English course “session 5”

How to Talk about your Daily Routine in English

This is a very common task that you might be asked to talk about in the IELTS speaking test.
It could also happen in an interview for school or college — or sometimes a job interview.
After all, you are talking about yourself and the things you do every day. It should be easy.

Table of Contents:

 The Only Verb Tense You Will Ever Need

 Watch Out For Adverbs
 Put Everything in Order
 Morning Routine
 On The Way to School/Work Routine
 Morning at Work/School Routine
 Noon Routine
 Afternoon at Work/School Routine
 On the way home Routine
 Evening Routine
 Night time Routine

When talking about your daily routine you will only need to use one verb tense. And that is
“SIMPLE PRESENT”
For example:
I go, I read, I eat, I see, I talk, I listen, I study
He goes, She reads, He eats, She sees, He talks, She listens, It goes, It stops

Watch Out For Adverbs

You will also need to use adverbs to express time. Such as:
Always, Never, Sometimes, Usually.

These are the most common ones, but you could also use other adverbs:
Before, Later, After, Then, First, Next, Generally.
 So for example, you might say:

 I always go to school at 7am.

 I never get up early at the weekend.

 My dad sometimes drives me to school

 I usually meet my friends at the weekend

 I do my homework before dinner

 I do my maths homework first, then my English homework

 I generally get home around six pm

 Now You Try!

Using all the adverbs above, make sentences of your own about your daily schedule. Talk
about things you do every day.

 Put Everything In Order

It is best to think about what you do every day in a logical sequence. Don’t jump from one
part of the day to the next as it is confusing to the listener — and for you.

You can divide the days into sections — then you only have to talk about that one section.

 The sections could be:

Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Evening, Night.

If you really wanted to be more detailed, you could split the mornings into three sections:

Morning at home - Morning going to school/work - Morning at work

 And you could do the same with the afternoons too:

Afternoon at school/work - Afternoon coming home
  But when you arrive back home, maybe we can refer to that as the evening.
Now let’s look at each of these time segments throughout the day in more detail. The kind of
things we can say about the things we do in each part.

Morning Routine
Think about what you do every morning when you wake up. Many of us have the same
routine before leaving the house to go to school or work.

 For example:

 Wake up

 Brush teeth

 Wash face/shower

 Get dressed

 Eat breakfast

 Drink tea/coffee

 Say good morning to family/wife/roommates

 Read the news/catch up with the news

 Leave the house

Let me show you an example of someone talking about their morning routine.

I usually wake up around six-thirty. My alarm goes off and I turn it off and sleep for another
ten minutes. Then the alarm goes off a second time and I have to get up. I go to the
bathroom and brush my teeth and wash my face. I don’t shower in the morning as I usually
take a shower in the evening before I go to bed. Then I go back to my bedroom and get
dressed. I leave my school uniform hanging in front of my wardrobe so I can put my clothes
on easily every day. After that, I go to the kitchen and have breakfast.

My mum usually makes breakfast — just something simple like an egg and some bread. I
don’t like to drink coffee so I have some orange juice. I chat with my mum and dad during
breakfast. But my dad doesn’t talk too much. He likes to catch up on the news on his phone.
But he always says ‘nothing but bad news’ so I don’t know why he reads it. It gets to just after
seven am and I have to leave to go to school. I say goodbye to my mum and dad, give my
mum a kiss and I leave the house.

My school is very near where I live so I usually walk to school. If it’s raining, my dad takes me
to school but he always complains about it!

I get to school around 7:30 and meet up with my friends in the usual place. We talk about
things we like — music, some TV shows and other stuff. Then we go to the first class.

 Exercise

1- Go through all the text above and highlight all the verbs and adverbs of time.
2- Make a note of how the verbs and adverbs are used with other words:
 Usually wake up

 Around six-thirty

 Go to the bathroom

 Brush my teeth

 Wash my face

3- Make a note of all these phrases and write them in your vocabulary notebook.
Then make sentences of your own.

 Now You Try!

When you have done all the above exercises, you need to talk about your morning routine.

