For beginner learners of Chinese, I realize that can be a lot to digest, so let’s break down my daily routine sentence-by-sentence, with pinyin and English to assist you in your pronunciation and understanding.
I get up at 9 o’clock in the morning and then I eat breakfast. For breakfast, I like to eat fruit and bread, and drink juice and coffee. At 10 o’clock, I go to the gym to do exercise. I like to play basketball, run, or go swimming.
One important structure in Chinese is I + part of day + specific time + do something. For example, in this first sentence: 我 (I) 早上 (early morning) 九点 (9 o’clock) 起床 (get up). You will see this structure repeated several times in my description of my normal day.
At noon, I go home to eat lunch. I usually eat a sandwich or a salad. After lunch, I take a shower, then go to my company to work. If the weather is nice, I ride a bicycle. If the weather is bad, I take the bus.
A useful phrase in this section is 常常 (cháng cháng), which means “usually” or “normally.” Another important thing to point out is the simple two-character combination of 饭后 (fàn hòu), which means “after food.” Chinese love simplifying things, so you can take the phrase 吃午饭以后 (after eating lunch) and simply use two characters to express the same meaning.
At 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I start work. My job is to teach adults English. First, I have 3 classes, then I have a rest. During my break, I like to surf the Internet or read a book. From 6 to 9 o’clock, I have 3 more classes. At 9 o’clock in the evening, I get off work.
In this section, we see two useful expressions about work: 上班 (shàng bān), meaning “to start work” and 下班 (xià bān), meaning “to finish work.” These are two very important characters in Chinese, and I covered them last year (find that post here). Another good thing to pick up from this part is the use of 从 (cóng) + time + 到 (dào) + another time, which means “from ___ to ___.” This can be used with specific times, days, months, years, etc. to express a continuing action.
Sometimes, I cook at home, and sometimes I go to a restaurant to eat Chinese food. There are many good restaurants near my apartment, for example Guilin rice noodles, Northeast cuisine, hot and spicy soup, and so on. After dinner, I like to watch TV. Since I’m a night owl, I go to bed very late.
These three characters – 有时候 (yǒu shí hou) mean “sometimes,” and they’re very useful for describing your habits. If you want to give some examples, you’ll use 比如 (bǐ rú), meaning “for example.” In my examples, I mentioned three great styles of Chinese restaurants that are near my apartment. Since there are more than three, I ended the sentence with 什么的 (shén me de), which can translate roughly as “and so on.” It’s true that I’m a night owl, or 夜猫子 (yè māo zi) in Chinese, so I really do go to be pretty late.
For more practice with telling time, check out this video I made a few months back:
To make sure you’re always building your Chinese vocabulary, check out our Chinese word of the day page, which gives you a new word every single day!
Sasha is an English teacher, writer, photographer, and videographer from the great state of Michigan. Upon graduating from Michigan State University, he moved to China and spent 5+ years living, working, studying, and traveling there. He also studied Indonesian Language & Culture in Bali for a year. He and his wife run the travel blog Grateful Gypsies, and they're currently trying the digital nomad lifestyle across Latin America.
Even though I am further along in my studies, I found your entry to be a nice review! As for the previous person’s comment about typos – no, they aren’t helpful, but at the same time… typos are something learners of another language have to deal with. If one can’t handle some variation or mistakes it will be a hard road. 😛
Thanks for the positive feedback. Of course typos happen. I make typos when I write in English, so of course I’m bound to make a mistake in Chinese from time to time. Unfortunately, I’m not a Chinese expert who knows everything about Chinese and never makes mistakes, like our good friend Steven here.
I see that even you use “I” and it does not like to translate well in Chinese. I do enjoy the lack of tense in verbs but that too can be confusing. I enjoy this blog. And as I began…
…”I”s are difficult to use. Do you feel this is because of the communal nature of the Chinese and the language developed around this sense of we or just where did the lack of I”I begin in Chinese?
Michael – the character 我 can mean I or me in Chinese. It’s an interesting character, as it has a hand (手) holding a spear (戈). Talk about self-assertion!
Heidi – I do read through my posts. I’m by no means an expert on Chinese (nor do I claim to be), and I still make mistakes when it comes to characters. These “all in Chinese” posts are a learning experience for me as well. I do appreciate it when people point out mistakes. For example, someone on the facebook page corrected me in my use of 较, which should have been 教. The program I use to type Chinese is usually pretty good, but sometimes it chooses a character that doesn’t really make sense, such as in this case.
Great post! I like these types of posts with chinese & explainations better than the travel/photo ones. Wrote something similar to this recently. Thoroughly enjoyed!
