Describe your daily routine: Useful English phrases

There are some key phrases that are useful to learn in English in order to explain your daily routine to another person. In order to introduce these phrases, let me take you through a typical day in my life.

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I wake up at 6 o’clock. I get up at 6.50. I make a cup of tea and iron my clothes. I have a shower and get dressed. I usually wear jeans, a blouse, a jumper or cardigan and boots in the winter, or a skirt and blouse in the summer. I brush my hair, put on my make-up. I pack my bag with all my teaching materials. I then put on my coat and leave the house. I walk to the bus stop. I catch the bus at 8.15, and then I pay my fare and sit down. It takes about 45 minutes to get to my destination three miles away. I get off the bus and walk to the school where I teach English. I have to sign in and get the key. Class starts at 9.25 and ends at 11.25.

I have lunch at 12. I eat a baguette or sandwich at the local café. I sometimes do some shopping before I walk back to school. I do some photocopying and go back to my classroom. I teach in the afternoon from 1 to 3pm. I then catch the bus back home and spend a couple of hours relaxing before I cook dinner.

My son goes to work shortly after I come home. Sometimes he cooks dinner before I get home, and sometimes I cook. I like to eat rice or pasta with a sauce. I chop the onions, fry them and then mix them with garlic, tomatoes, carrots, spinach and chilies. I boil the rice and then add the sauce. After dinner I wash up, sweep the floor, and tidy up a bit.

Then I make phone calls, mark my students’ work, do the laundry. Then I go on Facebook, or watch TV until about 10.30 when my son comes home. We catch up on our day, and at about 11 o’clock I go to bed.

Other days I get up early, go downstairs, put on my computer and teach on EF English Live for three hours. Then I have a break, eat dinner with my son, have a walk or go shopping before returning to work and teaching again for another three hours. Working at home can be very convenient and I love being able to talk to people around the world. It is also nice working in a school and seeing people on a regular basis and working in a team. So I feel I have the best of both worlds.

So there you have a daily routine. There are lots of different types of English constructions used in describing a day, including many phrasal verbs like: ‘tidy up’, ‘wash up’, and ‘get up’. There are also lots of sentences with supporting verbs such as: “I have lunch”, or “I get dressed”, rather than “I lunch”. Notice the range of ways of saying the time too. See if you can describe your day using the same language forms.