Year-round

Year-round

Today’s expression is a funny one: year-round. You write it like two words, with a hyphen in between: year-round. And something happens year-round if it’s not seasonal , if it happens in all twelve months of the year.

A business might advertise “year-round savings .” That might mean, you don’t have to wait for a big sale. You don’t have to wait for Black Friday. You can come on any day of the year and get a good price, because we have “year-round savings.”

I grew up in the northeast , as you’ve heard, and the summers there are great. You can go to the beach, go for a bike ride, play sports. But these are not year-round activities in the northeast. That’s because come October, come November, it’s just really cold to be on the beach or on your bike.

There are some people who commute on their bikes year-round. Some people get to their jobs on their bicycles 12 months a year in the northeast. But these very brave commuters are the exception. For most people in the northeast, getting to work on a bike is not a year-round activity.

It’s different on the west coast . There, you can bike to work year-round. You can even go to the beach year-round. It’s a little cooler in January, but there are still bright sunny, warm days in every month of the year. So these things that are seasonal activities on the east coast—biking, beach, sports outside—these are year-round activities on the west coast.

What do ski slopes do in the summertime? Many of them close. But some of them are open year-round. That means, some ski resorts are open 12 months of the year. They do other things when there isn’t snow. Some have slides that go down the mountain . They’re open year-round: they don’t close just because there isn’t snow.

You want to use year-round for something that’s not seasonal, that’s open 12 months of the year. But you often want to use it in situations where there’s some doubt , some reason to expect maybe it’s seasonal. So you say “year-round” to contrast it with something else.

You can go to the beach year-round on the west coast. I say “year-round” because in many places, going to the beach is a seasonal activity. Some ski slopes are open year-round: same reason, many ski slopes close in the summer.

“The supermarket is open year-round.” Would you say that? Probably not. Almost every supermarket is open all twelve months of the year, even if they do close on holidays. But you can say, “ The farmers’ market is open year-round.” Many farmers’ markets are only open during the growing season . Some stay open twelve months of the year. So if one is open all year long, you can say, “The farmers’ market is open year-round.”

See you next time!

That’s all for today. Now you’re prepared: do you want to live on the east coast? On the west coast? Or do you want to do like the movie stars do and live a “bicoastal” life? That means having homes in New York and Los Angeles. We can dream, right!

Coming up next week: on Monday, I’ll tell you about some of the great big museums in the United States. And on Thursday, I’ll tell you about some great small museums. This is not an exhaustive list or ranking . But it will help you get a sense of where to go to see some of the cultural treasures within America’s borders. That’s coming up next week. See you then.