How To Express Yourself In English About Your Daily Routine

welcome to speak English with Tiffany I

am teacher Tiffany let’s jump right in

okay the first thing you do in your

daily routine is wake up and the English

expression you can use is crack of dawn

okay crack of dawn crack of dawn means a

time very early in the morning or

daybreak so for example 4 a.m. 5 a.m. or

6 a.m. so if you have a habit of getting

up at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. someone can say

to you wow you usually get up at the

crack of dawn okay let’s look at the

first example in detail number one it

says my friend wants to go to the beach

tomorrow she has been quite busy at work

these days so she wants to relax a bit

now in this first sentence or the second

sentence actually we see quite busy now

when you add the word quite in front of

busy it puts an emphasis on busy so it

means very very busy so maybe she has

had a lot of projects that have kept her

quite busy at work and then at the end

of the sentence we also see she wants to

relax a bit now this a bit portion at

the end or after the word relax just

means a little so it means to relax a

little or for a short time so instead of

she wants to relax a bit we can say she

wants to relax a little okay let’s keep

going so I told her we have to get up at

the crack of dawn in order to beat the

traffic now in a previous video we went

over in order to okay in order to but

very quickly in order to just means

so that something can be see we can

write this faster something can be done

so the reason they’re gonna get up at

the crack of dawn is so that they can

beat the traffic now beat the traffic is

also a really good expression for you

guys to know when you’re traveling or

when you’re going somewhere so beat the

traffic means to go out or leave for a

journey go out or leave before the

traffic starts before the traffic have

to write really small now traffic let’s

see if we can get this in here starts

okay oh this is really close let’s see

if we can mark this off a little bit

right here let’s do this so later on you

won’t be confused so once again beat the

traffic refers to going out or leaving

before the traffic starts okay so let’s

look at the meaning now remember we saw

she said I told her we have to get up at

the crack of dawn in order to beat the

traffic

so she’s telling her friend let’s get up

early so that we can leave before the

traffic starts let’s get up around 5:00

a.m. so that we can get ready and leave

early before the traffic starts okay

number two when I had my first baby I

remember the first month being the

hardest month for my husband and I it’s

pretty easy she always went to bed

earlier than us which meant that she

also got up earlier than us okay now

which meant is used when we want to talk

about a cause that leads to something so

cause-and-effect so we have caused

and results so instead of

affectless a cause and result so what

was the cause well we see here she

always went to bed earlier than us that

was the cause and what was the result

the result was she also got up earlier

so it was the cause she went to bed the

result she got up earlier okay let’s

keep going on many occasions she woke us

up at the crack of dawn with her crying

okay so this sentence is talking about

someone’s baby going to bed early which

means that they will get up early and

getting up early means they would get up

maybe about 5:00 a.m. or 6 a.m. which

was the crack of dawn okay the next

thing you do is normally to check your

phone so an English expression we can

use is first things first first things

first is used to tell someone that more

important things should be done first

okay so basically putting a priority on

things that are important so our first

example let’s look at our first example

it says Anthony knows that he has to go

back to his hometown for the annual

family gathering

remember annual just means something

that happens every year okay something

that happens every year okay so your

birthday is an annual event or annual

personal holiday okay let’s keep going

but first things first he has to finish

the last few portions of the project he

has been working on over the past month

okay so really quickly the last few

portions okay portions and then

sometimes you can add up depending on

what you’re talking about but few

portions this just is another way of

saying few parts

okay few parts of something okay few

parts so let’s say your jaw

is a circle you need to work on this

project you need to work on this project

and you need to work on this project

well this project makes up this portion

right here and he needs to finish this

portion before he goes to the family

gathering ok so again first things first

refers to doing the most important

things before other things so there are

two things being compared going to his

family gathering and also getting the

last few portions of his project

finished at his job so he says first

things first I must complete the project

ok all right let’s keep going number 2

good afternoon everyone thank you for

coming to today’s meeting we will be

discussing our plan for the upcoming

year and also multiple business

strategies ok upcoming is another way

that we say the next now let’s use a

different color the next dot dot dot dot

looks a little strange

dot dot dot or the one that is coming up

next

okay so let’s keep going but first

things first

does anyone have any questions they

would like to ask me before we start so

in this sentence what’s happening there

are two things that will happen there

will be a discussion but there’s also a

time needed for questions and this

person is saying that the questions are

the most important at this time and the

discussion is number two’s give another

hash right there the discussion is

number two so number one ask the

questions number two we’ll have a

discussion so first things first

does anyone have any questions all right

after checking your phone you usually

eat food whether it’s breakfast or