On The Way To School/Work Routine

Now you need to think about your journey every day to school or work.
 How do you get there?
 What do you do on the way there?
  Do you meet anyone on the way and talk to them?

 These are some useful phrases you might need:

 Walk to the bus stop/school/ the subway station/work


 Take the bus to school/work

 Take the subway to school/work

 Wait for the bus/subway

 Meet my friend at the bus stop/subway station/on the way

 Buy some snacks at the shop

 Talk to my friend

Now let’s look at an example of someone talking about their morning routine as they make
their way to work.

I walk to the subway station — it usually takes about fifteen minutes. On the way there, I buy
some snacks. I find I get a little hungry around ten-thirty or so and want to eat something. I
get to the subway and it is usually crowded with people. I go to the end of the platform and
wait for the train there as there are usually fewer people. I get on the train and if I am lucky I
can get a seat, but usually, it is standing room only. Rush hour is always very busy.

It takes me thirty minutes to get to work by subway so I try to read something on the way. I
like to read novels, but I also like to read books about how to work more effectively. I think
reading on the subway is a good use of my time.

I get to my stop and I get out of the station. My office is only about five minutes from the
subway station. On the way, I sometimes bump into people I know or work with and we have
a chat on the way to the office.

 Exercise
1- Go through all the text above and highlight all the verbs and adverbs of time.
2- Make a note of how the verbs and adverbs are used with other words:

 Walk to the subway station

 Usually takes fifteen minutes

 Buy some snacks

 Get to the subway station

3- Make a note of all these phrases and write them in your vocabulary notebook. Then
make sentences of your own.

Now You Try!

 When you have done all the above exercises, you need to talk about your routine as
you make your way to school or work.
 You could write out a script and practice speaking out loud.
 Or you could just use whatever phrases and vocabulary you know and just talk freely
about your routine as you go to school or work.
 You can practice in front of a mirror. But also try to talk about your routine in front of
your class and teacher.
 Morning at Work/School Routine
So now you are at work or school. The day of studying or working begins.
 What do you do in the morning?
 What is the first thing you do at school or at work?
 Do you do the same thing every morning at work/school? Or is there some
variety?
 Let’s look at some phrases you might need to use:
 The first class begins at…

 Check emails first thing…

 Go to registration class at…

 Get some coffee…

 Make my to-do list.

 We can now look at an example of a person talking about their morning routine at
university.
If it’s a Monday, I have to be at college by nine am. I have a lecture every Monday morning.

But the rest of the week, I don’t have classes until 9:30 or sometimes 10:00. So I can lie in for
a bit on those days.

I usually go to the student canteen first and meet my two friends there. We might have time
for a cup of coffee but if not we go straight to the lecture. It lasts for an hour and then we go
to the canteen and drink something and chat.

Some days are busier than others. So on some days, I have many classes to go to. For
example, this semester, Wednesday is the busiest day of the week. I have classes all
through the morning with no breaks. I don’t stop until midday. I feel exhausted and I am
ready for lunch and a rest.

But other days are not so busy. Friday is a really relaxed day. I have my first class at 10:00
and that finishes at 10:50. Then I don’t have any other classes in the morning.
I go to the canteen — students spend a lot of time in the canteen! — and then I go to the
library and try to work on any assignments or essays I have to do.

 Exercise

1- Go through all the text above and highlight all the verbs and adverbs of time.

2- Make a note of how the verbs and adverbs are used with other words:

 Have to be at college

 Have a lecture

 Don’t have classes

 Might have time for a cup of coffee

3- Make a note of all these phrases and write them in your vocabulary notebook. Then
make sentences of your own.

Noon Routine
Most people have lunch at noon. I imagine you also have lunch. But do you do this every
lunchtime? Or maybe, if it is a nice day, you like to go outside and walk around for do some
exercise?
Some people like to do some shopping or run some errands at lunchtime as it is the only time
they have to do these things.
 These might be the kind of phrases or sentence structure you might need:

 Eat lunch at
 Go to the usual place
 Eat with colleagues
 Go to the bank
 Pay some bills

 Now let’s look at someone talking about their routine and the things they do at noon.
In my school, we always have lunch at the same time — 11:45. The last class ends for the
morning and all the students rush to the canteen for lunch. It’s always crowded and a bit
crazy as all the students try to get their lunch at the same time.

