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.

🕰️ 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.

Aprender a falar sobre sua rotina diária (daily routine) é muito importante. Veremos o vocabulário básico que você precisa para isso.

Listen carefully to the pronunciation and do the exercises.

Key Vocabulary

Aqui estão algumas palavras e frases para descrever a sua rotina:

• Wake up – Acordar
• Turn off the alarm – Desligar o alarme
• Get up – Levantar-se
• Take a shower / I have a shower – Tomar banho
• Get dressed – Vestir-se
• Comb the hair – Pentear-se
• Make breakfast / Eat breakfast / Have breakfast – Tomar café da manhã
• Brush my teeth – Escovar os dentes
• Go to work / school – Ir para o trabalho / escola
• Start work at 9 – Começar a trabalhar às 9h
• Answer emails – Responder e-mails
• Eat lunch / Have lunch – Almoçar
• Work on the computer – Trabalhar no computador
• Finish work / school at 5 – Terminar o trabalho / a escola às 17h
• Go home – Ir para casa
• Arrive home – Chegar em casa
• Feed the dog – Alimentar o cachorro
• Cook dinner / Eat dinner / Have dinner – Jantar
• Watch TV – Assistir TV
• Read a book – Ler um livro
• Go to bed – Ir dormir
• Fall asleep – Adormecer
• Have classes – Ter aulas
• Do my homework – Fazer meu dever de casa

Exercise 1: Fill in the blanks

Complete the sentences with the correct verb from the vocabulary list.

1. I ________ at 6:30 a.m. every day. (wake up / fall asleep)
2. After I ________ the alarm, I get up. (answer / turn off)
3. I always ________ before I go to work. (take a shower / work on the computer)
4. After breakfast, I ________ my teeth. (brush / sleep)
5. She ________ at 9 a.m. every day. (starts work / finishes work)
6. At 1 p.m., I ________ lunch. (go / have)
7. After lunch, I ________ my emails. (go / answer)
8. In the evening, I ________ TV before bed. (watch / eat)

Exercise 2: Put the sentences in the correct order

Arrange the following sentences in the order you do them in your daily routine.

a) I brush my teeth.
b) I wake up at 7 a.m.
c) I go to bed at 10 p.m.
d) I take a shower.
e) I have breakfast.

Exercise 3: Match the columns

Match the phrases on the left with their meanings on the right.

1. Wake up –––– a. Responder e-mails
2. Get dressed –––– b. Chegar em casa
3. Answer emails –––– c. Acordar
4. Arrive home –––– d. Vestir-se

Exercise 4: True or False

Read the sentences and decide if they are true or false for you.

1. “I work on the computer before I take a shower.”
2. “I finish work / school at 3 p.m.”
3. “I feed the dog before I get up.”
4. “I watch TV after dinner.”

Exercise 5: Written Practice

Answer the following questions:

1. What time do you wake up?
2. Do you have breakfast every day? What do you eat?
3. What time do you start work or school?
4. What do you do after dinner?

Extra practice: Interactive game

Extra Practice Advanced: What’s your daily routine like?

Como é a sua rotina diária? Descreva as atividades que você faz no seu dia, desde que acorda até ir dormir.

Hi everyone! The other day I used “kinda“ in a post, which was really appropriate. I think it’s about time for me to tell you what it means. Listen carefully to the following video.