Daily Life

Daily Routine Habits

When talking about daily routine habits, learners need to master fixed phrases (verb + object, time nouns, degree adverbs). Many characters share the same pronunciation but have different meanings, so you must remember which character goes with which.

• 后 (hòu: after, behind) — used to indicate an action that happens after another action, for example 饭后 (fànhòu: after a meal). Distinguish it from 候 (hòu), which has the same sound but means to wait, as in 等候 (děnghòu: to wait), and is not used to indicate sequence before or after. Example: 下课后我去图书馆。 (xiàkè hòu wǒ qù túshūguǎn: after class I go to the library).

• 洗澡 (xǐzǎo: to take a bath) — a verb phrase made of 洗 (xǐ: to wash, to bathe) and 澡 (zǎo: bathing). This phrase is used for taking a bath; 洗 standing alone with the meaning of bathing a person is not used. Example: 我晚上洗澡以后喝一杯水。 (wǒ wǎnshang xǐzǎo yǐhòu hē yì bēi shuǐ: in the evening, after bathing, I drink a glass of water).