THINK and SPEAK in English your daily routine
Vanessa:
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to think and speak in
English about your daily life? Let’s do it.
If you watch a lot of American movies or TV shows,
you probably have noticed that people ask a lot,
“Hey hun, how is your day?” Or, “What did you
learn in school today?” But have you ever asked
these questions to yourself? If not, that changes
today, because you are going to be learning
23 common daily expressions to talk about your
daily life. I’m going to be going through my
daily routine, helping you learn some common
phrases that might also apply to your daily
routine. And to help you never forget what you
are about to learn today, I have created a free
PDF worksheet for today’s lesson, with all of
the vocabulary, all of the sample sentences,
and all of the ideas so that you never forget
them. And you can use them yourself. You
can click on the link in description to
download this free PDF worksheet today.
All right, let’s get started with the beginning
of the day and a phrase that you can use in
your daily life too. If I’m lucky, first
thing in the morning, I’ll hear my alarm,
maybe push snooze and get up slowly. But if I’m
not lucky, I’ll hear one of my children screaming,
“Mommy.” And I have to get out of bed first thing.
I used this expression first thing two times. The
first time was at the beginning of a phrase. First
thing in the morning. Make sure that you don’t add
first of the things, or first of the… It’s
only first thing. First thing in the morning,
I hear my alarm, or we could use it at the end of
a phrase like you just heard me say. I might say I
wake up and make coffee first thing. I make coffee
first thing. Actually for me, I don’t make coffee.
I don’t even know if I know how to make coffee.
I always make tea. I am quite an amateur. Maybe
say newbie or maybe clueless when it comes to
coffee. My husband Dan likes coffee, but I could
say I wake up and make tea first thing, beautiful
phrase. Let’s go to the next part of my morning.
After I’m awake, I head to the kitchen and
start to make some breakfast. Sometimes my
kids and I read a book or play a little game
at breakfast because not everyone in our house
is a morning person. Sometimes at least one of
us will wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
So having a little bit of fun lightens the
mood and helps you to start your day off right.
Do you know what a morning person is? A
morning person is someone who wakes up happy,
ready to start at the day. Are you a morning
person? Or maybe you wake up on the wrong side
of the bed. This is a little bit metaphorical.
There’s not really a good side of the bed and a
bad side of the bed, but it means that you wake up
grumpy, maybe a little cranky, maybe not so happy.
You could say, “Ugh, I woke up on the wrong side
of the bed today. I need some coffee.” Or tea,
if you’re me. Then after breakfast, I drop my
son Theo off at preschool. This phrase verb
to drop off can be used for people or for
things. So you heard me use it for people.
I drop my son Theo off at school, or we could
put it together. I drop off my son at preschool,
but we could also drop something off. I dropped
my computer off at the repair shop. Make sure
that you don’t forget the word off, because if you
just say I dropped my computer at the repair shop,
it means your computer fell on the ground,
broke. Luckily you’re at the repair shop,
but it means something really different
than to drop off. So make sure that you
say I dropped off my computer at the repair shop
or I dropped my computer off at the repair shop.
Then I come home to start my work day.
Usually I catch up on some emails. I go over
any lessons that I’m going to have for my
students. And sometimes I just call a friend
to catch up. This phrasal verb to catch up or to
catch up on is often used in daily life. And you
can probably use it in our life too. Let’s take
a look at some situations. Let’s imagine you’ve
had a super busy week and it’s the weekend and
you look around and your house is a disaster.
Right now, my couch is covered in blankets. This
table has papers and everything all over it.
Oh boy, I need to catch up on chores. I need to
catch up on some cleaning that I didn’t do during
the week. Can you guess what this means? There’s
something that you’ve delayed doing. Maybe you
don’t want to, or you don’t have time, and now
it’s time to do it. So I could say, I need to
catch up on some emails or I need to catch up on
some cleaning, but I also used this to talk about
my friend. I call my friend to catch up. Well,
it kind of has the same idea. I haven’t talked
to my friend for a while and now we’re talking
about everything that’s happened since we last
talked. So if you see someone, maybe you’re in the
grocery store and you run across someone who you
haven’t seen for a while, you might say, “Hey,
you want to go get some coffee and catch up?”
That means I haven’t you for a while. I want
to hear everything that’s been happening. Let’s
catch up. I also said in my little story that
I go over some lessons, and this is a simply a
really common way to say review. You can use this
in the workplace a lot. You might ask someone to
help you out. You could say, “Hey, could you go
over this email before I send it?” Maybe you’re
writing a really important email and you want to
make sure you have everything right? You could ask
a coworker, “Hey, when you have a second, could
you go over this email before I send it? I would
really appreciate it.” That’s so polite. And also
if the other person is a kind person, they might
feel kind of good about themselves. Like, oh,
you think my opinion and my ideas are important
and worthwhile? Sure. I’ll go over that email
for you. I will give it my stamp of approval.
