Translation guide
How to talk about your daily routine in Japanese. This guide covers common phrases, verbs, and sentence patterns for describing everyday activities, from waking up to going to bed.
What is your daily routine?
A natural way to ask about someone's daily routine.
My daily routine is...
The learner wants to say what they do every day, in order.
Use 毎日 (every day) with a verb in the polite ます form to describe a habitual action.
I get up at 6 every day.
I drink coffee every day.
Use the て form of a verb + から to express doing one action after another. This is very natural for describing a sequence of daily activities.
After eating breakfast, I brush my teeth.
After taking a shower, I get dressed.
Use this pattern to list multiple activities non-exhaustively, implying you do these things and others. It gives a natural, flowing feel.
In the morning, I do things like read the newspaper and check email.
The learner needs vocabulary for specific actions in a daily routine.
To get up, wake up. Intransitive verb.
I get up at 7 every morning.
To go to bed, to sleep. Intransitive verb.
To eat. Transitive verb.
To drink. Transitive verb.
To brush one's teeth. Literally 'polish teeth'.
I brush my teeth every night.
To take a shower. 浴びる means 'to bathe' or 'to shower'.
I take a shower in the morning.
To change clothes. Intransitive verb.
To go out, to leave the house. Intransitive verb.
To return home. Intransitive verb.
The learner wants to refer to 'daily routine' as a concept, e.g., 'My daily routine is...'
Daily routine, daily habit. This is the most natural noun for 'daily routine'.
My daily routine is jogging in the morning.
Daily habit. Emphasizes the habitual aspect.
Loanword from English 'routine'. Common in casual conversation, especially among younger people.
The English word 'routine' is often rendered as ルーティン in Japanese, but ルーチン is not used. Stick to 日課 or ルーティン.
Japanese often places time words at the beginning of a sentence: 毎朝、毎晩、朝、夜、etc. This sets the scene for your routine.
Every morning, I drink coffee.
I wake up at 6, eat breakfast, and then go to work.
My daily routine hasn't changed much.
I go to bed at 11 at night.
朝ごはんを食べます。
I eat breakfast.
I drink coffee.
パジャマから服に着替えます。
I change from pajamas into clothes.
8時に家を出かけます。
I leave the house at 8.
I return home in the evening.
Please tell me about your daily habits.
朝のルーティンを紹介します。
I'll introduce my morning routine.