A daily routine in French: je me prépare and je me couche
Ana is describing her usual day to a new colleague. You will put three activities in order and say when they happen. The key is to keep je and me together with these two personal routine verbs, then link the actions with d'abord and puis.
Names, familiar actions and the clock
Je means I: Je m'appelle Ana means My name is Ana, and Je travaille à la maison means I work at home. The dictionary form travailler becomes travaille with je; à la maison is the familiar chunk at home. Il est sept heures means It's seven o'clock, while à sept heures means at seven o'clock. We will also use huit (eight) and vingt-deux (twenty-two): 22:00 is ten at night. Listen to the three reminders, even if you skipped the earlier lessons.
Je m'appelle Ana.
Je travaille à la maison.
Il est sept heures.
Two actions for your own routine
Se préparer means to get ready, for example before going out; se coucher means to go to bed, not necessarily to fall asleep at that moment. Listen to the two dictionary forms below: the se belongs with the verb. In a sentence about yourself, it changes to me: Je me prépare (I get ready), Je me couche (I go to bed).
Je and me refer to the same person
Listen to the short models: Je me prépare and Je me couche. Je identifies the speaker; with these verbs, me links the action back to that same person and comes before the present-tense verb. English normally says I get ready and I go to bed without myself, but keep me in these French expressions. You have already met this small pronoun as m' before the vowel in Je m'appelle Ana; do not attach it to every action, since I work is Je travaille. The dictionary forms se préparer and se coucher become je me prépare and je me couche, with -e at the end. D'abord means first, so D'abord, je me prépare starts the sequence.
Je me prépare.
Je me couche.
D'abord, je me prépare.
First, then, and at what time
D'abord introduces the first step, and puis means then, introducing the next one; the word card also shows ensuite, another way of saying then. Ana's sequence is 07:00 get ready → 08:00 work → 22:00 go to bed. Listen to each sentence below: à sept heures is at seven, à huit heures is at eight, and à vingt-deux heures is at ten at night. To give the time of an action, add à and the time to the action sentence; Il est sept heures simply tells what time it is. The present tense here describes a routine, rather than requiring English am getting ready. The third sentence closes the day without needing another connector.
D'abord, je me prépare à sept heures.
Puis, je travaille à huit heures.
Je me couche à vingt-deux heures.
Just recognize: someone else's routine
You only need to understand these two lines for now, not produce a full set of forms. Tu te prépares means You get ready, speaking to one person you address as tu; both tu and te refer to that person. Elle se couche means She goes to bed: elle and se refer to the same woman or girl. The extra -s in prépares is written but is not pronounced, so prépare and prépares sound alike. The small pronoun changes with the subject; these examples are in the present, and pronominal past forms come later.
- informal
Tu te prépares.
Elle se couche.
Tell a colleague your day
Imagine this routine is yours: get ready at 07:00, work at 08:00, go to bed at 22:00. Before reading the models below, say the three sentences, starting the first with d'abord and the second with puis. Keep me with prépare and couche, and use à before each time. Then listen and compare with the models in the same order. For one small change, move getting ready to 08:00: D'abord, je me prépare à huit heures.
D'abord, je me prépare à sept heures.
Puis, je travaille à huit heures.
Je me couche à vingt-deux heures.
A short routine you can reuse
Je me prépare is I get ready, and Je me couche is I go to bed: je and me refer to the same person. Put d'abord (first) and puis (then) before the actions to give their order, and add à plus a familiar time. Je travaille stays without me. You can now tell a short daily routine; recognizing tu te and elle se is enough for this lesson.
D'abord, je me prépare.
Je me couche.