Seasons in English: meanings of words, songs and poems to remember. Names of months in English

Today we will study the names of the months in English. Since there is a lot of information, I decided to break it down into the following sections. You can immediately move on to what interests you specifically.

Names of the months with translation, transcription and pronunciation.

English months by seasons.

The names of the months in Anglo-Saxon are given in brackets.

WintermonthsonEnglish: December (Ærra Gēola), January (Æfterra Gēola), February (Sol-mōnaþ)

SpringmonthsonEnglish: March (Hrēþ-mōnaþ), April (Easter-mōnaþ), May (Þrimilce-mōnaþ)

SummermonthsonEnglish: June (Ærra Līþa), July (Æftera Līþa), August (Weod-mōnaþ).

AutumnmonthsonEnglish: September (Hālig-mōnaþ), October (Winterfylleth), November (Blōt-mōnaþ)

Exercises to remember the months of the year in English.

Exercise 1 . Match the transcriptions to the names of months.

Exercise 2. Guess which months are encrypted.

• creDmeeb = December
• Ailrp = _______________
• nJeu = _______________
• yMa = _______________
• chraM = _______________
• lyJu = _______________
• metbreSpe = _______________
• uugAts = _______________
• aynuJra = _______________
• removeNb = _______________
• euFairbr = _______________
• reOtcbo = _______________

Exercise 3. Write the months.

Exercise 4. Write about you and your family.

Exercise 5. Write what months are going by

after: May, November, February, March, June, December

before: April, January, July, March, February, May.

Exercise 6. Choose and read the names of winter, spring, summer and autumn months.

October, January, December, June, September, May, July, April, August, November, March, February

Exercise 7. Truth or lie. Read aloud and translate the correct sentences. Correct and write down the incorrect ones.

1. There are twelve winter months in a year.
2. In Russia there are three summer months.
3. There are 30 days in August.
4. June comes after July.
5. In our country May is the first summer month.
6. There are twenty-eight days in January.
7. There are twenty-eight or twenty-nine days in February.
8. September is the coldest month of the year.
9. People celebrate Christmas in February.
10. Halloween is in December.

Poems and songs for memorizing English months with translation.

Let's start with poems in Russian using the names of the English months. These poems will help children remember the names of the months in English.

Winter months.

On the windows of houses and trolleybuses soon

December– December, will draw patterns.

January at the gate!

Fairy tale! Miracle! New Year!

A blizzard will sweep across the earth,

formidable February get angry.

Spring months.

Outside the window there are icicles crying.

March will begin soon - March

No more drops are heard

April started - April.

The time has come for May.

Warm May April replaces

Summer months.

So much sun! How much light!

June– June, welcome summer.

It's July outside the window - July.

Run, swim, sunbathe!

After July August comes.

We have a wonderful harvest in our garden!

Autumn months

The trees will put on a colorful outfit,

September He will seat the children at their desks.

Tearing leaves from a yellowed garden

October– October, the king of leaf fall

All the songbirds have long since flown away,

November- November, knocking on our window.

And now poems about English months with translation.

Hey! Stand up when I say when your birthdays come!

January, February, March, April, May, June

July, August, September, October, November, December

Birthdays, birthdays, they are fun!

Everyone has fun when their birthdays come!

Birthdays, birthdays, they are fun

Everyone has fun when their birthday comes!

Hey! Get up when I call your birth month!

January, February, March, April, May, June,

July, August, September, October, November, December.

Birthdays, birthdays, they're fun!

Birthdays, birthdays, they're fun!

Everyone has fun when a birthday comes!

January, February, March – that’s not so much!

April, May, June – that’s the tune!

July, August and September – we are cheerful and slender!

October, November, December- all these months you must remember!

January, February, March - that's not so much!

April, May, June - this is the motive!

July, August and September - we are cheerful and slim!

October, November, December - all these months you should remember!

Are there twelve months in the year? - Yes there are!

There are twelve months in the year! Here they are!

January, February, March, and April,

May, June, and July,

August, September, October, November,

After December they all have gone by.