When I finish my work, I pick up my son from
preschool and we head home. This verb to head
somewhere is used all the time. Let me give you a
couple situations. You might say like I just did,
I’m heading home. That means you’re going in
the direction of home. You’re not there yet.
You’re not stopped, but that’s where you’re going.
I’m heading home. Or if someone calls you and
says, “What are you doing?” You could say, “I’m
headed to the store. I’m headed to the store.”
In American English, the store usually means
the grocery store or the supermarket. You’re
going to go buy some food. I’m headed to the
store. Or if you are ready to go and everyone
else is just taking their good old time, you
can say, “All right, it’s time to head out.”
This phrase to head out means out of the house.
Come on. It’s time to head out. Let’s go.
A great way to use to head out. When we get home,
sometimes my son and I have a little tea party
together and chat about his day. Usually as we’re
eating and drinking, he kind of opens up about his
day. And if he doesn’t open up what we’re eating,
sometimes I ask some specific questions. Like
how many holes did you dig today? Did you
jump in the leaf pile? He goes to an outdoor
nature school. So they play outside all day, all
weather, any season. They’re pretty tough. They
have lots of good warm clothes, but asking these
types of specific questions can him to kind of
review his day in an easier way. You might hear
people in movies and TV shows using the phrase,
tell me about your day or what did you do today
or what did you learn in school today, even worse.
These types of broad questions,
usually we don’t really like to answer,
especially at the end of the day, you feel
like you just want to detox, decompress.
And it’s tough to summarize your day in just a
few words like that. So maybe when you were a kid,
if your mom asked you, “What do you learn in
school today?” You probably said, oh, nothing
because it’s just too hard to
summarize your day. So if you have
a significant other, if you have kids, if
you’re just asking someone about their day,
I recommend, first of all, doing something
together, spending some quality time together. You
don’t have to have a tea party. Although, I highly
recommend it. Very fun. All you need is some tea,
maybe a little snack, cut up an apple, have
some nuts or dried fruit, whatever you like.
And just spending quality time
together can help someone to open up.
This is a phrase we’re going to use in
just a minute. I want to tell you about it,
but I recommend if someone doesn’t open up, asking
specific questions. This helps someone to recall
the information that happened to them during
the day. Especially with kids this is helpful
because they’re just living their life. They’re
not thinking about summarizing at the end of the
day. So when you ask a specific question,
oh, what game did you play at recess today?
Oh, did you eat anyone else’s food at lunch
today? These specific questions can help your
child to open up. And this phrasal verb to open
up is beautiful. I love this concept. When you’re
talking with someone, usually at the beginning,
there’s kind of a wall. You don’t immediately
share your deepest thoughts. If someone says,
“Hey, Vanessa, how are you doing today?”
No matter how I’m really feeling, I’ll always say,
“Oh, pretty good. What about you?” Because I’m
not ready to open up. In those types of passing
situations, we’re just not comfortable sharing
our inner thoughts. So when you spend quality time
together, that wall kind of drifts away a little
more and someone might be more willing to be
vulnerable. And that’s the idea when you open up,
that means that you are willing
to talk about your struggles,
something difficult in your life. Something really
meaningful in your life, not just the surface,
shallow things. But when you really open up
to someone, you’re being your authentic self.
So just remember these Vanessa tips, the next
time that you want someone to open up to you.
All right, let’s go to the next part
of my day. When the weather’s nice,
usually our neighbors come over and hang out.
Sometimes we have snacks. Sometimes we play games.
Sometimes we just chat. But because my backyard
is very sunny, it’s a favorite hangout spot.
And this word, to hangout can be used in two
different ways. It can be used as a verb.
We love to hang out in the backyard. This means
to casually spend time. Usually with other people,
we hangout together. Or it can be used as a noun.
This is a hangout. Or as an adjective. So I guess
we can use this in three ways, a hangout spot.
So it’s describing this location. What kind of
location is it? It’s a hangout spot. It’s not
a professional place. It’s not a private place.
Instead, it’s a hangout spot. It’s where we just
go to spend time with other people. After hanging
out with friends, as the sun starts to go down,
usually we come inside and start to cook dinner.
While we’re eating dinner, we try to sit down at
the table as a family. It’s nice to try to have
a little bit of quality time together. So
we like to ask each other some questions,
the most common questions. In fact, my four
year old son Theo loves to ask these to us.
He asks us one by one. “What was the best part
of your day?” And when everyone has answered,
he asks, “What was the most challenging part
of your day?” And it’s so funny the things
that kids will say to these questions.
So if you haven’t done this in your home,
if your kids aren’t familiar with English,
it’s okay. You can ask in your native language,
but asking these questions helps to kind of prompt
conversation a bit. And when you’re opening up
about the best thing or the most challenging
thing about your day, it kind of encourages the
other people at the table to open up to. Oh, what
a great phrasal verb that we just learned about.
