Daily Routine

To describe your routine in three timeframes: last Sunday, a normal day and tomorrow.

The time words decide the tense: el domingo pasado and ayer take the preterite, normalmente and todos los días the present, and mañana and el lunes que viene take ir a + infinitive. The pronoun stays in every timeframe: me levanté, me levanto, and in the future it joins the end of the infinitive (voy a levantarme) or goes before voy (me voy a levantar). Don't drop it, and keep the accent on levanté.

Exam tip: The top language marks in AQA's 90-word task, Pearson's 80-90 and 130-150 word tasks and Pearson's conversation need all three timeframes.

Most routine verbs are reflexive: me levanto, te duchas, se acuesta.

The pronoun matches the person: me levanto, te levantas, se levanta, nos levantamos, os levantáis, se levantan. It goes before the verb, or on the end of an infinitive: voy a levantarme. For parts of the body, use el or los, not mi: me lavo los dientes. Acostarse (me acuesto) is on the Higher list; at Foundation you can say voy a la cama (I go to bed).

To say when you do each thing: es la una, son las dos, a las tres.

Use es la for one o'clock and son las for every other hour: es la una, son las tres. Add minutes with y up to half past (y cuarto, y media), then count back from the next hour with menos: son las ocho menos diez. To say when something happens, use a la or a las: a la una (at one), me levanto a las siete (I get up at seven).

Exam tip: Timetables and announcements in listening texts can use the 24-hour clock: a las catorce horas is 2pm.

To sequence your routine: primero, luego, antes de and después de + infinitive.

Primero, luego, después and por último link your routine into a sequence: primero me ducho, luego desayuno. After antes de and después de, the verb stays in the infinitive where English uses "-ing": después de cenar (after having dinner), not después de cenando. With a reflexive verb, the pronoun goes on the end: antes de acostarme.

Several routine verbs change their stem too: despertarse (e to ie), vestirse (e to i), acostarse (o to ue).

These verbs follow two patterns at once: the reflexive pronoun, and a stem change in every form except nosotros and vosotros. So it's me despierto but nos despertamos, me acuesto but nos acostamos, me visto but nos vestimos. The usual mistake is me acosto: the yo form changes too.

The highlighted part is the letters that change.