Describe your day by combining a time, a place, and an action. Start with separate sentences you understand, then connect a few actions with the te-form. This makes it easier to tell whether an error concerns the words, the particles, or the ending.
The routine below is invented practice. Change the details to describe your own life.
Start with a simple sequence
Japanese | Meaning |
|---|---|
毎朝、七時に起きます。 | I get up at seven every morning. |
家で朝ごはんを食べます。 | I eat breakfast at home. |
八時に学校に行きます。 | I go to school at eight. |
学校で日本語を勉強します。 | I study Japanese at school. |
夜、本を読みます。 | I read a book at night. |
Useful readings: 毎朝（まいあさ）, 起きます（おきます）, 朝ごはん（あさごはん）, 学校（がっこう）, 夜（よる）, 読みます（よみます）.
七時に gives a specific clock time. 毎朝 normally appears without the time particle に. 学校に gives the destination of 行きます; 学校で gives the setting of studying. Read the に and で comparison if these place phrases feel interchangeable.
Connect actions when the relationship is clear
朝ごはんを食べて、学校に行きます。
I eat breakfast and go to school.
家に帰って、本を読みます。
I return home and read a book.
食べる becomes 食べて, and 帰る becomes 帰って. The final verb carries the tense and politeness of these simple sequences. Do not add ます to every intermediate te-form. The complete te-form lesson explains the verb groups and exceptions.
Change the day you are describing
Purpose | Example |
|---|---|
A usual routine | 毎朝、七時に起きます。 |
What happened yesterday | 昨日は七時に起きました。 |
A wish for tomorrow | 明日は早く起きたいです。 |
早く（はやく）means “early” in the last example. A wish is not the same as a completed action. Keep the たい form separate from the past ending ました when deciding what you want to say.
Practice: write five true sentences
Say when you usually get up.
Say where you eat breakfast or lunch.
Say where you go and how you travel, if relevant.
Connect two actions with the te-form.
Change one sentence to describe yesterday.
Possible answers include 六時半に起きます, 会社で昼ごはんを食べます, and 家に帰って、休みます. Your time and place may differ. For yesterday, 家に帰って、休みました changes the final verb to past while keeping 帰って unchanged.
Diagnose a mistake
If you wrote 学校で行きます for “go to school,” check the destination pattern. If you wrote 食べてました as your first attempt at a simple sequence, return to a complete model and distinguish the basic te-form from other constructions. If you keep writing only from the table, hide it and change one detail before trying again.
For connected beginner activities and audio, use the Japan Foundation’s Irodori Starter materials. Then read a short beginner passage and compare another person’s routine with your own.
Try what you have just read
Recognise the pattern, write an answer from memory, then use it in a short reading. Your existing progress carries over.
Open the three-step lessonSources
Related Grammar
Ni vs De: Location, Destination, Time, and Means
Look at the role of the phrase, not just its English translation. に can mark where someone is, a destination or a time. で can mark where an activity happens or the means used to do it.
The Japanese Particle を: Objects, Contrasts, and Practice
を often marks what an action acts on: 本を読みます and 水を飲みます. It also marks routes and places left behind with some movement verbs, so translating every を phrase as a direct object is too narrow.
Japanese Te-Form: Conjugation Table, Uses, and Practice
The te-form connects a verb to another action or to an ending such as ください. It is not a past ending. First identify the verb group, then apply its sound change.
Japanese Tai Form: Wants, Negatives, Past Forms, and Practice
Form たい from the ます-stem, change its tense and negative, compare ほしい, and practise six explained questions.
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