I sit at the same table as my friends. We are in the same class together. None of us likes the
school lunch. It never tastes nice and we often have the same meals every week — pork on
Monday, chicken on Tuesday, fish on Friday — so boring!

After lunch, if it’s a nice day we stay outside and sit on one of the benches and chat about
everything. The boys like to play football but all of us girls like to talk about things together.
If it’s raining, we go back to our class and sit there and talk.
Sometimes we might have a lot of school work to do and we go to the library to get it done.
But that is not very common!
Most of the time we prefer to relax.
Note: Read through the above extract two or three times. Read it out loud. What does the
speaker tell us that they actually do every lunchtime?
To be honest, it is not a lot. They finish their last class for the morning, they eat lunch and
then they sit around talking with their friends.
And this is the problem that many English students have. They might simplify all of the above
and just say:
I finish my morning classes, then I have lunch, then I talk to my friends.
This is not good enough! Look at all the details the speaker provides above. That is what you
need to think about when talking about your daily life and routine.

 Exercise

1- Go through all the text above and highlight all the verbs and adverbs of time.
2- Make a note of how the verbs and adverbs are used with other words:
 Always have lunch at the same time

 All the students rush to the canteen

 It never tastes nice

 The boys like to play football

 3- Make a note of all these phrases and write them in your vocabulary notebook.Then
make sentences of your own.

Afternoon at Work/School Routine

Afternoons at work or school could be almost the same as the mornings. But if your schedule
has any differences then, of course, you should talk about that.
For those of you that have a near-identical schedule to the morning, it may be a little difficult
to talk about. You can’t just say something simple like — same as the morning. You have to
try to find something different in it.
 These phrases might be useful:

 Last class ends at…

 I finish work at…

 Feel a little tired in the afternoon…

 Have a snack around three pm…

 I stare at the clock…

 Let’s look at something that a school student might say about their afternoon
schedule:
The first class in the afternoon begins at 1:30pm. By this time, most of the students feel kind
of tired. And we know that we still have until 4:00pm before we can go home.
I am glad that I usually have PE class in the morning — I have more energy then and I look
forward to it. So in the afternoon, I just sit in the class. I stare at the clock and wait for the day
to end.
It gets to 4:00 and the last bell rings. All the students let out a groan of relief.
We all grab our bags and leave the classroom.

 Exercise

1- Go through all the text above and highlight all the verbs and adverbs of time.
 2- Make a note of how the verbs and adverbs are used with other words:

 The first class in the afternoon begins

 Most of the students feel kind of tired

 I stare at the clock and wait for the day to end

 It gets to 4:00 and the last bell rings

3- Make a note of all these phrases and write them in your vocabulary notebook. Then
make sentences of your own.

On The Way Home Routine

Some people have extra classes after school that they have to attend. Some people leave
work and go out with friends. Some might go to the gym to work out.
 What do you do after school or work?
 Do you have any social engagements or evening classes?
 Or do you just go straight home?
 And if so, how is the journey home? Just as crowded in the mornings or a little less
so?

 We should look at an extract of someone talking about their going home routine.

I leave school around 4:00pm and then I have to run to the bus stop and catch a bus for my
evening class.
I hate the evening class so much but my mum told me I have to do it.
So I study all day and then I have to go to another school and study English for two hours. I
don’t finish until 7:00pm. By then, I feel totally exhausted.
I get to the subway and go home. Because it is after rush hour there are much fewer people
on the subway train, so I can easily get a seat.
I sleep all the way home because I feel so tired.
  Exercise
1- Go through all the text above and highlight all the verbs and adverbs of time.

2- Make a note of how the verbs and adverbs are used with other words:

 I leave school around 4:00pm

 I have to run to the bus stop

 I have to go to another school and study English for two hours

 I get to the subway and go home

3- Make a note of all these phrases and write them in your vocabulary notebook. Then
make sentences of your own.

