1.7 Daily Life and Routines

Table of Contents

Overview

In this chapter you will learn how to talk about a simple day in German. You will see how typical daily activities are expressed and how German sentences often place elements in a very regular 3-part rhythm: subject, verb, and then the rest of the sentence. You will not yet focus on detailed grammar rules of verb types or word order, because these will come in the child chapters. Here you meet the most important words and expressions that describe everyday routines.

Talking about a Typical Day

When you talk about your daily life in German, you usually describe a sequence of actions. A very common structure is to go through the day from morning to evening. The verbs in these sentences are mostly in the present tense and they describe what you usually do, not only what you are doing right now.

Compare a simple description in English and German:

Time	English	German
Morning	I get up at 7 o’clock.	Ich stehe um sieben Uhr auf.
Later morning	I go to work.	Ich gehe zur Arbeit.
Midday	I have lunch at 12.	Ich esse um zwölf Uhr zu Mittag.
Afternoon	I work until 5.	Ich arbeite bis siebzehn Uhr.
Evening	I watch TV.	Ich sehe fern.
Night	I go to bed at 11.	Ich gehe um dreiundzwanzig Uhr ins Bett.

You see that German uses clear verbs for each activity. Some verbs are simple, like “gehen” for “to go,” and others have a prefix that can stand apart from the verb, for example “aufstehen” (to get up) or “fernsehen” (to watch TV). You will study these special verbs in more detail later, but for now you only need to recognize that they often describe daily actions.

Structuring Your Day: From Morning to Night

It is useful to know the German words for the main parts of the day and then combine them with typical actions. This helps you build simple but complete descriptions of your routine.

Important time words for the day are:

English	German
in the morning	am Morgen
in the morning / before noon	vormittags
at noon	am Mittag
in the afternoon	am Nachmittag
in the evening	am Abend
at night	in der Nacht

You can connect these with simple sentences about your habits. For example:

“Am Morgen trinke ich Kaffee.”
“In the morning I drink coffee.”

“Am Nachmittag mache ich eine Pause.”
“In the afternoon I take a break.”

“Am Abend lese ich ein Buch.”
“In the evening I read a book.”

These sentences use the present tense to express regular actions. The special structure inside them will be explained in the chapter on word order in main clauses. For the moment, focus on understanding which words describe the time and which words describe the activity.

Describing Common Routine Activities

Daily life vocabulary often appears in the same combinations. Learning these combinations as fixed expressions helps you speak more naturally.

Here are some very frequent activities in a typical weekday:

English	German
to get up	aufstehen
to take a shower	duschen
to brush teeth	Zähne putzen
to have breakfast	frühstücken
to eat breakfast	Frühstück essen
to go to work	zur Arbeit gehen
to go to school	zur Schule gehen
to start work	mit der Arbeit anfangen
to have lunch	zu Mittag essen
to finish work	mit der Arbeit aufhören
to go home	nach Hause gehen
to cook	kochen
to have dinner	zu Abend essen / Abendbrot essen
to do homework	Hausaufgaben machen
to watch TV	fernsehen
to read	lesen
to go to bed	ins Bett gehen
to sleep	schlafen

You can now put these into short sentences about yourself, for example:

“Ich frühstücke um halb acht.”
“I have breakfast at half past seven.”

“Ich gehe um acht Uhr zur Arbeit.”
“I go to work at eight o’clock.”

“Ich koche abends und sehe danach fern.”
“I cook in the evenings and then I watch TV.”

Detailed explanations about how the verbs change with each person will appear later, so do not worry about all the forms yet. At this point, concentrate on recognizing the basic infinitive forms and their meanings.

Regular Days and Habits

German often uses the present tense to talk about habits and things you do regularly. You can mark these habits with simple adverbs of frequency. These adverbs often find a place in the middle of the sentence. Their exact position will be treated later, but for now you can see how they add information about how often something happens.

Common adverbs that describe frequency are:

English	German
always	immer
usually	meistens
often	oft
sometimes	manchmal
rarely / seldom	selten
never	nie

You can combine these with your routine verbs:

“Ich gehe immer um sieben Uhr zur Arbeit.”
“I always go to work at seven o’clock.”

“Abends lese ich oft.”
“In the evenings I often read.”

“Ich frühstücke manchmal nicht.”
“Sometimes I do not have breakfast.”

Important: In German, the present tense is also used for regular routines and habits. You do not need a special tense to talk about what you usually do every day.

As you learn more verb forms, you will be able to place these frequency words more precisely in the sentence, but for now it is enough to know their meaning and use them with your daily actions.

Workdays and Weekends

Your routine is often different on workdays and weekends. German has simple terms to separate these. You can then adjust your descriptions to show what changes.

Key words are:

English	German
workday / weekday	der Werktag / der Arbeitstag
during the week	in der Woche
on weekdays	unter der Woche
weekend	das Wochenende
on the weekend	am Wochenende

With these words, you can contrast two different daily routines:

“In der Woche stehe ich um sechs Uhr auf.”
“During the week I get up at six o’clock.”

“Am Wochenende schlafe ich lange.”
“On the weekend I sleep in.”

“Unter der Woche gehe ich früh ins Bett, aber am Wochenende gehe ich spät ins Bett.”
“On weekdays I go to bed early, but on the weekend I go to bed late.”

These sentences show that the same verbs can describe different patterns depending on the time expression you choose.

Routines at Home and Outside

Daily life is not only about work or school. You also have typical actions at home and in other places. It helps to know some basic place expressions that often appear with routine verbs. You will later learn detailed rules about prepositions and cases, so here you only meet some common fixed expressions.

