a related direction concept (before/after crossing).

Across

• across
  • Meaning taught: to the other side / cross to reach
  • Examples:
    • We crossed the road to reach across the road.
    • This city is across the river.

Beneath (often confused with under)

• beneath

  • Meaning taught: the very bottom / lowest layer

  • Examples:

    • The water is beneath the tank.
    • We haven’t seen the bottom/beneath of the ocean yet.

  • Clarification: Beneath ≠ under

    • The teacher uses sea/ocean “bottom” as the conceptual anchor.
  • Correction example:
    • The cat is beneath the table (bottom-specific use)

During vs While (time concepts)

• during

  • Meaning: within a time period (activity continues inside that period)
  • Example: During the meeting/class, don’t talk.

• while

  • Meaning: during the time an activity is happening
  • Example: While driving, don’t talk on the phone.
  • Pairs:
    • Don’t talk while eating.
    • Don’t talk during the class.

Till / Until

• till vs until
  • Both mean up to a time / until a time
  • Teacher note:
    • until = more formal
    • till = more informal

Despite / Except / Even though (preposition contrast)

• despite

  • Meaning: in spite of difficulty
  • Examples:
    • We went outside despite the rain.
    • He continued working despite being tired.

• except

  • Meaning: all except one person/thing
  • Examples:
    • Everyone was ready except Rahul.
    • I eat everything except spicy food.

Towards

• towards
  • Meaning: direction of movement toward
  • Examples:
    • We are moving towards the city.
    • She is walking towards the door.

Past

• past
  • Taught in two ways:
    • time past (past tense context)
    • passing by/in front of
  • Examples:
    • He walked past the shop.
    • I walked past your house.
  • Distinction explained as passing by in front of.

Under / Underneath / Underground

• Teacher compresses differences:
  • under = bottom concept
  • underneath = “just below” (more specific)
  • underground = “under the ground” (treated as similar enough in this lesson to reduce confusion)

Upon / On (multiple uses)

• upon
  • Taught as more forward/formal than on
• Key meanings/examples emphasized:
  1. Time: Once upon a time.
  2. Surrounding/encircling: The monkey jumped upon me.
  3. Climbing: Climb upon the mountain.
  4. Upon arrival / upon reaching:
     • Call me when you reach home / Upon arrival…

Within

• within
  • Meaning: inside a time limit
  • Examples:
    • Finish the work within a week.
    • Reply within two days.

Through / Throughout / All through

• throughout / all through
  • Meaning: entire time
  • Examples:
    • It rained throughout the night.
    • She remained calm throughout the interview.

Via

• via
  • Meaning: route/way
  • Examples:
    • We traveled via Jaipur.
    • Send documents via email.
    • I contacted him via WhatsApp.

Unlike / Like / Regarding / Concerning / About

• unlike

  • Meaning: different from
  • Examples:
    • Unlike me, my brother is very calm.
  • Teacher warned about connective/usage confusion.

• like

  • Meaning: liking/similarity
  • Note: “like” can act as a verb and also as a preposition.

• regarding / concerning

  • Meaning: in relation to
  • Teacher: both are more formal options in writing/speech.

About

• about
  • Mentioned briefly as a related meaning (“important task” transition).

Test-style practice content (sentence formation)

Students repeatedly practice combining:

• Preposition + tense + modal

Examples of structured prompts used:

• I live near the market.
• I went outside despite the rain.
• You should wait till evening.
• I will complete the work within a week.
• It rained all night → practiced as all through/out the night
• Unlike his brother, he speaks with confidence.
• All countries are against India.
• The richest person in India is standing next to me.
• I passed in front of your shop yesterday.
• I love you from the bottom of my heart.

Teacher also worked on “correct/incorrect duplication” errors (e.g., repeating he speaks with confidence).

Cultural / English usage clarifications

• Family vocabulary confusion

  • Teacher explained uncle (maternal vs paternal) and warned that direct word mapping can confuse learners.
  • Advice: use simple correct English (e.g., just “uncle” where needed) to avoid overcomplication.

• Food translation issue

  • Teacher argued some Indian sweets/snacks don’t have perfect universal English equivalents:
    • Jalebi may be understood differently abroad (teacher compared with “funnel cake,” but noted it may not be understood)
    • Pakora should remain pakora (avoid overtranslation)

Ending / overall lesson

• Confidence increases through practice + correction
• Tomorrow’s session will continue with more learning and fun
• Encouragement to keep practicing the spoken English structures learned so far

Speakers / sources featured

• Main speaker/teacher (implied): “Sir” / “Guruji” / “Joy, Professor of English” (referenced in narration)
• Students mentioned during greetings/tests: Vishu Saini, Bhawani Singh, Roshan Kumawat, Nitesh Parasar, Virendra, Rishabh, Mohit Verma, Nitesh Deep, Lucky Verma, Akshita Sharma, Jatin, Anjali Nikhil, Sheetal, Akshita Bagadia, Akshit Parik, Wasim Johra, Urvi, Mr. Sam, Ramniwas, Harshit Sharma, Ashok, Khushi Saini, Zohra Sam, Harshit, Sam, Rishabh Roy, Virendra Rishabh, Jatin Tan, Tanishka Sharma, and others
• YouTube channel/source mentioned: Joey English Professor YouTube Channel