Being able to talk in English about how you spend your day or week is a great place to get started with English conversations.
There are some set phrases for describing routines that you can learn by heart and then just change the information to suit your own lifestyle.
Learn these 15 simple structures to describe your main habits
- I get up at 7am every day.
- I usually have toast/cereal/fruit for breakfast.
- I have a bath/a shower.
- I leave my house around 8.30.
- I drive/cycle/walk/catch the bus to work/school.
- I’m usually at work/school until 3pm.
- I pick the kids up from school.
- My husband/wife/flatmate and I take turns cooking the evening meal.
- I sometimes phone my Mum after dinner.
- I put the kids to bed around 7.30.
- I play tennis twice a week.
- I normally do the housework on Saturday morning.
- I always watch my favourite TV program on Saturday evening.
- I often go shopping on Sundays.
- I tend to go to bed around 11pm unless I’m really tired.
Useful words for describing routines
You might have noticed these words in the sentences above:
usually, sometimes, normally, always, often, tend to
Those ‘frequency words’ are great for making your sentence sound natural and describing how regularly you do something.
A typical structure is:
I + frequency word + activity + time/day
For example, ‘I normally go shopping on Sundays.’
What about YOUR routine/habits?
Which of those 15 sentences applies to YOUR life? Can you change any of the information so that it’s true for YOU?
For example, maybe you go swimming twice a week instead of playing tennis. Or maybe you have eggs for breakfast or you do your housework on Tuesdays. Maybe you get a taxi to work or maybe your husband always cooks. Think about your own routine with those 15 structures.
Writing challenge
Now write 3 sentences about your weekly routine below and I’ll check them for you!
26 Responses
Hi Nicki. I get up at 7 every day. I have some cereals for breakfast. I have a quick shower. I leave my house at 8.30. I drive to the work.
Is it right?
Yes, fantastic present simple sentences Lou! Two little corrections, we don’t add an ‘s’ to cereal and we just say drive to work, without ‘to’. Well done! 🙂
Hi Nicki I get up at 7am every day and I usually take a shower, after the shower I have my breakfast and then leave for school. I walk to school because it’s just a ten minute walk.
This is a perfect little paragraph Imolatric! How lovely to have a 10 minute walk to school every morning! Thanks for sharing your use of the structures in this lesson 😊
Hi Nicki
I usually get up at 7 a.m. I take a shower and brush my teeth.
I always prepare breakfast for my son and we have breakfast together.
We get ready and leave home about 8 a.m. I drive to work after that I get my son in the kindergarten. I start working at 8:30 .
I pick my son up at 16 p.m then we usually go shopping or go to the park .
At night we watch the movie together. I go to bed at midnight.
This is a fantastic paragraph Sepideh!!
Just note that it’s watch A movie, not the.
Great work 🤩
Hi Nicki I get up at 5:30 every day. I drink a coffee with milk. I have a shower and brush my teeth. I leave my house around 6:10 . I work Monday to Friday from 7am till 3pm. I usually go to bed at 10 o’clock.
Yes Maria! It’s great to hear about your routine and these are fantastic sentences 🤩
Hello Nicki!
I usually wake up very early. I always take a shower and have breakfast in the morning. I work five days a week from Monday to Friday. I rarely go somewhere after work. I often spend my weekends with my family.
This is a brilliant paragraph about your routine Nataliia! And a lovely use of the frequency words (usually, always, rarely, often). Great work 😊
I usually wake up at 10 am. I always prepare a very lovely breakfast and make my favorite coffee. I tend to go for a walk most days of a week, so l often go out and sometimes meet my friends. I usually go to bed around 2 am.
Yes Zainab!! This paragraph is fantastic, such lovely natural sentences 🤩
(By the time you go to bed, I’ve already been asleep for 4 hours!)
useful
Glad you found it helpful Divya! 😊
I get up early in the morning at 5am.Once i get up i do brush and wash my face.And that i usually sit on bed and start studying till 7am.afterthat i go to gym and i get back to home at 9am.I usually have 1banna,peanut butter,Milk and oats.Till then i listen to songs.Again i start studying at 10am till 1pm.
Wow, that is an early start to the day Ganesh! A couple of things to remember – Use a noun after brush, for example, I brush my hair or I brush my teeth. Also we say ‘I go to THE gym’.
It’s a great piece of writing about your routine – well done! And your breakfast sounds lovely 😉
good work everybody
This is great grammar. I would like to receive grammar from you guys and perform my english skills much better from you. I can also accept feed back to improve my english skills.
I get up 6 am every morning. I wash my face and I brush my teeth. I have a breakfast. At my breakfast usually eat egg,cucumber,tomato,olive and cheese. THEN, I clean my room. ANd I read a book.
Thank you for sharing Havva!
Little correction – FOR my breakfast I usually …
And don’t forget to use ‘at’ before a time (at 6am)
These are great sentences – Well done 😊
I wake up early in the morning at 6 and get up immediately. I always take shower. Secondly I eat breakfast with my family. Next I get my thinks ready. Meanwhile I check my phone for sms. I usually leave home at 7 a.m. I catch a train. I get to work at around 7:45 a.m.
At 1 p.m. I have lunch with co-workers. We work until 5 p.m. Sometimes I go to the supermarket to buy groceries. Every others day I go to the gym to exercise for 2 h.
Then I go home and make dinner and watch TV and realx.
This is an amazing paragraph Atousa! Great job!!
3 tiny errors which I think are probably just typos – my things, every other day (no s) and relax.
Thank you for sharing your great example here 😊
Hi Nicky , you alright ?
My mame is Claudia and i usually get to sleep very late in the night because love to watch Tv when kids are sleeping and finally home is all free for me. So in the morning i wish could sleep longer but kids need to be awake , give them some breakfast and dressed ready by 8 am to get to school. Then hurry up to drive to work until 3 pm when finally get back home to enjoy family and rest of the day.
Hi Claudia! You have some lovely English sentences here 🙂 And you’ve created a great image of your daily routine too. I can totally relate to enjoying the quiet house to myself!
Thank you for this series of lessons, dear teacher. it is so nice to attend you teaching.
Ah, you’re very welcome Kabuyaya! I’m glad you are finding the lessons useful!