How do you talk about the things you do regularly?

How do you talk about some things you did yesterday?

Read the following. How does it sound?

I get up. I get dressed. I brush my teeth. I eat breakfast. I watch TV. I go to work.

Now read this. How does it sound?

I met my friend. We walked in the park. We went to a restaurant. We went to a bar. We went to a cafe. We went home.

Something is missing, isn’t it?

Have a look at the following. These are adverbs of sequence. They help connect the order of actions. They can be used for all tenses.

First

Then

Next

After 

Then

Finally

Let’s slot them into our example sentences.

First, I wake up. Then, I get dressed. Next, I brush my teeth. After that, I eat breakfast and then I watch TV. Finally, I go to work.

First, I met my friend. Then, we walked in the park. Next, we went to a restaurant. After that, we went to a bar and then, we went to a cafe. Finally, we went home.

These sound much more natural!

You might have noticed that I used six and that “then” has been used twice. There is a very good reason for this.

It’s for the Sequence Game, used with dice, and it is a hit with all of my students.

So, if you’d like some practice with adverbs of sequence and some speaking practice that targets fluency (with interesting and sometimes very funny sentences), please contact me for the Adverbs of Sequence lesson!