There are two phrases that I want to share
with you that I just mentioned. One of them is
as a family. Now this just means the group, the
whole group, the family group, but we can use
the same structure in other ways. We could say
as a family, as a neighborhood, as a community,
as a department, as an office. So it’s talking
about all the people that are in that group. So
for example, you could say it’s important to spend
some time together as a couple without your kids.
So if you have kids, spending time without them,
it’s very important. So you could say as a couple,
just you and your significant other. It’s
important to be together without your kids
occasionally. Another expression that I used is
quality time. I already mentioned this when I
was talking about the tea party. I think I might
have mentioned it. If not, having a tea party is
good quality time too, but it means that you are
not just having a shallow experience together.
It’s not rushed. You don’t have to go anywhere.
You’re just enjoying each other’s presence.
So I really encourage you to try to spend some
quality time with someone this week. It means that
you don’t need to go anywhere. You don’t have any
kind of schedule. You have a full hour just to
take a walk with a friend or to chat on
the phone or to play a game with your
kids. Something that’s quality time. There’s
no agenda. You’re just enjoying being together.
After dinner, we clean up. We put the kids to
bed. We tuck them in and tell them sleep tight.
So one of these expressions that I used, you have
to be very careful about. I said, “We put the kids
to bed.” This means that we help them sleep. So
maybe we brush their teeth. We read some books.
We sing some songs and we help them to relax.
When you say we put the kids to bed, that’s
what it means. But you have to be very careful
because if you change the word bed for sleep,
if you put someone to sleep, it’s very different.
Usually this is a pet. So if we say I had to put
my dog to sleep last week, it means you had
to euthanize, which is a nice way to say, kill
your dog. Maybe that means he was really old. He
was suffering. It’s a really tough thing to do,
but it’s often necessary. So make sure that
you do not say I had to put my kids to sleep.
Instead, I had to put my kids to bed. Much
better. Of course, if you say your kids,
people are probably going to understand
that you mean you helped them sleep,
but just to make certain that
you’re using the best expression,
you can say I put my kids to bed every night
at 7:00. I put my kids to bed. Beautiful.
The final thing that I say to my kids
before they go to bed is sleep tight.
What? Tight? This is a fun expression that’s
actually shortened from another full expression.
It is goodnight, sleep tight. Don’t let the bed
bugs bite. Of course, we hope you don’t have
bugs in your bed. This is a very old expression.
Sometimes we say that full expression, goodnight,
sleep tight. Sometimes we say, goodnight,
sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.
But oftentimes we just shorten that to goodnight,
sleep tight, or just sleep tight. And it just
means I hope you sleep well. So if you hear
people say this in English movies or TV shows,
or if you want to say this yourself, it’s great. A
very natural thing to say at the end of the night.
After the kids are in bed, Dan, my
husband and I have some precious downtime.
Sometimes we get caught up on chores. Maybe
get caught up on a book that we’re reading.
Sometimes just chat about our day and decompress.
This is a great expression, downtime. It
means you have nothing else to do except
decompress and relax. It’s essential to have
downtime, especially before you go to bed.
If you are looking at Instagram while you’re in
your bed, oh no, no, no. Stop that right away.
It’s very bad for your sleep. You need to have
some downtime. Give yourself a one hour pause
before you go to bed to try to slow your mind
down. Having some downtime with someone you or
just by yourself. Relaxing is essential. When the
day’s over, it’s finally time to hit the hay. If
I’ve had a really busy day, I might just sleep
like a log. But if I’m feeling a bit stressed or
there’s a lot going on in my mind, I might toss
and turn a bit before finally falling asleep.
And fingers crossed that my children sleep
all night, so I don’t have to wake up in the
middle of the night to help them. And that’s my
day. Let’s talk about some of those expressions
I just used to hit. To hit the hay does
not mean that I’m a farmer and I have a
last minute chore at the end of
the day, I need to hit the hay.
No, instead it just means sleep. I need
to hit the hay. My hay needs to go on the
pillow. Ugh. I need to hit the hay. And I
also said that I might sleep like a log.
Does a log move? Does a log make any sounds?
Nope. It’s just a tree that fell over and there
it is. Nice and silent and still. It means you
slept very soundly, very quietly and peacefully,
but to toss and turn on the other hand, toss and
turn means that you did not sleep peacefully,
or at least you didn’t go to bed peacefully.
Your body and your mind is too active. You
tossed and turned. And what about the last one I
used? Fingers crossed. This is just a fun way to
say I hope that my kids sleep all night. Fingers
crossed that my kids sleep all nights, and me too.
So I want to know is your day similar to mine.
Can you use any of these expressions to talk about
your daily life? I’d like to know in the comments.
Use one of these expressions to talk about your
daily life. And don’t forget to download the
free PDF worksheet with all of these daily
life expressions so that you can think and speak
in English. That is the goal, right? That’s why
we’re here. So make sure you download the free
PDF. There’s a link in the description. You can
click and download the PDF today and never
forget all of these wonderful phrases. Well,
thank you so much for learning English with
me. I will see you again next Friday for a
new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.
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