whatever you have you eat food

in English you can use the expression

grab a bite

grab a bite grab a bite means to get

something to eat or to get food that can

be eaten quickly now usually during your

daily routine you get very busy so you

have to grab something very quick so a

bite okay it’s one bite okay so let’s

keep going looking at the first example

it says I’m usually quite busy on Friday

mornings because we have a weekly staff

meeting right after lunch now remember

we learned that quite busy is a way to

emphasize what do you remember that’s

right very very busy okay I’ll leave it

in this color all right let’s keep going

right after lunch so in English when we

say right after something now right

after is used to emphasize that it will

be directly following something okay

directly following okay it means that

there will be nothing in between so for

example if the meeting ends at 11:55

lunch will be at 12 o’clock so there’s

only a five minute gap but it’s right

after okay so right after let’s keep

going

so I normally just grab a bite to eat

from the corner store on the first floor

of our building

then I run to our meeting okay so you

see we have grabbed a bite and again

this is just talking about getting

something to eat so the first example

was quite simple as we wanted to number

two since I am on a diet

I only grab a quick bite of something

simple in the morning okay

so here we have since I am thinking

thing so we use this when we want to

express the reason for something the

reason ok the reason for an action for

example since I enjoyed running as a

child I always wanted to be on the track

team okay so what is the reason that I

wanted to be on the track team as a

child because I enjoyed running that was

the reason okay let’s keep going but

during the day I usually get hungry so

in the afternoon I eat a big lunch I

really look forward to these afternoon

feasts okay so look forward to is the

one you want to look at really quickly

here look forward to okay this just

means to hope for something or to hope

or be excited about something happening

to hope for or be excited about

something excited this to e-d about

let’s make this be clear something

almost there that will happen okay there

we go

so again grab a quick bite means to get

something quick to eat so in the second

example the person says I’m on a diet so

I can only grab a quick bite of

something simple in the morning they’re

talking about something that they’re

going to eat but they’re gonna eat it

very quickly okay because they’re

running to work or they have many things

to do okay alright after eating food you

usually go to work so in English you can

express this by saying hit the road hit

the road hit the road means to depart or

to begin one’s journey especially on a

road trip

or to leave so our first example says my

family and I are going on vacation

tomorrow but the beach house is about

five hours away

so my dad said we need to hit the road

early in order to beat the traffic now

remember we learned this earlier beat

the traffic do you remember

that’s right beat the traffic just means

to leave before the traffic so the first

example is speaking about leaving to

head out on a journey they’re gonna go

on vacation so when you’re leaving your

home and you’re traveling somewhere we

say hit the road okay

so I’m leaving in the morning to go to

work oh I need to hit the road why I

have to get to work now okay so hit the

road number two it says whenever my

friends and I travel anywhere together

we try to hit the road late at night

because there are less cars on the road

okay this one is very simple so my

friends and I we like to travel but we

really enjoy leaving late at night when

there are less cars so instead of

leaving we say hit the road so after you

go to work you normally do work and an

English expression for this period is

piece of cake piece of cake piece of

cake means something that is easy to do

something that is easy to achieve so our

first example is in high school my math

teacher said she could solve any math

problem so my friends and I challenged

her with a difficult math problem but it

turned out to be a piece of cake for her

she finished it in less than 30 seconds

now there’s one expression that we need

to look at one pattern it turned out to

be okay this is also speaking about the

result okay

the result so the result and it’s

usually the unexpected result so for

example let’s say you go to the concert

of someone you’ve never heard about you

don’t think they’re gonna sing maybe as

well as Michael Jackson or another

famous superstar but then you go and it

turns

out that they’re an amazing singer so

the result was unexpected alright so in

the first example these high school

students wanted to give their teacher a

difficult math problem but it turned out

to be again unexpectedly very easy for

her it was a piece of cake

so similar when you’re at your job your

job is something you do every single day

so it’s very easy for you it’s a piece

of cake so during your daily routine if

you’re speaking about your job you can

say ah it’s a piece of cake certain

parts of your job may be a piece of cake

or very easy all right number two it

says fixing my car was a piece of cake

for my uncle because he is a mechanic

again his job is working on cars so he

does it every single day which means it

is very easy for him so piece of cake

alright so after you’ve done some work

you have to attend a meeting in your

daily routine and one English expression

that we can use is in over one’s head in

over one’s head means too deeply

involved in or with a difficult

situation so something is going on that

is too much for you it’s too difficult

but you’re involved in it ok let’s look

at the first example when my boss

initially explained the project details

to me I thought it was going to be a

cinch

ok now real quick there are two

different patterns I want us to look at

really quickly first is a vocabulary

word though initially ok initially is

