A Day in My Life: Daily Routines in English

Learn to talk about your daily routine in simple English. This free A1 lesson for adult beginners introduces everyday action verbs, telling the time, and questions about daily activities. Its 11 interactive slides include a conversation warm-up, audio vocabulary, clock matching, a video quiz, and sentence and spelling activities.

What you will learn

• Describe daily routines using the simple present tense.
• Use common action verbs for everyday activities.
• Talk about frequency with words such as always and sometimes.
• Tell the time using o'clock and half past.
• Ask and answer questions about routines and times.

Daily routine vocabulary

Use the picture cards and audio to learn these common activities. Listen, repeat each phrase, and say a sentence about your own routine.

• Wake up: stop sleeping.
• Get up: get out of bed.
• Brush my teeth or brush my hair: everyday personal care activities.
• Comb my hair: tidy my hair with a comb.
• Have breakfast: eat a morning meal.
• Go to school or go to work: travel to school or work.
• Study or work: do learning or job activities.
• Have lunch: eat a meal in the middle of the day.
• Watch TV: watch television.
• Do homework: complete work for a class.
• Do chores: do jobs around the home.
• Go to bed: get into bed to sleep.

Other examples in the lesson include get dressed, have a shower, take the bus, cook dinner, and play video games. Choose the activities that match your day.

Telling the time in English

Ask What time is it? Use o'clock for an exact hour and half past for thirty minutes after the hour.

Use at before a clock time when describing an activity: I wake up at seven o'clock. I have breakfast at half past seven. Match the time phrases to the clocks in the drag-and-drop activity.

Simple present sentences about daily routines

Use the simple present to talk about things you do regularly. Start with I, add the action, and then add a time if needed: I get up at 6:30 a.m. I take the bus at 7:30 a.m.

Organize activities with in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. For example: In the morning, I brush my teeth. In the afternoon, I have lunch. In the evening, I watch TV.

The sentence-order activity helps you put words in the correct order. Read each finished sentence aloud and notice where the action and time appear.

How often do you do these activities?

Use frequency words to explain how regularly you do something. Always means every time, usually means most of the time, and sometimes means on some occasions.

• I always brush my teeth in the morning.
• I usually have breakfast at seven o'clock.
• I sometimes watch TV in the evening.

In these sentences, the frequency word comes before the main action verb. Practice the lesson questions How often do you watch TV? and Do you usually eat breakfast in the morning?

Listening practice: Emily and Thomas

Watch the conversation about what Emily and Thomas do every day. Listen for meals, travel, work, and free-time activities. Notice words that help put events in order, such as then, after work, after dinner, and lastly. Answer the video questions to check your understanding of the two routines.

Speaking practice: questions about your day

Partner: What time do you wake up?
You: I wake up at seven o'clock.
Partner: What time do you eat breakfast?
You: I eat breakfast at half past seven.
Partner: What time do you go to work?
You: I go to work at eight o'clock.

Take turns asking and answering. Change the times and activities to match your routine. Finish with the closing task: say three things you do every day.

Practice with the interactive lesson

1. Answer the warm-up questions about food, sports, pets, and work.
2. Practice answering the What time questions and matching clock times.
3. Watch the daily routine video and answer its questions.
4. Listen to and repeat the action vocabulary.
5. Sort routine sentences into morning, afternoon, and evening.
6. Put sentence words in order and unscramble the highlighted vocabulary.
7. Share three everyday activities aloud.

Teachers can model a short routine before learners describe their own day. For self-study, repeat the audio phrases and use them to say when you do each activity.

Review rooms and furniture in Lesson 5, or explore more free A1 English teaching materials.