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Stop Saying "Yesterday I was working in..." in Your Daily Stand-ups (Do this instead)

#english #productivity #beginners #career

We’ve all been there. The Daily Stand-up starts, the microphone is on you, and you try to translate your thoughts from Spanish to English on the fly.

Often, we rely too much on generic AI translations or school English, which makes us sound unnatural or, worse, destroys our technical authority in front of international clients.

Let's fix the most common mistake developers make when talking about yesterday's tasks.

❌ The "AI-Generated" Mistake

"Yesterday I was working in the new login feature and I uploaded the code."

Why does this sound off to a native English-speaking client or tech lead?

  1. "Working in" vs. "Working on": In English, you work in a building, a company, or a country. But you work on a task, a feature, or a bug.
  2. "Uploaded the code": This sounds like you are uploading a photo to Facebook or a video to YouTube. Devs don't upload code; they use Git terminology.

The Native Dev Way

If you want to sound like a natural part of a global tech team, use these exact phrases tomorrow:

  • "Yesterday, I worked **on* the login feature and pushed the code to the repository."*
  • "I **merged* the PR for the dashboard issue."*

See the difference? It’s short, direct, and uses actual tech jargon.

Want the full Survival Guide?

This is just a tiny snippet of the DevEnglish Survival Guide.

If you want the complete cheat sheet that includes:

  • How to professionally explain server blockers and bugs (without saying you are "trapped").
  • A plug-and-play template to copy/paste before your meetings.
  • Pronunciation alerts for tricky tech words (like API, Archive, and Develop).

You can get it instantly for free here: devenglish.substack.com

About Me:
Hi, I'm Valeria. I specialize in helping developers and tech professionals bridge the gap between their technical brilliance and their English communication. Traditional academies teach you how to order a coffee, but not how to explain a Git merge or a server blocker. I built DevEnglish to give you the precise, no-nonsense tools you need to crush your daily meetings and advance your international career.

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