What do you do every day? What’s a typical day like for you?
Learning how to talk about your daily routine is super important, and we’ve already learned lots of useful words and phrases with Daily routine 1 and Daily routine 2.
In this lesson, you’ll learn different ways to talk about:
✅ how you work
✅ your free time and hobbies
✅ meals and eating habits
✅ activities and sleep habits
Listen carefully to the pronunciation, and remember — you can slow down the playback speed by clicking the Settings icon if you need to.
Talking About Your Work Routine
🕒 Talking about your work schedule
✅ I start work at [time], and I finish at [time].
✅ I work from [time] to [time].
✅ I usually finish work by [time] at the latest.
✅ I finish at [time] at the earliest.
✅ I’m at the office from [time] till [time].
✅ I work different hours every day. (To freelancers)
🏃♂️ Talking about flexible schedules or set routines
✅ I like to get an early start.
✅ I take a long lunch break.
.
✅ I take a short lunch break.
✅ I try to leave on time.
✅ I never stay late or do overtime.
⏰ Talking about working long hours or staying late
✅ I often have to stay late at work.
✅ Sometimes I stay late if there’s something I need to finish.
✅ I work long hours.
🚗 Talking about commuting
✅ My commute takes around [time].
✅ I don’t miss commuting every day.
✅ I have to leave the house at [time] at the latest.
🌟 Bonus expressions to help you sound more natural
✅ It suits me.
✅ It’s not all fun and games.
✅ It sucks!
📚 Vocabulary tip
- at the earliest
- at the latest
Talking About Free Time Habits
🛋️ If you prefer to relax at home
✅ I just crash on the sofa and watch TV.
✅ I don’t have the energy to do much after work.
✅ During the work week, there just isn’t the time to do much.
🏃♂️ If you’re more active and like to go out
✅ I like to get out of the house when I can.
✅ I try to arrange something most evenings.
✅ I prefer to stay busy.
🏀 Talking about specific activities
✅ I’ve started going to a boxing class twice a week.
✅ I play tennis on Wednesdays.
✅ I also play basketball every Thursday.
✅ I go out with friends for a coffee or a drink once or twice a week.
📌 Use on + day of the week:
I play tennis on Wednesdays.
📌 Use once/twice a week to express frequency:
I go out with friends once a week.
🕰️ Adverbs of Frequency
✅ often
✅ generally
✅ sometimes
✅ occasionally
I generally go running around the park after I get home.
Talking About Eating Habits
🍽️ Useful expressions
✅ My meal habits are all over the place.
Sometimes I eat dinner at 7:30, sometimes at 11!
✅ Sometimes I skip meals.
If I’m busy, I might skip lunch.
✅ Me and my boyfriend take turns cooking.*
We take turns cooking dinner during the week.
✅ I’ll cook a big batch of something, then freeze it.
That way I have food ready for several days.
* NOTE:
The sentence “Me and my boyfriend take turns cooking” is commonly used in informal speech, but it’s not grammatically correct in standard English. The correct form would be:
“My boyfriend and I take turns cooking.”
In English, it’s considered more polite and grammatically correct to put yourself last when mentioning others (i.e., “I” after “my boyfriend”).
⏰ Meal times
✅ Do you eat at the same times every day?
✅ I have to eat at the same time every day.
Because that’s the only time I have free.
✅ I might eat dinner at seven-thirty, or I might not eat until eleven.
🥗 Meal prep and lunchboxes
✅ If I’m organised, I’ll cook at the weekends so I can take food with me to work.
✅ Otherwise, I’ll buy a sandwich or something from the bakery.
🍕 Takeaway and delivery
✅ We generally get a takeaway on Friday evening.
✅ I try not to waste money on takeaways and eating out.
🌞🌙 Morning Person or Night Owl?
🌅 Morning Person
✅ I like to get some stuff finished early in the day.
✅ It helps me feel more productive.
✅ I try to go to bed by eleven.
🌙 Night Owl
✅ I’m a total night owl.
✅ I stay up late on weekends.
✅ I often go to bed quite late.
✅ I really struggle to get moving in the morning.
😴 Phrases about sleep and daily routines
✅ Sometimes I take a nap in the afternoon.
✅ If I don’t get seven or eight hours of sleep, I find it hard to focus at work.
✅ I don’t think I sleep that much.
QUIZ:
Test your understanding of the vocabulary and ideas you saw in this lesson by clicking here.