There are twelve months in a year, right? - Yes!

There are twelve months in a year! Here they are!

January, February, March and April,

May, June and July,

August, September, October, November,

After December they all passed.

The history of the origin of the names of English months.

The names of the English months are of non-English origin. They come from the Latin names of the months of the Roman and later Julian calendars.

It is interesting to know that in the Roman calendar there were 10 months that had a name, and two winter months that did not even have names, meaning that no important agricultural work was carried out during this time. The year began with the month Martius (modern March - March). Numa Pompilius introduced the names of two winter months - Januarius (January) and Februarius (February) around 700 BC. e. He also moved the start of the year to January.

In 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar, giving rise to the Julian calendar. He changed the number of days in some months.

Let's move on to history of English month names.

January– month of Janus. Janus is the god of gates and doorways, depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions. Initially, January had 29 days; under Julius Caesar, the month “lengthened” by 2 days.

February- the month of Februalia - the Roman holiday of cleansing from sins.

March- month of Mars. Mars is the god of war. It was in March, as I already wrote, that the year began, and with it new wars were often declared or old wars were renewed.

April- month of Aphrodite. Aphro is a shortened spelling of Aphrodite's name in Greek. Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. She is identified with the Roman goddess Venus.

May- month of Maya. Maia (meaning "great") is the goddess of spring, daughter of Faun and wife of Vulcan.

June- month of Juno. Juno is one of the supreme goddesses of the Roman pantheon. She is the goddess of marriage and the well-being of women. She is the wife and sister of Jupiter. She is identified with the Greek goddess Hera.

July- the month of Julius Caesar, although it originally received its name from the word quintilis, which means “fifth”. During the reformation of the calendar, Julius Caesar named the month in his honor.

August- the month of Octavian Augustus, who completed the calendar reform begun by Caesar, and, following his predecessor, named one of the months in his honor.

September- seventh month. Although in the modern calendar it is no longer the seventh, but earlier, when, as we remember, the year began in March, September was the seventh month and in Latin it sounded like “ september mensis".

October- eighth month. In Latin - “ october mensis”.

November- ninth month. In Latin – “Novembris mensis”.

December- tenth month. In Latin - “ Decembermensis”.

Set expressions with names of months.

The English language has many idioms with the names of months. Here are the most common and interesting of them. Idioms are given with an interpretation of the meaning.

• slow as molasses in January - very slowly

Can you drive any faster? - That’s not my fault! The traffic is slower than molasses in January.

• It"ll be a long day in January (when smth happens) - when the cancer on the mountain whistles / never!

It"ll be a long day in January when Polly agrees to marry Jack.

• mad as a March hare - crazy

When someone takes her smartphone, Liz becomes as mad as a march hare.

• Maybees don't fly in June! – Stop changing your mind!

Stop changing your mind so often! Maybees don't fly in June!

• a cold day in July – a slow or unlikely event

It"ll be a cold day in July before these two get married.

In this article we will look at what the seasons and months are called in English. Let's remember how to write “month” in English and figure out the pronunciation of this and other words. Many months in English have very interesting naming histories, and today we will learn them all.

But first, a few subtleties of calendar vocabulary:

• All 12 months in English are written with a capital letter.
• In abbreviated form they look like this: three initial letters and a period: Jan., Feb., Jun. etc. May (May) is written without a dot.
• "Half a year" translates to "6 months" (6 months in English). The phrase “half a year” is much less common.
• Instead of "autumn"(autumn) used in the USA and Canada "fall".
• The date is also written differently in the UK and US. Compare: April 5, 2016 (UK) and April 5, 2016 (USA).

Here is the name of each month with translation and transcription:

The name of each month in English and how they appeared. Some pronunciation features.

January and February

These winter months sound very similar to similar Russian words, with some differences. Let's say there is no “v” sound in the middle, as in Russian.

