Virtuous English AcademyDaily Routine — A1 English Vocabulary
This A1 vocabulary list gathers 20 beginner English words about daily routine — the everyday verbs of your daily life. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using daily routine words in English
These twenty verbs describe an ordinary day, and between them they will carry more of your early English than any other list on this level. They are also where you meet the present simple properly — including the small -s that English adds in the third person and nowhere else, which is simultaneously the easiest rule in the language to understand and the hardest to remember while speaking.
What to watch out for
Add -s for he, she and it — and only there
I work, you work, we work, they work — but he works, she works, it works. Verbs ending in -ch, -sh, -s or -o take -es: watches, washes, goes. Knowing this rule is not the difficulty; applying it at speaking speed is, and that takes repetition rather than study.
Wake up and get up are two different moments
Wake up is opening your eyes; get up is leaving the bed. Most people wake up before they get up, and English keeps the two apart: I wake up at six but I get up at half past. Both are separable phrasal verbs, so wake me up puts the pronoun in the middle.
Frequency words go before the main verb
I always eat breakfast, She never walks to work, They usually go by bus. The position is before the verb — but after be: I am always late, not I always am late. That one exception covers most of the mistakes learners make with word order here.
Words learners mix up
Two tables. The first is what happens to these verbs when you turn a statement into a question, which is where the small -s moves house. The second is the little word that three of them need and two of them refuse.
Questions and negatives need do or does
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| go | Statement: she goes. Question: Does she go? The -s moves onto does and the verb goes back to its plain form. | Does she go by bus? |
| study | Ends in -y, so the statement is he studies. The question is still Does he study? | Does he study English? |
| wash | Ends in -sh, so it takes -es: she washes. Again the question is Does she wash…? | Does she wash the car? |
One rule covers all three rows: the sentence carries the -s only once. Put it on does and the main verb loses it, which is why Does she goes? is wrong and sounds wrong to every English speaker. The same happens with doesn’t: She doesn’t go, never doesn’t goes.
Which verbs need to?
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| listen | Always listen to. The to is part of the verb and cannot be dropped. | I listen to music in the car. |
| watch | Never takes a preposition. You watch television, watch a film, watch the children. | We watch television after dinner. |
| read | Also takes nothing: read a book, read the news. | She reads a book every week. |
Listen music is one of the most common beginner sentences in the world, and it comes from the fact that most languages need no preposition here. Store the verb as two words — listen to — and the problem disappears. The third member of this family is look at, which behaves the same way: you look at a picture but watch a film.
Collocations that sound natural
Four verbs and the objects that sit beside them again and again. Learning the pair is faster than learning the verb and choosing an object later.
clean
clean the houseclean your teethclean the windowsclean up
British parents say clean your teeth where Americans say brush. Clean up means tidy a mess away, and it needs no object: please clean up.
buy
buy a ticketbuy foodbuy a presentbuy something for someone
Two orders both work: buy her a present and buy a present for her. The version without for puts the person first.
help
help mehelp with the homeworkCan you help?help someone to do something
It takes with before a thing and nothing at all before a person: help me with my homework. Help! shouted on its own is an emergency, so use the question form to ask for ordinary help.
open
open the dooropen a bookopen your eyesthe shop opens at nine
The last one has no object, because English lets shops and doors open by themselves. That is why the shop opens and I open the shop are both correct.
Where each word belongs
Five of these verbs mean something slightly different depending on who is doing it. Two are what children do, one is a goodbye, and one is about alcohol more often than you would think.
- playChildren · sport · musicChildren play with no object at all. Adults play a sport, a game or an instrument, so I played all afternoon from a grown-up sounds childlike unless you say what you played.
- sleepGoodbye at nightSleep well is a warm way to say goodbye at bedtime, alongside Good night. As a plain verb it is rarer than you expect — people usually say go to bed or get up.
- walkEveryday · with <em>go for</em>The verb is fine, but for the activity British people say go for a walk. Walking as a hobby in the hills is walking, where Americans say hiking.
- runUrgent on its ownFor exercise the usual phrase is go running or go for a run. Run! by itself means something is wrong and you should leave quickly.
- drinkOften means alcoholThe verb is neutral, but the noun is not: Do you want a drink? in the evening usually means wine or beer, and He doesn’t drink means no alcohol at all.
Sentences to try
Four frames describing a day. Change the times and the verbs to match your own.
- I wake up at seven and I eat breakfast.
- She works in an office and studies in the evening.
- We always walk to the park after lunch.
- He watches television and then he sleeps.
Questions about daily routine vocabulary
Why is it "he works" and not "he work"?
Because English adds -s to the verb in the third person singular of the present simple — with he, she, it and any single name or thing. Every other person keeps the bare form. It is the last surviving fragment of a much larger set of verb endings that English lost centuries ago, which is why it looks so isolated and is so easy to forget. Verbs ending in -ch, -sh, -s or -o take -es instead: watches, goes.
What is the difference between wake up and get up?
Wake up means to stop sleeping — your eyes open. Get up means to leave the bed and stand. They usually happen at different times, and English keeps them separate: I wake up at six but I do not get up until seven. Both separate around a pronoun object, so it is wake me up and never wake up me.
Where do always, usually and never go in a sentence?
Before the main verb: I always drink coffee, She never takes the bus, They usually arrive late. The exception is the verb be, where they come after it: I am always tired, He is never late. With an auxiliary, they slot in between: I have never been to London, She does not usually work on Sundays.