Daily life as a state machine — morning, work, evening
A daily routine is a state machine. At 7 AM you're in the sleeping
state; then you transition to awake, to eating-breakfast,
to commuting, and so on. Each transition is a verb, and Chinese
tags each verb with an aspect particle that says what kind of
transition it is — whether it's happening right now, has already completed,
or has happened before at some vague point in the past.
Module 3 is the deep dive on those particles. This article puts them in their natural habitat: the twenty verbs you use every single day. Learn the verbs first, then watch how 了, 在, 过, and 着 stack on top of them to produce the actual sentences a Chinese speaker uses before breakfast.
// The routine state machine, with aspect particles. type Aspect = "habitual" | "in-progress" | "completed" | "experienced"; // ∅ 在/正在 了 过 routine.morning = [wake, washFace, brush, eat, leave]; routine.midday = [work, meet, lunch, work]; routine.evening = [returnHome, cook, eat, relax, shower, sleep];
1. The verbs
Roughly twenty verbs cover a full day. They break into three clusters by when you use them.
Morning
| Verb | Pinyin | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 起床 | qǐ chuáng | get up (out of bed) | 起 (rise) + 床 (bed). Literally "rise from bed." |
| 刷牙 | shuā yá | brush teeth | 刷 (brush) + 牙 (tooth). |
| 洗脸 | xǐ liǎn | wash face | 洗 (wash) + 脸 (face). |
| 洗澡 | xǐ zǎo | shower, bathe | 洗 (wash) + 澡 (bathe). Both chars carry 氵. |
| 穿 | chuān | put on (clothes) | 穿衣服 = get dressed. |
| 吃早饭 | chī zǎo fàn | eat breakfast | 吃 (eat) + 早饭 (early-meal). Variant: 吃早餐. |
| 出门 | chū mén | leave the house | 出 (exit) + 门 (door). Literally "exit the door." |
Work / school
| Verb | Pinyin | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 上班 | shàng bān | go to work | 上 (go to) + 班 (shift). The verb for "be at work." |
| 下班 | xià bān | get off work | 下 (descend) + 班. End of the workday. |
| 上学 | shàng xué | go to school | Same pattern for students. |
| 放学 | fàng xué | finish school | 放 (release) + 学. End of the school day. |
| 开会 | kāi huì | hold a meeting | 开 (open) + 会 (meeting). "Open a meeting." |
| 工作 | gōng zuò | work (noun & verb) | The general word. 我在工作 = "I'm working." |
| 学习 | xué xí | study | The general "study" verb. |
| 吃午饭 | chī wǔ fàn | eat lunch | Same pattern as 吃早饭. |
Evening
| Verb | Pinyin | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 回家 | huí jiā | go home | 回 (return) + 家 (home). "Return home." |
| 做饭 | zuò fàn | cook (a meal) | 做 (do/make) + 饭 (meal). |
| 吃晚饭 | chī wǎn fàn | eat dinner | 晚 (late/evening) + 饭. |
| 看电视 | kàn diàn shì | watch TV | 看 (watch) + 电视 (television). |
| 看手机 | kàn shǒu jī | use one's phone | The modern update to 看电视. |
| 看书 | kàn shū | read a book | Same verb 看 covers watching, reading, looking. |
| 睡觉 | shuì jiào | sleep | 睡 (sleep) + 觉 (sense/sleep). The everyday verb for going to bed. |
2. Four aspect flavors
Pick any verb above and you can say it in four different states. The aspect particles tell you which.
| Flavor | Marker | Example with 吃饭 (eat) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Habitual | — (no particle) | 我 七点 吃饭 | "I eat at seven." — a repeated pattern. |
| In-progress | 在 / 正在 | 我 在 吃饭 | "I'm eating (right now)." 正在 adds emphasis on "right this moment." |
| Completed | 了 | 我 吃 了 饭 | "I've eaten (it happened)." The action is done. |
| Experienced | 过 | 我 吃 过 火锅 | "I've had hotpot (at some point)." Speaks to having done something ever, not recently. |
3. Time templates
Chinese time-expressions come before the verb, not after. This is a hard rule; reversing it produces grammatical nonsense.
| Sentence | Pinyin | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| 我 每天 七点 起床。 | wǒ měitiān qī diǎn qǐchuáng | subject · frequency · clock-time · verb |
| 我 晚上 看 电视。 | wǒ wǎnshang kàn diànshì | subject · general-time · verb · object |
| 我 十点 睡觉。 | wǒ shí diǎn shuìjiào | subject · clock-time · verb |
| 星期一 我 上班。 | xīngqīyī wǒ shàngbān | day · subject · verb (day can front the sentence) |
Useful time words:
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 每天 | měi tiān | every day |
| 早上 | zǎo shang | morning |
| 上午 | shàng wǔ | late morning (before noon) |
| 中午 | zhōng wǔ | noon |
| 下午 | xià wǔ | afternoon |
| 晚上 | wǎn shang | evening / night |
| 周末 | zhōu mò | weekend |
4. Sample dialogs
5. Edge cases
Habitual + particle: be careful with 了
The most common beginner mistake is putting 了 on habitual sentences. 我 每天 七点 起床 is correct — there is no 了 because it's not a completed event, it's a pattern. 我 每天 七点 起床 了 sounds wrong. 了 wants a single completed action ("I got up at seven, this morning"), not a repeated one.
Ordering multiple verbs: 然后 vs serial verbs
For a chain of actions you can either connect them with 然后 (ránhòu, "then") or string verbs serially without a connector:
- 我 起床，然后 刷牙。 — "I get up, then brush teeth." (Two clauses joined by 然后.)
- 我 去 上班。 — "I go to work." (Serial verbs: 去 + 上班. No connector.)
Rule of thumb: serial verbs for purpose-chains ("I go to work", "I buy to eat"), 然后 for sequence in time ("I did this, then that").
加班 — the unfortunately frequent one
加班 (jiābān) is "work overtime." 加 (add) + 班 (shift) = "add a shift." Extremely high-frequency in modern Chinese working life — you will hear it almost daily in office settings. 不加班 ("no overtime") is a minor aspiration.
6. Next steps
- Deep dive: Aspect Particles Flowchart — the full decision tree for 了/过/着/在
- Next phrasebook: Telling Time & Scheduling — clock times, dates, appointments
- Browse daily-life vocabulary — filtered by tag
- Module 3: State Management — the theory behind the particles
Once your routine vocabulary is on autopilot, you can start adding the flavor words (就, 才, 还, 已经) that make routine-talk sound native instead of textbooky.