What is the song about?

The singer loves their routine. They get up early, drink water, read often, and are never late for work. From Monday to Sunday, they know what to do. But from time to time, they break the routine completely: no more schedules, no more order, they feel free. Then they find their balance again.

Adverbs of frequency

The chorus brings almost all of them together, from the most frequent to the rarest:

  • toujours: Je me lève toujours aux premiers rayons.
  • très souvent / souvent: Je lis très souvent.
  • d'habitude: Je mange d'habitude à la même heure.
  • parfois: Je marche parfois sous un ciel très beau.
  • rarement: Je suis rarement triste.
  • jamais: Je ne suis jamais en retard.
Where does the adverb go? Generally, it goes right after the conjugated verb: je bois toujours, je suis rarement. D'habitude is often placed at the beginning of a sentence (D'habitude, je mange à midi), but you can also put it after the verb, as in the song.

Watch out for jamais: in the negative form, you need ne… jamais around the verb: Je ne suis jamais en retard. In spoken French, you often hear je suis jamais en retard, without ne, but in writing we keep ne.

Useful words and expressions

  • aux premiers rayons (du soleil): very early, at sunrise.
  • c'est mon habitude: I do it regularly.
  • du lundi au dimanche: all week long.
  • je sais quoi faire: I know my schedule.
  • le temps passe vite: a very common expression.
  • refaire: to do one more time. The prefix re- marks repetition (refaire, relire, repartir).
  • le boulot: informal word for le travail.
  • tous les trente-six du mois: a fun expression that means almost never, since a month never has 36 days.
  • casser sa routine: to change one's habits.
  • se sentir libre: je me sens si libre.
  • retrouver son équilibre: to return to a calm and stable life.

Small adjustments for the rhyme

To rhyme or fit the music, a few sentences depart from everyday French. It is best not to copy them as they are:

  • Je bois toujours l'eau: you need the partitive article, je bois toujours de l'eau.
  • Ça c'est très fou: we usually say c'est fou or c'est complètement fou.
  • Je vis le bonheur and ma journée m'invite are poetic images. In everyday life, we would say je suis heureux / heureuse.
  • Dans ma vie normale, c'est ma certitude is mainly used to rhyme with habitude. The meaning is vague.