The month of February is the most difficult to pronounce. It sounds like ˈfɛbruəri, with an [r] sound in the middle of the word. Two [r]s next to each other are often a hindrance for language learners. However, you can often hear how even native speakers, especially Americans, say only one [r] in a word: ˈfɛbjuəri, and this is also the norm.

As already noted, months in English are written with a capital letter. This is done because almost all of them come from proper names. Each of these words has its own history and is therefore unique.

January comes from the name of the god Janus, who was honored in this month.
February comes from the word "Februa" - an ancient Roman rite of purification that took place on February 15th.

March, April, May

The three months of spring sound like Russian ones. Additional associations for 100% memorization:

March named after Mars, the Roman god of war.
April- in honor of the goddess Aphrodite.
May- month of Maya, goddess of spring.

June, July, August

These are summer 3 months in English.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to confuse “June” and “July” in Russian? In English there is no such problem; in the words June and July even the number of syllables is different.

June named after Juno - the goddess of marriage and female happiness.

This is where the stories with the ancient Roman deities end. Julius Caesar named the next month after himself (Julius), and had the right to do so, because it was he who reformed the calendar. Later, Octavian Augustus continued the reforms, and also named one month in his honor.

September, October, November

The three autumn months in English are named according to serial numbers: September is the seventh (septem in Latin), October is the eighth (octo), November is the ninth (novem). Wait, why don’t the numbers match modern ones? The fact is that earlier, among the ancient Greeks, the year consisted of ten months. The first month was March. After the reforms of Caesar and Augustus, the months became twelve, but some names remained.

December

Falls under the same principle as the autumn months. According to the old calendar, this was the tenth month (decem - 10 in Latin).

“Month”: translation into English and pronunciation secrets.

month - month

The word "month" - month- derived from the word “Moon” (moon). A long time ago, looking at the changing phases of the moon, people came up with the idea of ​​​​measuring time using it as a guide. In Russian, the connection between the word “month” in the meaning of “moon” and the calendar month is also obvious.

To learn how to correctly pronounce the word “month” in English, you need to:

1. Say the first three sounds;
2. On the sound [n], place the tongue between the teeth, preparing to pronounce the sound [θ];
3. Pronounce the sound [θ], the tongue remains between the teeth.

It is important not to be shy about sticking out your tongue when pronouncing the interdental sound [θ]. There are no such sounds in Russian, so this action seems strange, but in English it is absolutely natural and normal.

Now let’s complicate the task and say the word “months”.

Here it is important to pronounce not, a - all five sounds. The difference between these options will be audible to a native speaker.

1. Say ;
2. Already on the sound [n], prepare for the next sound - the tongue goes to the teeth in advance;
3. Interdental [θ] - on it the tongue begins to return back into the oral cavity;
4. Smoothly move the tip of your tongue behind your upper teeth, without stopping the air flow, and pronounce the sound [s].

Say all five sounds smoothly, one after the other, slowly, several times. When you feel some freedom, say a little faster:
Months. Months. Twelve months. Three months. Three summer months.

The similarity in the sound of some Russian and English words is an absolute plus; the translation is immediately clear. The same is true with the names of the months. Now that you know their origins, as well as the subtleties of pronunciation, you can easily use them in speech.

The section “Names of the months” in English is one of the simplest. The names of the months are varied and take names from the Julian calendar. This is a mix of the names of the gods and rulers of Ancient Rome, holidays and more. And if the names of months are formed from names, therefore, months are written with a capital letter.

The ancient Roman calendar had a ten-month calendar. In the Roman Republic in 708 from the founding of Great Rome, during the reign of Gaius Julius Caesar, the Julian calendar was adopted.

The Roman year began in March. Of the twelve months, ten were named, and two were unnamed. The winter months of January and February were added to the calendar in 700 BC. Then January became the first month of the year.

When two winter months were added - January and February - the remaining months shifted. And the autumn months and the first winter no longer coincide with their original meaning.

Etymology of the names of the winter months

The section begins in December and the year ends. Before the adoption of the Etruscan calendar, December was the tenth month for the Romans - “decem” in Latin is ten. Therefore, December literally means the tenth. In English the month is called "December".

