Personal hygiene

Lesson Overview: Personal Hygiene in Spanish

This lesson focuses on personal hygiene vocabulary and expressions, introducing key temporal phrases such as Antes, Antes de, Después, Después de, and Cuando. These expressions help you talk about routines and the timing of different hygiene activities in everyday Spanish.

Key Vocabulary and Expressions

• Desodorante - deodorant
• Champú - shampoo
• Gel - shower gel
• Crema para la piel - skin cream
• Spray facial - facial spray
• Pasta de dientes - toothpaste
• Cepillo de dientes - toothbrush
• Jabón líquido - liquid soap

Using Temporal Expressions to Describe Hygiene Routines

The lesson emphasizes using temporal markers to situate actions within daily routines:

• Antes / Antes de express actions done before something else, e.g., "Antes de salir, siempre me lavaba las manos" (Before leaving, I always washed my hands).
• Después / Después de describe actions that follow others, e.g., "Después de ducharme me gusta hidratarme la piel" (After showering, I like to moisturize my skin).
• Cuando introduces conditional timing, e.g., "Cuando tenía alergia, usaba un jabón especial" (When I had allergies, I used special soap).

Dialogues and Practical Usage

Simulated dialogues help practice asking for products and explaining when you use them, reinforcing conversational skills in real-life contexts such as pharmacies and stores.

Verb Conjugation Practice

The lesson includes exercises targeting the pretérito imperfecto to describe habitual or repeated past actions, especially reflexive verbs related to hygiene routines:

• Me peinaba (I used to comb my hair)
• Me lavaba (I used to wash myself)
• Me cepillaba (I used to brush)

Story for Contextual Learning

A short story about a morning hygiene routine illustrates these verbs and temporal phrases together, showing how they naturally combine in everyday narratives.

Comparing Spanish and English Temporal Expressions

While English uses "before" and "after" similarly to Spanish, Spanish often requires the preposition "de" after antes and después (e.g., "antes de salir"). Also, reflexive verbs are commonly used in Spanish for personal hygiene actions (e.g., me cepillo, me lavo) to indicate the subject performs the action on themselves, which is less explicit in English.

Useful phrases include:

• Antes de salir - Before leaving
• Después de ducharme - After showering
• Cuando llego a casa - When I get home
• Me lavo las manos - I wash my hands
• Me cepillo los dientes - I brush my teeth

Understanding these will help you describe your routines in Spanish clearly and naturally.