By & To: 2 Business English prepositions that cause mistakes

Prepositions. They're often tricky in English. In this video we're going to fix a common

mistake with 'by' and 'to'. And you'll also learn some financial terms.

Let's start with the prepositions.

Are you cold Rachel? Yes. Jay, check the thermostat.

I'm cold too. It's down to 68 degrees.

No wonder we're all cold. So the temperature has fallen and now it's

68 degrees. We use 'to' to describe the level it's reached. OK, let's move on to 'by'.

So that's five, fifteen, twenty eight. Well done.

Ha! Ha! I'm going to beat you today. I doubt it. You're still down by sixty eight

points. Show me that

We use 'by' to talk about the difference between two levels. 68 points is the gap between our

scores. Let's look at two more examples. The rate of inflation has increased to 4%

The rate of inflation has increased by 4% Both these sentences are correct, but they

mean different things. 'Increased to' means inflation has reached 4%. 'Increased by' means

4% is the size of the rise - the size of the difference.

In some languages, you'd use the same preposition here and people would understand what you

mean from context. But not in English. We use two different prepositions with different

meanings. It's good to be here with folks who are becoming

old friends. Well thank you Joe. Now I understand you want

to be in this video Yes.

OK, but you must stick to the examples. You can't talk too long, Joe.

OK. Do you understand? Yes.

Off you go then. When the President and I took office in January

of 2009 this nation was in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the great depression.

Our economy had plummeted... No, no Joe. You're just going to stick to

the examples.'To - by'. Remember? Yes.

OK. Again. We've gone from losing 9 million jobs during

the financial crisis, to creating 10 million jobs. We've reduced unemployment from 10%

in October of 2009 to 6.1% today. OK. Good examples, Joe.

You could smile a bit, Joe Now let's do 'by'. Ready?

Yes. Since the year 2000 gross domestic product,

our GDP, has risen by 25%. And productivity in America is up by 30%.

That's great!

Yes, that's all we need, Joe. We'll say goodbye now.

Take care. Thanks for listening. And God bless you all.

He's so serious! He never smiles. Good examples though.

Can you remember what Joe said? GDP is the value of all goods and services produced in

a country in a year. And productivity is the rate at which goods are produced. When productivity

goes up it take less time and money to make things.

So what preposition did Joe use here? By. He was talking about the difference between

the two numbers. Next one. Unemployment is the number of people

who can't get a job. The missing preposition? To. Notice Joe said 'from'. From was the starting

point and to was the level they reached. OK, one final example.

Here are your pay checks. Oh thank you very much. Thanks. Oh great.

I'm getting a salary increase this month. Me too.

It's great to be appreciated. Yeah. They know we're doing a good job. Great. Mine's

gone up by 3%. How about about yours? Mine' s gone up as well.

By how much? By 6%. They must be very pleased with my work.