Evening Routine
So now the day has ended and you have some time to yourself. You finish work and you can
just relax and do all the things you like to do.
Unless you’re a student — in which case you may have tons of homework to do and articles
to read.
What do you like to do in the evening?
Even if you are just sitting on the sofa and watching TV, you can talk about what shows you
like to watch. Do you watch them alone or with your family or loved ones?
For this part, I think it might be a good idea to look at two different perspectives. One from a
student who has homework to do. And one from a working person who just goes home and
relaxes.
I get home and I change out of my uniform and into some comfortable clothes.
The first thing I do after that is to get a drink of something. My mum usually keeps some of
the things I like to drink in the fridge.
Then I take out all my school books and the homework I have to do for that evening. I usually
have about two hours of homework to do most evenings. It seems like a lot but I am used to
it now.
I put it all in order. I like to do the most difficult homework first, or the homework that I really
hate to do. Then I end up with the homework I really like to do last. I like English so I always
put that last.
I might do a little bit of the homework and then my mum will call me for dinner.

My dad doesn’t get home until much later. So I and my mum eat dinner together. She lets me
watch some TV while we are eating dinner but then I have to get back into my room and
finish the homework.
I finish my homework and then I just feel really tired.
By then I just want to sleep. But I take a shower and have a hot drink of something.
I get into bed around 10:30 and read for a little while. Then my eyes start feeling heavy and I
turn the bedside lamp off and go to sleep.

Exercise
1- Go through all the text above and highlight all the verbs and adverbs of time.

2- Make a note of how the verbs and adverbs are used with other words:

 I change out of my uniform

 The first thing I do after that is to get a drink

 Then I take out all my school books

 I like to do the most difficult homework first

3- Make a note of all these phrases and write them in your vocabulary notebook. Then
make sentences of your own.

Now let’s look at the next extract.

By the time I get home, it is about 7:00pm. I feel shattered. My wife gets home before I do. I
change out of my suit and put on some comfortable clothes. Then we make dinner. We
always try to share these kinds of things to do in the house. We eat dinner on the sofa,
watching the TV. It’s not a good habit but we don’t care. It is time to relax.
We usually stay up too late. We should really go to bed early so we are refreshed for the next
day but we never do. I think most nights we go to bed around midnight.
My wife likes to watch police drama shows. I don’t mind them so we end up watching those.
But sometimes there might be a new movie and we will watch that.
 Exercise
1- Go through all the text above and highlight all the verbs and adverbs of time.

2- Make a note of how the verbs and adverbs are used with other words:

 By the time I get home, it is about 7:00pm

 My wife gets home before I do

 Then we make dinner

 We eat dinner on the sofa

3- Make a note of all these phrases and write them in your vocabulary notebook. Then
make sentences of your own.

Night-time Routine
At night, most people get ready for bed. It might seem boring to talk about, but if you are
talking about this in the IELTS test, you need to express as much as you can in English.
 So what is your routine at night?
 Do you shower at night?
 Do you wash your hair and brush your teeth?
 Maybe you read a little in bed before falling asleep.

 Let’s look at one person’s night-time routine.

I try to go to bed around ten pm, so at that time I turn off the TV and the lights in the living
room.
I check the front door to make sure it is locked and secure and then I make some hot tea to
take to bed.
I brush my teeth in the bathroom. I don’t take a shower because I prefer to shower first thing
in the morning.
I take my tea to the bedroom and get into bed.
I drink my tea and read a book for about twenty minutes. But soon I start to feel tired and
then I have to put the book to the side, turn off the light and then I go to sleep.

 Exercise
1- Go through all the text above and highlight all the verbs and adverbs of time.

2- Make a note of how the verbs and adverbs are used with other words:

 I try to go to bed around ten pm

 I turn off the TV and the lights in the living room

 I check the front door

 I drink my tea and read a book for about twenty minutes

3- Make a note of all these phrases and write them in your vocabulary notebook. Then
make sentences of your own.