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. The next step is to download the free PDF  

worksheet for this lesson. With this free  PDF, you will master today's lesson and  

never forget what you have learned. You can  be a confident English speaker. Don't forget  

to subscribe to my YouTube channel for  a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.