year
part of speech
noun (year, years)
meaning for a pupil
1) A year is the time it takes for the Earth to go once around the sun. A year has 12 months, 52 weeks and 365 days. tree →
2) A leap year has 366 days. tree →
3) A year is also a class at school: «Year 4» (UK, Australia, New Zealand). tree →
4) «Years» can mean a long time: «I haven't seen her for years». tree →
sense in the lessons
In school maths: time in years; ages («9 years old»); amounts per year; months × 12. In science: the Earth's orbit around the sun takes a year and gives the seasons. In everyday life: school year, New Year, birthdays once a year. Phrases: «years old», «every year», «last year», «next year», «all year round», «a year ago».
examples
- Tom is 9 years old. tree →
- She saves 100 dollars a year. tree →
- In 3 years he will be 12. tree →
- A year has 12 months. tree →
- A year is 365 days, and a leap year is 366 days. tree →
- My brother is in Year 6. tree →
- We go camping every year. tree →
- The Earth takes a year to travel around the sun. tree →
- A month passed; a year passed. tree →
note
«He is 9 years old» or «He is 9», not «He has 9 years». «A 9-year-old boy» (no s). Maths: ages grow by the same amount for everyone. «In 3 years» adds 3, «3 years ago» subtracts 3. Trap: amounts per month × 12 give a year; a year is 52 weeks, not 4 × 12 = 48.
In the corpora
- A pay rise is an increase in pay; some come each year, others have to be asked for.
- If prices rise and pay doesn't, a person is really getting poorer each year.
- A deposit for buying a home is often tens of thousands of pounds, and saving for it can take years.
- The minimum payment barely covers the interest, so paying only the minimum keeps a debt going for years.
- A mortgage is a very big bank loan to buy a house, paid back monthly for 25 years or more with interest.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «year» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.