In the modern world, the year begins with the month of January. In English "January". The month was named after the Roman god Janus. Janus is the god of doors and passages - beginnings and ends.

Had two faces looking in opposite directions. Thus, Janus looked at the beginning and end of the year. In other words, Janus is the god of gates.

In ancient times, it was customary in this month to clean houses and put them in order after winter; it was considered the most favorable time for cleaning the house. In English, the month of February is called "February".

Etymology of the names of the spring months

The name of the spring months is associated only with the names of the Roman gods.

March or in English “March” - the first month of spring received its name in honor of the Roman god of war, Mars. The Romans believed that this was the best month for military operations.

“April” or April in Russian comes from the Latin. verb "aperire" - to announce the coming of spring. But, there is one hypothesis that the month is named after the ancient Greek goddess and patroness of love and happiness - Aphrodite.

The ancient Romans had a goddess of spring and land affairs - Maya. So it was in honor of this goddess that the last month of spring, May, was named. And in English “May”.

Etymology of the names of the summer months

The beginning of summer culminates in June. In English "June". It is named after the Roman goddess Juno, she is considered a symbol of marriage and family. To this day, many peoples believe that the best month for a wedding is June.

Juno herself was a married goddess. Her husband was an important person in the ancient Roman pantheon of gods - Jupiter. God of all gods. Like the ancient Greeks, Zeus.

The second summer month is June – English “Jule”. Named in honor of His Majesty the Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar. Because in this month Caesar was born.

The month of August or “August” is named after the first Roman ruler, Emperor Augustus.

Etymology of the names of the autumn months

It remains to find out what or who the autumn months are named after. But with their origin everything is much simpler.

We welcome autumn in September or in English “September”. In Latin, "sept" means seven. For the ancient Romans, September was the seventh month, since the year began in March.

The ancient Romans did not think long about the names of October and November. October or "October" from the Latin "octo" - eight.

Therefore, November will be the ninth month of "novem" and in English it will sound like "November".

The names of the English months are very similar to the Russian ones, so the memorization process should not cause big problems in memorizing. Don't forget that the British write the names of the months with a capital letter.

In Russian, a similar rule applies, but there is a small exception.

If the sentence with the name of the month contains the word “Month” itself, which is written with a capital letter, then the name will have to be written with a small letter. For example: M month m ai is named after the Roman goddess Maia.

How to pronounce the names of the months in English?

To be literate, it is enough not only to know grammar and have a large vocabulary, but it is also important to pronounce foreign words correctly.

Using prepositions with months

Months, like parts of speech, are used in English with prepositions. There are two prepositions that are combined with the names of the months, these are “IN”, “ON”.

If you want to construct a statement that refers specifically to the month and not the date, then you should use the preposition “IN”.

For example:

If you want to construct an expression that will contain information about a specific date, then you must use the preposition “IN” in constructing the sentence. For example:

Abbreviations for month names in English

In business English, it is customary to abbreviate words, including the names of months.

The principle of abbreviation is as follows: the first three names of the month are written with a capital letter:

Name of the days of the week in English

The ancient Anglo-Saxons also gave names to the days of the week. They worshiped many gods. They were pagans. It was in honor of these gods that the days of the week got their names.

Let's look at the days of the week and their origins:

• Monday -Monday: has a lot to do with the week in Rome. Literally translated as “Day of the Moon”.
• Tuesday -Tuesday: The ancestors of the British named the second day of the week in honor of the noble, strong and one-armed god Tyr. Many songs have been sung about him in the English epic. Tyr is considered the god of war. It was to him that the warriors worshiped, it was to him that the fighters made sacrifices before battles in the form of hanged men. Warriors depicted the rune of this god on their swords.
• Wednesday - Wednesday: Wednesday got its name in honor of the Great Odin. The ancestors of the British could not neglect the main deity. Odin, like Tyr, was sacrificed before battles by hanging several men. One had incredible strength and a sharp mind. It was this god who brought writing to the Scandinavians in the form of runes.
• Thursday - Thursday: This day is dedicated to Thor, the son of Odin. Thor was considered the patron and protector of ordinary people on earth. He was also the patron of thunder and lightning, storms.
• Friday -Friday: Like the Greeks and Romans, the Scandinavians had their own patroness of love affairs and family - the goddess Frigg. Friday was named after her. Frigg was a married goddess. She was Odin's wife. She had the gift of providence.
• Saturday -Saturday: this day was named after Saturn.
• Sunday -Sunday: Literally translated as “sunny day”, this is how the Scandinavians nicknamed Sunday. Just like the Romans believed that this day was the Day of the Sun.