just a word that we use when we want to

speak about in the beginning or the

first time ok in the beginning so in the

beginning so initially I liked ice cream

but after a while I stopped liking it so

initially in the beginning okay and then

the next thing we see in this sentence

is a cinch

a cinch now I purposely added this

because you just learned the term piece

of cake so a cinch and piece of cake

have the exact same meaning okay so they

are the exact same a cinch means piece

of cake so this also means piece do this

of cake or it’s just very easy let’s do

this let’s put the EZ up top right here

easy so a cinch okay let’s keep going

but after saying yes and then looking

over the project more carefully I

realized that I was in over my head now

again remember in over my head means to

be deeply involved with a difficult

situation but too deeply okay I mean

there’s too much for you so what

happened in the first example the boss

explained the project and the person

thought it was going to be easy or a

piece of cake or a cinch but after a

while the person realized poof this is

too much for me they were in over their

head

okay this sometimes happens when you’re

at work or when you’re studying or doing

something or on a project you get in

over your head during your daily routine

okay number two let’s look at the next

example it says mothers of newborn

babies usually feel like they are way in

over their heads now you’ll notice I

added way so this is just used to place

emphasis so it’s used to emphasize this

expression right here so instead of just

saying in over their heads they say way

in over their heads it means really

difficult really more than they thought

that they could handle okay let’s keep

going they have to cook clean and take

care of their babies so by the end of

the day they are super exhausted

okay so again this is an easy one to

understand because moms have to take

care of their babies and it’s a lot of

work so sometimes they feel overwhelmed

overwhelmed okay and again we use super

again just to emphasize the level of

exhaustion okay so you can use that as

well I’m super exhausted or after work

man I felt super exhausted okay so when

you feel in over your head okay during

your day maybe you have a lot of work to

do and you feel in over your head so

after the meeting we have a lunch convo

now convo is just a short way of saying

conversation so conversation is the word

but sometimes when Americans or British

people speak we say convo okay so lunch

convo so a conversation during lunch

time and an expression that we’re going

to learn is back to the drawing board

back to the drawing board is used to

indicate that an idea or proposal has

been unsuccessful and that a new one

must be created or discussed okay you

must start over start from the beginning

okay let’s look at number one number one

says after working for a full month on

the project they realized that they had

done it all wrong okay now in English

when we say all wrong it is used to

emphasize that everything is wrong so

again all wrong when we add all to the

front it’s used to emphasize that

everything let’s do this

emphasize that everything was wrong just

it’s used for emphasis okay let’s keep

going so their boss told them to go back

to the drawing board and come up with a

new plan okay here we see come up with

okay come up with means to create to

create or

think of to create or to think of

something nuke to come up with okay so

the first example is talking about a

project that someone was working on but

their boss was not pleased so they had

to go back to the drawing board this

happens sometimes I work okay and number

two number two says the architect who

built our house said that it took him a

full six months just to come up with the

design okay now we see it says full six

months so when you add a full again this

is also for emphasis this is for

emphasis and saying that it took the

total amount okay

the total okay now at the end of the

sentence once again you’ll see come up

with so he came up with a new design he

created something new okay let’s keep

going he told us that he had to go back

to the drawing board

more than ten times so in this example

the architect is explaining that his

first few were more than few his first

10 times of designing and trying to come

up with ideas for their house were not

successful so he had to start over again

or he had to go back to the drawing

board so in your daily routine you can

also use this expression depending on if

you’re working or if you’re at school

when you have to start something over

again ah I have to go back to the

drawing board so during our lunch

conversation we can have a time where we

give ideas to each other about how to

fix or how to make a new plan regarding

a project we’re working on okay let’s go

to the next one then we work more and

the expression we can use is bite off

more than I can chew bite off more than

I can chew means to try to do a task

that is too big for you or too difficult

okay there are certain things that maybe

you have to do

during the day but sometimes they’re a

little bit difficult at that time you

can say bite off more than I can chew

okay the first example says I bit off

more than I could chew when I

volunteered to teach thirty elementary

school students how to play soccer it

was much more difficult than I had

anticipated okay all right so here

you’ll see we say much more again you

could say it was more difficult but we

use the combination of much more when we

want to emphasize that it was extremely

difficult so this is for emphasis or to

emphasize okay so what are we talking

about in this first example well

teaching thirty elementary school

students how to play soccer that is a

very difficult thing to do for one

person so they said it was a little bit

more than they expected or anticipated

they had bitten off more than they could

chew okay all right number two let’s

look at the second example number two

says I made a goal to memorize 100

vocabulary words a day but after a few

