Shadowing Practice: 20 Useful Phrases to Talk about Daily Routines: Essential Vocabulary - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
B2
What do you do every day?
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What do you do every day?
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Easy.
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I get up, breakfast, go to work.
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Not the best answer for IELTS speaking.
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Let's find out how to do it better.
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Hello, this is Keith from English Speaking Success and the website Keith Speaking Academy,
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here to help you speak English more confidently.
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In this video today, we're going to look at three things.
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First, how to talk about daily routines.
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Secondly, some common routines you can talk about.
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And then thirdly, how to link your ideas so that you sound coherent and can speak much more fluently.
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Great.
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At the end, I have a bonus for you.
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I have a gift, a free gift, of course.
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Find out more at the end of the video.
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So stick around for that.
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Right now, let's jump straight in to the first part about how we talk about daily routines.
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So how do we talk about daily routines?
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Well, let's take an example.
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To get up early, which is true, right?
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I'm an early bird.
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I usually get up early.
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We can also say, I will.
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I will get up early.
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This is not the future.
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This is a present habit.
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I will get up at six o'clock most days, right?
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We can also say, I tend to,
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I tend to get up early.
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I tend to get up early.
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I typically get up early.
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Nice.
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If it's more frequent, like always,
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I always get up early.
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We can say, I religiously get up early.
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Nothing to do with religion.
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It just means every single day.
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Also, I invariably get up early.
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Invariably means not changing, always like that, right?
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So all of these are adverbs like religiously, invariably.
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Great to use adverbs to give colour to your answers.
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You can add even more colour with adverbial phrases.
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These are adverbs with two or more words like without fail.
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I get up at six o'clock without fail.
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Day in, day out.
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I get up at six o'clock day in, day out.
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Notice if the adverbial phrase has two or more words,
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it usually goes either at the beginning or at the end,
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not in the middle.
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Now, if a routine is less frequent,
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right, just sometimes, I sometimes get up at 10 o'clock in the morning,
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we can say now and again,
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now and again, now and again.
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Yeah, I get up at 10 o'clock now and again.
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or now and then, now and then.
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I get up at 10 o'clock now and then.
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Probably Saturday mornings, right?
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When I'm sleeping in.
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Or from time to time, from time to time.
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I get up at 10 o'clock from time to time.
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Lovely expressions, nice and colourful.
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Let's look now at some common routines we can talk about.
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Okay, let's talk about some common routines.
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I'm going to focus on common morning routines, right?
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The first one, I sleep in.
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This is when you stay in bed longer, but deliberately, right?
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So taking our adverbs from before,
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I typically sleep in until 11 o'clock on Saturday mornings.
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What about you?
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Notice this is different from to oversleep.
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I oversleep is where you stay in bed longer by mistake because the alarm didn't go off.
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Next, breakfast.
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I have breakfast.
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Be careful.
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One of the most common mistakes I see students make is I have a breakfast.
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No, I have breakfast.
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If you're going to use an adjective like I have a big breakfast,
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yes, there's an a.
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I have an English breakfast.
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I have a hearty breakfast, then yes.
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Next, drinks.
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I have a coffee.
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I have a tea.
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More colloquially, we would say I grab a coffee.
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Grab.
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To grab is to take quickly.
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I grab a coffee.
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I grab a tea.
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I grab a piece of toast.
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You can go to Starbucks and grab a coffee.
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If you're doing it yourself at home,
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we have this nice structure.
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I get myself something.
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I get myself a coffee.
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I get myself some breakfast where you do it yourself.
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DIY.
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Do it yourself.
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Next, well, you go to work.
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More colloquially, I head off to work.
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I head off to school or I head off to the gym,
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if you're that way inclined, right, to go to.
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If you have children, and good luck to you,
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in the morning, you can say,
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I sort the kids out for school,
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or I sort out the kids for school,
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meaning you get them ready,
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get them dressed, make sure they've eaten,
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make sure they've brushed their teeth,
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etc, etc. Not easy, I know.
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So now then, next, a very common formula,
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if you like, for routines is I do the.
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I do the cooking in the morning.
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I do the cleaning.
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I do the washing, if you're talking about clothes.
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I do the pots in the UK,
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we say, or I do the dishes,
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if you're talking about cleaning the plates and the cups.
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For sport, I do some yoga.
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I do some Pilates.
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I do some weightlifting, maybe.
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And if you're, as we mentioned before,
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you like to go to the gym,
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I go to the gym.
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Even more colloquial, I go down the gym.
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Or I hit the gym.
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Doesn't mean you hit the trainer.
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It means you go to the gym, right?