To all that responded to my thoughts on “I”… In all of the languages I know and teach, Chinese 普通话 is the most difficult language I have ever studied. I even read, write and speak Hebrew… So the self-inserting I is a great way to view this: It shows up as it wants but for the speakers of English…not often enough and in most difficult places to understand it. use.
Heidi,
All is well. The abilities of some are better than others. It seems you have a better handle on Chinese…
I teach several languages and Chinese is very difficult for me because of the sounds necessity… Few if any other languages I know do the sounds of a phrase make as much difference as in Chinese. For instance Germans say ausgezeichnet (outstanding)… or ousgetzhighnet (English phonetic)–it really does not change the meaning if you say it the way I stated or the any other close phonetic way… However, in Chinese there are 4 meaning s for 吗, there are 4 meanings for 会… etc… all depend on the sound placed on the word in sentence–whether it is first, second, third or forth sound…
It is good to maintain what you know and understand. I was simply replying to the fact that because of the Euro-Latin/Greek Languages I know and teach, Chinese is simply too foreign for me… My wife is Chinese national and because she speaks slowly to me I have learned what I know of Mandarin…
I was not under cutting or stating problems that were not there… just expressing the difficulty with the word “I” and the general lack of its use in “Chinese.”
Comments:
Steven C. Poling Jr.:
Numerous Chinese typos are not helpful for learners.
Alexis:
Even though I am further along in my studies, I found your entry to be a nice review! As for the previous person’s comment about typos – no, they aren’t helpful, but at the same time… typos are something learners of another language have to deal with. If one can’t handle some variation or mistakes it will be a hard road. 😛
Jessica Chiu:
Thanks for this, this has really helped with my Daily Routine chinese homework and some pronunciations 🙂
Heidi:
Extremely useful, xièxie!
sasha:
Thanks for the positive feedback. Of course typos happen. I make typos when I write in English, so of course I’m bound to make a mistake in Chinese from time to time. Unfortunately, I’m not a Chinese expert who knows everything about Chinese and never makes mistakes, like our good friend Steven here.
Heidi:
Hm, well. Sasha: if you don’t do this already, then please read it through before posting.
Steven: maybe you could point them out?
Michael:
I see that even you use “I” and it does not like to translate well in Chinese. I do enjoy the lack of tense in verbs but that too can be confusing. I enjoy this blog. And as I began…
…”I”s are difficult to use. Do you feel this is because of the communal nature of the Chinese and the language developed around this sense of we or just where did the lack of I”I begin in Chinese?
Michael.
sasha:
Michael – the character 我 can mean I or me in Chinese. It’s an interesting character, as it has a hand (手) holding a spear (戈). Talk about self-assertion!
Heidi – I do read through my posts. I’m by no means an expert on Chinese (nor do I claim to be), and I still make mistakes when it comes to characters. These “all in Chinese” posts are a learning experience for me as well. I do appreciate it when people point out mistakes. For example, someone on the facebook page corrected me in my use of 较, which should have been 教. The program I use to type Chinese is usually pretty good, but sometimes it chooses a character that doesn’t really make sense, such as in this case.
steven lee:
Great post! I like these types of posts with chinese & explainations better than the travel/photo ones. Wrote something similar to this recently. Thoroughly enjoyed!
michael:
To all that responded to my thoughts on “I”… In all of the languages I know and teach, Chinese 普通话 is the most difficult language I have ever studied. I even read, write and speak Hebrew… So the self-inserting I is a great way to view this: It shows up as it wants but for the speakers of English…not often enough and in most difficult places to understand it. use.
Heidi:
Aha, I see. Well, after all this is a free site, so…:) And I still retain that it was very helpful.
michael:
Heidi,
All is well. The abilities of some are better than others. It seems you have a better handle on Chinese…
I teach several languages and Chinese is very difficult for me because of the sounds necessity… Few if any other languages I know do the sounds of a phrase make as much difference as in Chinese. For instance Germans say ausgezeichnet (outstanding)… or ousgetzhighnet (English phonetic)–it really does not change the meaning if you say it the way I stated or the any other close phonetic way… However, in Chinese there are 4 meaning s for 吗, there are 4 meanings for 会… etc… all depend on the sound placed on the word in sentence–whether it is first, second, third or forth sound…
It is good to maintain what you know and understand. I was simply replying to the fact that because of the Euro-Latin/Greek Languages I know and teach, Chinese is simply too foreign for me… My wife is Chinese national and because she speaks slowly to me I have learned what I know of Mandarin…
I was not under cutting or stating problems that were not there… just expressing the difficulty with the word “I” and the general lack of its use in “Chinese.”
Ravi Cherukuri:
Awesome lesson! Very useful format.