Remember that it is very easy to learn the names of months and days of the week, especially if you know their origin.

Seasons of a year

Each of four seasons has its own charm and beauty. Spring revives nature, summer breathes with numerous scents and autumn brings grace and nostalgia. Severe winter hardens us in its specific manner. Common weather of seasons determines their mood. Thoughtful watching of changing of showers, snows, bright and dull days makes fill gratitude to the nature.

Seasons (text translation)

Each season has its own charm and beauty. Spring brings nature to life, summer is full of many aromas, and autumn is full of nostalgia and grace. A harsh winter hardens us in its own way. The weather characteristic of the season also determines its mood. Thoughtfully observing the changes of rain, snow, bright and cloudy days evokes a feeling of gratitude.

Springs awakening

At spring nature wakes from long winter sleep. Weather becomes warmer from day to day, plants are blooming and all living creatures show their voices. Appearing of snowdrops claims complete authority of spring. Warm sun and short rains closer summer days and first May thunderstorm claims beginning of completely warm days.

Spring Awakening (text translation)

In spring, nature wakes up from a long winter sleep. Day by day it becomes warmer, plants bloom and all living beings give in to their voices. The appearance of snowdrops means spring is in full swing. Warm sun and short rains bring summer closer, and the first thunderstorm in May heralds truly warm weather.

Summers growth

Summer turns everything around in a bright green. Meadows are covered with green, upper branches of trees are even greener. Millions of scents are floating in the air and everything lives and breathes. But summer night is the most special time when one can admire starry skies.

Heat of middle summer diluted with short but intense showers bring beautiful rainbows. But blessed summer days eventually come to their end signed by first yellow leaves.

Summer growth (text translation)

Summer dresses everything around in lush green colors. The meadows are covered with greenery, and the tree crowns are even greener. Millions of wonderful smells are in the air, and everything lives and breathes. But the best are warm summer nights with an insanely starry sky. And the summer heat, diluted with frisky short showers, gives us beautiful rainbows. But the luxurious summer days are ending, as evidenced by the first yellow leaves.

Autumns grace

Autumn is filled with graceful falling of leaves, frequent rains and heavy clouds. It seems to be dull and sad yet nature becomes delightfully beautiful in autumn. Numerous shades of orange, red and brown in whirling and rustling leaves are indescribable. And when all leaves had fall to the ground naked trees are marking coming of winter.

Autumn grace (text translation)

Autumn is filled with elegant swirling leaves, rain and heavy clouds. The season seems dull and boring, but nature in the fall acquires a completely unique beauty. The many shades of red, yellow and brown in the swirling and rustling leaves are indescribable. But when they all fall, bare trees herald the coming of winter.

Winters majesty

Winter is the white queen which covers everything with cold, soft and fluffy blanket of snow. Nature sleeps restoring strength before new coil of year cycle. Days are dark and short and nights are long and cold. Yet sleeping nature is beautiful in its own way. Moon sparkles on snow, all sounds are muted and majesty of winter remains until first warming.

Winter Majesty (text translation)

Winter is the white queen who covers everything with a cold white blanket of snow. Nature sleeps, restoring strength for a new round of the annual cycle. The days are dark and short, the nights are long and cold. But sleeping nature is beautiful in its own way. The moon glistens on a clear blanket of snow, sounds are muffled and the glory of winter remains until the first warming.