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I hit the gym.
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Great.
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All of these are some common morning routines that you can now talk about in a more natural way.
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Let's move on.
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Next, let's look at how to link your ideas so your speech is more coherent and you can speak more fluently, okay?
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The good news is in spoken English,
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the connectors we use are usually very, very simple, right?
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We don't need to overcomplicate things when we're speaking.
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So you can say, well,
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I do this and then I do that.
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After that, da-da-da-da.
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Next, da-da-da-da.
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And then later, da-da-da-da.
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So these are connectors, simple in order of time, right?
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Let me put that in context to give you a very simple example.
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So, I get up at 7am and then I have breakfast.
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After that, I have a shower.
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Next, I get dressed and then later, I go to work.
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Right?
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Simple.
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An important grammatical point for you here.
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When we have two activities in order,
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A and B, we can say,
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after I have a shower, I get dressed.
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We can also say, probably more common,
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after having a shower, I get dressed.
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So instead of saying after I plus verb,
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we say after plus verb.
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After having, the verb is in the gerund.
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And this is important because in English,
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when a verb follows a preposition,
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it's always in the gerund.
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After having a shower, I go to work.
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Before going to work.
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I have breakfast.
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Okay, make a mental note of that.
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Great.
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Let's take all the ideas so far.
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Let's take the adverbs, the adverbial phrases,
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some common morning routines and the linking words and put it into an answer to answer the question.
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Well, not a question, but tell me about your morning routine.
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Okay, now and then I sleep in at the weekend,
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but on a weekday I invariably get up early and then have a shower.
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After that I get myself some breakfast,
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brush my teeth and then later head off to work.
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Typically on Tuesdays I hit the gym before going to work.
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Nice.
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What about you?
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Tell me about your morning routine.
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So next, I'd like to give you a free gift.
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Really?
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Really.
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Listen, if you go to my website,
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keithspeakingacademy.com, in the middle of the page,
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you'll see a course, Crack IELTS Speaking Part 1.
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This course is for you.
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It's totally free for the moment.
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Go and check it out.
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You can click there on the link.
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There's also a link down below.
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It's going to help you understand part one of IELTS speaking,
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the common questions you're going to get and how to handle those questions and give cracking answers.
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Great answers so that you can crack the IELTS speaking part one.
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Okay, go and check it out on the website.
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The link is down below as well.
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Crack IELTS Speaking Part 1.
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I think it'll be a real big help for you.
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The good news is it's quite a short course.
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You can probably do it in one hour.
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Great.
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That's it for today.
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I hope you enjoyed the video.
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Please do remember to subscribe,
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turn on notifications to find out about upcoming videos.
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In the meantime, remember the secret is in the practice.
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Take care, my friend and I'll see you in the next video.
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Bye-bye.
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Context & Background
In today's fast-paced world, being able to articulate your daily routine in English can greatly enhance your communication skills, especially for English learners aiming to improve their speaking abilities. In a recent video, Keith, an expert from English Speaking Success, shares valuable insights into discussing daily routines with confidence. He emphasizes the significance of using varied expressions and linking ideas coherently to sound more fluent and natural while speaking. This section will help you understand the essential vocabulary and grammatical structures to effectively convey your daily activities.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
Here are five useful phrases to help you talk about your daily routine more effectively:
- I usually get up early. - A simple yet effective way to express a regular habit.
- I tend to get up early. - This phrase offers a slightly more nuanced way to describe a habit.
- I always get up early. - Use this to emphasize the consistency of your routine.
- I religiously get up early. - An idiom that conveys a strong commitment to your daily practice.
- I get up at six o'clock without fail. - This adverbial phrase adds emphasis, indicating you do not miss this habit.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
Using the shadowing technique can significantly enhance your English speaking practice. Here’s a step-by-step guide to incorporate shadow speech into your routine:
- Step 1: Choose a section of the video where the phrases on daily routines are discussed. Focus on the phrases mentioned above.
- Step 2: Listen carefully to how Keith pronounces each phrase. Pay attention to the intonation and rhythm of his speech.
- Step 3: Play the video again and try to repeat after him. Pause frequently to match your pronunciation with his.
- Step 4: Practice shadowing continuously until you feel comfortable. You can use a shadowing site that allows you to repeat phrases multiple times.
- Step 5: Record yourself while shadowing and listen back to identify areas for improvement. Focus on clarity and fluency.
By utilizing these steps and consistently engaging in shadow speaking practices, you'll find that discussing your daily routine in English becomes more natural and intuitive. Embrace this technique to elevate your language skills and convey your messages more effectively!
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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