Useful place phrases are:

English	German
at home	zu Hause
at work	auf der Arbeit / bei der Arbeit
at school	in der Schule
in the office	im Büro
at the supermarket	im Supermarkt
at the gym	im Fitnessstudio
in the city / in town	in der Stadt
on the way home	auf dem Weg nach Hause

Now you can describe where you usually are during the day:

“Am Morgen bin ich zu Hause und frühstücke.”
“In the morning I am at home and have breakfast.”

“Tagsüber bin ich im Büro.”
“During the day I am in the office.”

“Abends bin ich oft im Fitnessstudio.”
“In the evenings I am often at the gym.”

You see how time expressions and place expressions work together with your verbs to form a small story of your day.

Linking Actions in Your Day

To describe daily life naturally, you will often want to connect actions. Even with very simple grammar you can start to combine verbs and events in one sentence. Some small words help you create a flow of actions.

Very common connectors are:

English	German
and	und
then / afterwards	dann / danach
before that	vorher
after that	nachher

With these connectors, your descriptions start to sound like little narratives:

“Ich stehe um sieben Uhr auf und dusche.”
“I get up at seven o’clock and take a shower.”

“Ich frühstücke, danach gehe ich zur Arbeit.”
“I have breakfast, then I go to work.”

“Zuerst arbeite ich, dann mache ich eine Pause.”
“First I work, then I take a break.”

The detailed word order with “dann” and “danach” will be explored in the later chapter on word order in main clauses. For now you can simply recognize these words and use them to chain actions in a basic way.

Everyday Time Words for Routines

Daily routines are closely connected to time. You already know words for the parts of the day and for weekdays from other chapters. Here you see some additional time expressions that are typical for habits and daily life.

Useful time expressions include:

English	German
every day	jeden Tag
every morning	jeden Morgen
every evening	jeden Abend
in the morning(s) (generally)	morgens
in the afternoon(s)	nachmittags
in the evening(s)	abends
at noon / at lunchtime	mittags
today	heute
tomorrow	morgen
yesterday	gestern
usually / normally	normalerweise

Examples:

“Ich trinke morgens Kaffee.”
“I drink coffee in the mornings.”

“Jeden Abend koche ich.”
“Every evening I cook.”

“Normalerweise gehe ich um zehn Uhr ins Bett.”
“Normally I go to bed at ten o’clock.”

Important: Words like morgens, mittags, abends describe regular times of day and are often used to talk about habits.

These adverbs help you describe how your days are usually structured without giving a precise clock time.

Talking Briefly about Free Time in Your Routine

Daily life is not only about obligations. You also have small free time activities that repeat often during the week. These activities will be explored further in the chapter on leisure and hobbies, but here you can already connect some common free time verbs with your routine.

Common free time activities that fit into a daily schedule are:

English	German
to go for a walk	spazieren gehen
to meet friends	Freunde treffen
to listen to music	Musik hören
to play computer games	Computerspiele spielen
to do sports	Sport machen
to go jogging	joggen gehen

You can insert these into your description of the day:

“Nach der Arbeit treffe ich Freunde.”
“After work I meet friends.”

“Abends höre ich Musik oder spiele Computerspiele.”
“In the evenings I listen to music or play computer games.”

“Am Wochenende gehe ich oft spazieren.”
“On the weekend I often go for a walk.”

Again, keep the focus on understanding the vocabulary and the idea that all these actions fill the different parts of your day.

New Vocabulary from This Chapter

German	English
aufstehen	to get up
duschen	to take a shower
Zähne putzen	to brush teeth
frühstücken	to have breakfast
Frühstück essen	to eat breakfast
zur Arbeit gehen	to go to work
zur Schule gehen	to go to school
mit der Arbeit anfangen	to start work
zu Mittag essen	to have lunch
mit der Arbeit aufhören	to finish work
nach Hause gehen	to go home
kochen	to cook
zu Abend essen	to have dinner
Abendbrot essen	to have dinner (evening bread)
Hausaufgaben machen	to do homework
fernsehen	to watch TV
lesen	to read
ins Bett gehen	to go to bed
schlafen	to sleep
am Morgen	in the morning
vormittags	in the morning / before noon
am Mittag	at noon
am Nachmittag	in the afternoon
am Abend	in the evening
in der Nacht	at night
immer	always
meistens	usually
oft	often
manchmal	sometimes
selten	rarely / seldom
nie	never
der Werktag	workday
der Arbeitstag	working day
in der Woche	during the week
unter der Woche	on weekdays
das Wochenende	weekend
am Wochenende	on the weekend
zu Hause	at home
auf der Arbeit	at work
bei der Arbeit	at work
in der Schule	at school
im Büro	in the office
im Supermarkt	in the supermarket
im Fitnessstudio	at the gym
in der Stadt	in the city / in town
auf dem Weg nach Hause	on the way home
und	and
dann	then
danach	afterwards / then
vorher	before that
nachher	after that
jeden Tag	every day
jeden Morgen	every morning
jeden Abend	every evening
morgens	in the morning(s)
nachmittags	in the afternoon(s)
abends	in the evening(s)
mittags	at noon / at lunchtime
heute	today
morgen	tomorrow
gestern	yesterday
normalerweise	normally / usually
spazieren gehen	to go for a walk
Freunde treffen	to meet friends
Musik hören	to listen to music
Computerspiele spielen	to play computer games
Sport machen	to do sports
joggen gehen	to go jogging