Breakdown of tā xiàbān yǐhòu xiān xǐzǎo, zài xǐ yīfu, zuìhòu dǎsǎo fángjiān.
Questions & Answers about tā xiàbān yǐhòu xiān xǐzǎo, zài xǐ yīfu, zuìhòu dǎsǎo fángjiān.
You don’t have to use 了, because this sentence is talking about a general routine, not one specific finished event.
- 他下班以后先洗澡…
→ describes what he usually does after work / his habit.
If you say:
- 他下班了以后先洗澡…
Then it sounds more like one concrete situation (for example, what he did yesterday after he got off work). In real conversation, people do sometimes say 下班了以后, but for a neutral, habitual description, 下班以后 without 了 is very natural.
Yes, that’s perfectly correct and very natural:
- 他下班以后先洗澡…
- 下班以后，他先洗澡…
Both are fine.
General rule in Chinese:
Time expressions (like after work, tomorrow, in the evening) usually go before the verb. They can go:
- right after the subject: 他 下班以后 先洗澡
- or at the beginning as a topic: 下班以后， 他 先洗澡
Meaning and tone are basically the same.
In this sentence, 以后 means “after (that time)”:
- 下班以后 = after (he) gets off work
Comparisons:
之后
Very close to 以后 in this kind of structure.
下班之后 ≈ 下班以后. Often a bit more formal/written, but both are fine.然后
Means “then / and then”, used to show the next step in a sequence, not “after [a specific time point]”.
You could say:
他下班以后先洗澡，然后洗衣服，然后打扫房间。
Here 然后 links actions one after another.后来
Usually used when telling a story about past events: “later on, afterwards (at a later time in the story)”.
You wouldn’t say 下班后来. You might say:
他下班了，回了家，后来先洗澡，再洗衣服。
They are sequence adverbs that clearly show the order of actions:
- 先 = first
- 再 = then / next
- 最后 = finally / in the end
In the sentence:
- 先洗澡 = first take a shower
- 再洗衣服 = then wash clothes
- 最后打扫房间 = finally clean the room
Are they necessary?
Grammatically you could say:
- 他下班以后洗澡，洗衣服，打扫房间。
This is still understandable, but the order feels less explicit. Using 先 / 再 / 最后 makes the sequence very clear and sounds more natural when you want to emphasize “first…, then…, finally…”.
You can also replace 再 with 然后 in many spoken contexts:
- 先洗澡，然后洗衣服，最后打扫房间。
Chinese often uses commas + sequence words instead of conjunctions like “and then”.
Structure here is:
- 他下班以后，先洗澡，再洗衣服，最后打扫房间。
The commas simply separate each step.
The linking function (“and then”) is handled by:
- 先 / 再 / 最后
So you don’t need to add an extra word like 和 (hé).
Using 和 between whole actions here would sound unnatural:
- ✗ 他下班以后先洗澡，和再洗衣服… (wrong/odd)
Grammatically, 洗澡 is a verb–object structure:
- 洗 = to wash
- 澡 = bath
So literally it’s like “wash bath”. But in modern Chinese, 洗澡 functions as a fixed verb phrase, meaning “to take a shower / take a bath”.
Some points:
- You normally don’t say ✗ 他先澡 – you need 洗.
- You can add a measure word to 澡:
洗个澡 / 洗一下澡 = take a (quick) shower/bath. - But in your sentence, just 先洗澡 is perfectly natural.
They share the same basic meaning “to wash”, but combine with different objects:
- 洗澡 = wash + bath → to bathe / shower (washing your body)
- 洗衣服 = wash + clothes → to wash clothes / do the laundry
So 洗 is just the normal verb “wash”; the object (澡 or 衣服) tells you what is being washed. It’s natural that it appears in both places.
衣服 is a collective noun meaning “clothes / clothing” in general. Chinese usually doesn’t mark plural on nouns with something like -s.
- 衣服 can mean one piece or many pieces, depending on context.
- If you need to be specific, you use measure words:
- 一件衣服 = one piece of clothing
- 三件衣服 = three pieces of clothing
In 洗衣服, we just mean “wash (the) clothes / do the laundry” in a general sense, so 衣服 without any plural marker is normal.
You only need a measure word if you’re counting or being numerically specific.
- 房间 = room(s)
- 一个房间 = one room
In 打扫房间:
- We just mean “clean the room” / “clean his room” in a general way.
- There is no need to specify “one room”, so no measure word is needed.
If you want to emphasize the number, you can say:
- 打扫一个房间 = clean one room
- 打扫三个房间 = clean three rooms
But in your sentence, 打扫房间 is the most natural choice.
By itself, 他下班以后先洗澡，再洗衣服，最后打扫房间。 most naturally suggests a habit / routine, because:
- There’s no time word like “yesterday” or “tonight”.
- There’s no 了 showing a specific completed event.
- It’s a simple description of what he does after work.
If you want to clearly make it one specific time, you add context:
- 昨天他下班以后先洗了澡，再洗了衣服，最后打扫了房间。
Yesterday after work he first showered, then washed clothes, and finally cleaned the room.
For a planned future:
- 今天下班以后，他先要洗澡，再洗衣服，最后打扫房间。
- 今天下班以后，他会先洗澡，再洗衣服，最后打扫房间。
Typical order is:
Subject + Time phrase + (Other adverbs like 先/再/最后) + Verb + Object
Your sentence:
- 他 (subject)
- 下班以后 (time phrase: after work)
- 先 / 再 / 最后 (sequence adverbs)
- 洗澡 / 洗衣服 / 打扫房间 (verb + object)
So we get:
- 他 / 下班以后 / 先洗澡， 再洗衣服， 最后打扫房间。
You can also front the whole time phrase:
- 下班以后， 他 先洗澡…
But you don’t say:
- ✗ 他先下班以后洗澡… (wrong word order)
You can say:
- 他下班以后先洗澡，然后洗衣服，最后打扫房间。
Here:
- 先 = first
- 然后 = then / and then
- 最后 = finally
再 and 然后 both show the next step. Differences:
- 再 is a bit shorter and more neutral; very common in both speech and writing.
- 然后 can feel a bit more like “and then” in storytelling and conversation.
In this kind of routine description, 再 or 然后 are both fine; 再 matches the more compact style of the original sentence.
Yes, it’s possible, though slightly less clear:
- 他下班以后洗澡，洗衣服，打扫房间。
Listeners will still understand that these are things done after work, and will usually assume this is the order, but the sequence isn’t as emphatically marked.
Using 先 / 再 / 最后 makes the step-by-step order very explicit and is more natural if you want to highlight the procedure.