How’s your day? Learn how to talk about your daily routine in Italian.
Talk about your daily routine
La mia giornata • my day
Mi sveglio alle sette, poi faccio colazione. | I wake up at 7, then I have breakfast. |
Mi preparo: mi faccio la doccia, mi lavo i denti e mi vesto. | I get ready: I take a shower, brush my teeth and get dressed. |
Poi esco di casa e vado al lavoro. | Then I leave home and go to work. |
Lavoro dalle otto alle cinque. | I work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
Dopo il lavoro di solito faccio la spesa o faccio le pulizie. | After work I usually do the grocery shopping or I do the cleaning. |
Qualche volta faccio sport. | Sometimes I do sport. |
Poi preparo la cena e ceno con la mia famiglia. | Then I’ll make dinner and I eat dinner with my family. |
La sera mi rilasso: guardo un film, leggo un libro o suono il pianoforte. | After dinner, I relax: I watch a movie, I read a book or I play the piano. |
Verso le dieci e mezza vado a letto. | Around 10:30 p.m. I go to bed. |
Vocabulary
To talk about your routine you need to know some vocabulary. Here are some common daily activities:
svegliarsi | to wake up |
fare colazione | to have breakfast |
fare la doccia | to have a shover |
vestirsi | to get dressed |
andare al lavoro | to go to work |
lavorare | to work |
pranzare | to have lunch |
tornare a casa | to go back home |
fare sport | to do sport |
cenare | to have dinner |
guardare la TV | to watch TV |
rilassarsi | to relax |
andare a letto | to go to bed |
dormire | to sleep |
You can find more vocabulary of daily activities and download a practical PDF here.
Reflexive verbs
Mi sveglio alle 7.
Some of the verbs that are listed above ends with –si, like svegliarsi. These verbs are called reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs are verbs that have a reflexive pronouns: (io) mi sveglio. Mi means myself.
The verb is normally conjugated in the present tense, you just need to add the reflexive pronoun. Look at the conjugation of the verb svegliarsi, a reflexive verbs of the -are group.
io | mi | sveglio |
tu | ti | svegli |
lui, lei | si | sveglia |
noi | ci | svegliamo |
voi | vi | svegliate |
loro | si | svegliano |
Mio marito ed io ci svegliamo alle 7. | My husband and I wake up at 7am. |
La sera mi rilasso sul divano. | I relax on the couch in the evening. |
Learn more about reflexive verbs in our lesson Reflexive verbs in Italian.
When?
Lavoro dalle otto alle cinque.
La sera mi rilasso.
To tell when in the day you do something, you can use both the article or the preposition di. For notte is better the preposition di than the article.
la mattina / di mattina | in the morning |
il pomeriggio / di pomeriggio | in the afternoon |
la sera / di sera | in the evening |
(la notte) / di notte | at night |
If you want to tell the time, you’ll say alle. If the time is not precise, you can say verso. For the time span from – to, you’ll say: dalle – alle.
Mi sveglio alle sette. | I wake up at 7am. |
Verso le dieci e mezza vado a letto. | Around 10:30pm I go to bed. |
Lavoro dalle otto alle cinque. | I work from eight to five. |
If it’s not clear if you mean am or pm, you can add di mattina • di pomeriggio • di sera • di notte:
Lavoro dalle otto di mattina alle cinque di pomeriggio. | I work from 8am to 5pm. |
There are more rules and some exceptions. Learn more about how to tell the time in our lesson Che ore sono? Tell the time in Italian.
2 thoughts on “Daily routine in Italian”
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