days I realized that I had bit off more

than I could chew because I also had a

full-time job okay now what you’ll

notice here we say full-time job now

some of you may know this but just as a

reminder full-time job usually means

eight hours or more so eight plus hours

okay the opposite is part-time but

full-time usually means eight or more

hours at a job is a full-time job

okay so this person made a goal every

day learned 100 vocabulary words but

they realized later that that was a lot

that was a big goal it was too difficult

it was too big of a task so they had bit

off more than they could chew okay now

remember when you’re talking about your

daily routine you can think about things

that you’re doing and sometimes you have

a long list of tasks but sometimes

they’re more than you can do you can say

man today I bit off more than I could

chew all right

after we do lots of work then we leave

and sometimes on the way home we shop

for food for dinner or for the meal for

the next day but an expression we can

use is cost an arm and a leg cost an arm

and a leg means to be extremely

expensive now this expression is used

throughout the day whenever you’re going

to go shopping or whenever you have to

shop for food or shop for clothing it

can be used a lot depending on what

store you’re going to so in our first

example it says it costs an arm and a

leg to take our entire family to Hawaii

for a vacation but it was well worth it

because we had an amazing time now in

this sentence you’ll see well worth it

okay this is an expression or a pattern

that we use in English to say I have no

regrets I have no regrets after doing it

okay after doing something okay

so for example this person took their

whole family to Hawaii

well Hawaii is very expensive but they

had such a great time they had no

regrets after spending the money okay we

say well worth it so someone asks oh

should I go to America to visit I know

it’s expensive somebody else can say to

them no it’s well worth it you should

visit ok that means you won’t have any

regrets ok so this person is talking

about the trip being expensive but it

also was worth it cost an arm and a leg

instead of saying expensive they said it

cost an arm and a leg

ok next example my husband and I want to

redecorate our kitchen but we realized

that it will cost us an arm and a leg to

get it professionally done so we

just decided to do it ourselves okay so

again this is very easy to understand

they want to redecorate their kitchen

but they know it’s very expensive to get

things done in a house when you want to

hire someone to do something in your

house so they decided to do it

themselves now really quickly in English

there is an acronym that maybe you guys

have heard before d.i.y DIY stands for

what do it your self

okay d.i.y let’s circle the middle one

okay DIY do it yourself okay so cost an

arm and a leg just means to be extremely

expensive okay so after we’ve shopped

for the food then we go home and eat and

relax and the perfect English expression

is unwind unwind unwind means to relax

after working or doing a difficult task

usually after a long day of work or

study or whatever your schedule is you

usually want to go home and just relax

instead of saying I want to relax you

can say I want to unwind okay just means

to relax so first example is let’s look

at the first example after a long day at

work the first thing I want to do when I

get home is kick my shoes off sit on the

sofa and just unwind now this is very

easy to understand because think about

it when I get home I want to kick my

shoes off okay it means just throw them

off your feet then it says sit on the

sofa and then unwind the perfect

situation okay let’s look at example

number two number two it says sometimes

people find it hard to unwind after a

busy day at work now in this sentence

we’ll see find it hard - okay now this

is used when you want to talk about

something that is

Foucault to do ok something is difficult

to do so for example sometimes students

say teacher I really want to speak

English but it’s kind of difficult to

learn how to speak English so instead of

saying difficult they can say I find it

hard to study English or I find it hard

to learn different vocabulary words so

let’s move on to the next sentence they

have a hard time not thinking about all

of the work they have to do the next day

ok so again this is just talking about

having a long day and as your day is

coming to an end you want to relax you

want to unwind now after we eat and

relax the end of our day or the end of

our daily routine is for us to go to

sleep and an English expression that is

very popular is hit the sack hit the

sack hit the sack just means to go to

bed it’s that simple

to go to bed so the first example says I

have an early flight tomorrow so I

decided to hit the sack a little earlier

than usual now you’ll notice that it

says then usual ok so we use this

expression when we want to compare

compared to our normal schedule so

compared to our normal action schedule

or plan okay normal action ok I went to

bed a little earlier than usual or I ate

more than usual or I talked longer than

usual

compared to our normal action ok then

let’s keep going I want to be

well-rested when I get up in the morning

so right here

well rest

did this is just another way of saying

to not feel tired to not feel tired okay

I don’t want to feel tired in the

morning so again this person is talking

about going to bed early why because

they have a flight in the morning so I

want to hit the sack early I want to go

to bed early and number two it says the

children wanted to stay up and watch one

more movie but their parents told them

that it was already past their bedtime

so they all had to hit the sack so again

at the end of your daily routine

everyone has to go to bed and the same

is true for you so instead of saying I

am going to bed now in English you can

say I’m going to hit the sack keep

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