Level 2 · Lesson 9

早上起床，晚上睡觉
Up in the morning, asleep at night

我早上起床，中午吃饭，晚上睡觉。

The time of day always comes before the verb — and 起床 and 睡觉 are learned whole.

听 · Listen

对话
 李明 —  我早上起床，中午吃饭，晚上睡觉。 
I get up in the morning, eat at midday, and sleep at night.  
 安娜 —  我早上不起床！ 
I don't get up in the morning!  
 李明 —  你早上睡觉吗？ 
Do you sleep in the morning?  
 安娜 —  我早上睡觉，中午起床。 
I sleep in the morning and get up at midday.  
 李明 —  中午起床？你中午吃饭吗？ 
Up at midday? Do you eat lunch then?  
 安娜 —  我中午吃饭，也喝咖啡。 
I eat at midday, and drink coffee too.  
 李明 —  晚上呢？ 
And in the evening?  
 安娜 —  晚上我看电影，不睡觉！ 
In the evening I watch films — I don't sleep!  

讲解 · Explanation

我早上起床。我晚上睡觉。

This is one of the firmest rules in the language: the time comes before the verb. English is happy to say 'I get up in the morning', with the time trailing at the end; Chinese never does. 我起床早上 is not a sentence. Put the time word in front of the verb and everything else stays exactly where it was.

我早上起床。早上我起床。

There are two legal places for the time word, and both are in front of the verb: after the subject, or right at the head of the sentence. 我早上起床 simply reports what you do; 早上我起床 sets the morning up as the topic first, the way English might begin 'In the morning, I …'. Choose the second when you are running through a whole day, as 安娜 does at the end of the dialogue.

起床、睡觉

Learn these two whole. 起床 is 起 'rise' plus 床 'bed', and 睡觉 is 睡 'sleep' plus 觉 'sleep' as a thing — each is already a verb with its own object attached. So 不 goes in front of the pair, not inside it: 我不起床, 我不睡觉. And mind the reading of 觉: here it is jiào, shuìjiào. The same character is jué in other words, so it is worth fixing 睡觉 shuìjiào in your ear now.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
起床	to get up, get out of bed	起 rise + 床 bed
睡觉	to sleep	觉 reads jiào here, not jué
早上	morning	上 neutral tone
中午	midday, noon
晚上	evening, night	上 neutral tone

练习 · Practice

早上起床 Which sentence means 'I get up in the morning'?

早上、中午、晚上 Which word means midday?

我晚上______，早上起床。 At night I sleep; in the morning I get up.

排一排。 Arrange the words, beginning with 我: 'I eat at midday.'

起床、睡觉、早上、中午、晚上 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

我早上……，中午……，晚上……。

Say your own day aloud in three clauses, each one a time word followed by a verb: 我早上起床，中午吃饭，晚上睡觉。 Swap in verbs you already have — 看电视, 听音乐, 买东西, 学习汉语 — and check each clause as you say it: is the time in front of the verb? Then say one clause in the negative: 我晚上不看电视。