Now it's time for us to learn words and their stories—our weekly program about common, everyday expressions in American English. Today we are talking about the word "leap" and its expressions.
February 29th is called "a leap day". And the entire 12-month period with a February 29th in it is called "a leap year". This year, 2020 is such a year. The somewhat unusual day of February 29th comes up on the calendar only every four years. A year with a February 29th might be good news if you are paid by the day or the week. But it might be bad news if you were born on a February 29th. You have to wait three years in between birthdays!
As a verb, the word "leap" means to jump, or to move quickly. Leap can also be a noun, meaning a jump, or a sudden move. In a leap year, the dates jump over one day of the week. The reason for a leap day or a leap year is because our calendar does not follow the Earth's orbit around the sun exactly. Each year, we have a little time left over. So every four years, we put all that time together into an extra day. It is officially called an intercalary day. But I have never heard an English speaker use that term. "Leap day" is fine.
"Leap" is also an important word for two other common American expressions. One is a kind of warning. If you want someone to investigate a situation completely and consider the possible results carefully before taking actions, you might say, "Look before you leap." The other expression is a phrase of hope. If you want someone to take actions, you may say "take a leap of faith", even if not everything about a situation is known. In other words, it asks the person to take courage and step into the unknown. Interestingly, the two phrases are completely reasonable to say to someone who is about to get married.
Thank you for your listening!
