Why Do We Have Leap Year?

Even though the standard calendar year is 365 days, the Earth actually takes 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds to go completely around the sun. (This is called a solar year.) In order to keep the calendar cycle synchronized with the seasons, one extra day is (usually) added every four years as February 29th.

The Julian calendar (established by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE) introduced the Egyptian solar calendar to the Roman world, standardized the 365-day year, and created the predecessor to our current leap year. February 29th was not reflected on the Julian calendar, rather February 23 was repeated every four years.

You may be asking, “The solar year is not a full 365 days and 6 hours, so what about those extra 11 minutes and 14 seconds?” An additional calendar reformation in the 1500s added a special rule to adjust for this discrepancy. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII created a slightly modified calendar to better account for leap days. Called the Gregorian calendar, this new system said that no century year (like 1900) would be a leap year except for centuries divisible by 400 (like 2000). In order to correct the calendar, the Pope eliminated October 5 through October 14, 1582. The calendar moved directly from the fourth to the fifteenth to align the dates with the seasons again. It feels almost like science fiction to think that ten full days were removed from the calendar in the year 1582.

But where does the phrase leap year come from?

In 365-day years, known as common years, fixed dates advance one day in the week per year. For example, Christmas fell on a Thursday in 2014 and on a Friday in 2015. With the insertion of a leap day, dates (following February) advance two days instead of one. In 2016, Christmas will leap over Saturday to fall on a Sunday.

Will you be celebrating leap day in anyway?

Source: dictionary.com

Gerunds in English

Today we are going to look at gerunds in English. Firstly, what is a gerund?

Well, the answer is that it is the “-ing” form of the verb.

Look at some examples of the gerund as the subject of a sentence:

Reading helps you learn more.

Flying makes me nervous.

Cleaning up after yourself is good manners.

Let's now take a look at the “gerund” as a complement after the verb “to be”:

One of the hardest things in life is studying.

One of my main duties in my old job was attending meetings.

One of life's pleasures is having breakfast in bed.

Now look at some examples of the gerund after a preposition:

He's very good at communicating with people.

You can learn a lot by listening to your teachers.

There's no point in sitting down as the meeting will be over soon.

Some verbs, including some phrasal verbs, are followed by another verb in the gerund form. Here are some examples:

I love going to the cinema at the weekend.

He avoided talking to her at the party.

You'd better give up smoking. It's bad for you.

After the race had finished she kept on running.

I ended up staying at the party until the end.

Now you have learnt a little bit more English, join us to practice and learn Engish. Aulaglobal makes English easy.

Common words used with Present Perfect

Today we are going to look at some common words in English that are often but not always accompanied by the present perfect. These words are:

already, still, yet, not yet, still not and never.

In the dialogue between Joe and Susan we can clearly see their uses within a spoken conversation.

Joe: Have you eaten yet, Susan?

Susan: No, not yet. I haven’t had a chance all day.

Joe: It’s such a pity that you work so hard all day but you still haven’t had a holiday this year.

Susan: I have never taken my holidays in the summer but I like going on holiday in October. Have you been on holiday yet this year, Joe?

Joe: Yes, I have already been on holiday twice this year, but I still have a few days left which I might take at Christmas time.

Susan: Has your boss agreed to pay you for your holidays?

Joe: No, he still has not! He told me to come back to him after the summer to talk about it again.

Joe: And what about you Susan, any decisions for the summer yet?

Susan: I’m afraid I haven’t even thought of it yet.

Now let’s take a look at where and when to uses these words.

already is used to refer to an action that happened sooner than expected. It is used in affirmative sentences in the present or the past but never in the future.

yet refers to an action that is expected in the future. It is NOT used in the past. If we ask about something expected to happen, we always place “yet” at the end of the sentence.

still is used when we want to say that and action which started in the past is still happening in the present. Often, when we use “still”, it refers to an action happening longer than expected.

never means the action has not happened any time before now. Remember it is always placed before the main verb.

Finally not yet and still not are used as opposites to positive affirmations as seen in the dialogue.

I really hope this has been helpful! To learn more about English: Aulaglobal, your English centre in Lorca.

Have an amazing Sunday!

British and American English

English is spoken all over the world in many different ways with many different words. The two countries with the most distinctive word differences and the most widely taught are British and American English.

The three major differences between British and American English are spelling, vocabulary and pronunciation.

Today let’s look at some of the differences between them.

Firstly, let’s look at differences in spelling.

A lot of words ending in or containing “-our” in British English end in or contain “-or” in American English, for example, colour-color, humour-humor, favourite-favorite…

A lot of words ending in “-ise” in British Englishend in “-ize” in American English, for example recognise-recognize, patronise-patronize, etc.

Words which end in “-re” in British English end in “-er” in American English. Here are some examples: centre-center, metre-meter, fibre-fiber.

Next let’s look at some very common vocabulary differences. There are lots more but these ones are very useful when travelling!

	British English	American English
	pavement	sidewalk
	nappy	diaper
	trousers	pants
	petrol	gas, gasoline
	lift	elevator
	flat	apartment
	chips	French fries
	film	movie
	trainers	sneakers

Finally, when it comes to pronunciation, it is important to remember that the “r” sound in American English is generally more pronounced than in British English.

Words ending in “r” in British English are normally pronounced with an open “r” at the end. Let’s look at the word “car” which when pronounced in British English sounds almost like ”cah”.

North American English speakers are considered to be rhotic speakers and they pronounce a rhotic consonant in all instance, while non-rhotic speakers only pronounce ”r” before vowels. Bear in mind though that this may not always be the case as English has many different accents.