Vocabulary in Practice 1 — Unit 11: Months of the year

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Vocabulary in Practice 1 – Beginner

Learn the words in the notes below, then work through exercises A–F. Every answer is checked instantly. Original practice written for All English 4U.

1 Tier 1 – The Concept & Nuance: The 12 Months, 4 Seasons & Capitalization

All twelve month names in English must always begin with a capital letter. The four seasons are generally lowercase unless part of a proper title.

📅 The 12 Months

January · February (note ‘r’) · March
April · May · June · July
August · September · October
November · December

🍂 The 4 Seasons

spring 🌸 (March–May)
summer ☀️ (June–August)
autumn (UK) / fall (US) 🍂 (Sept–Nov)
winter ❄️ (Dec–Feb)

💡 Preposition Rule: Use IN for months and seasons: “in May”, “in winter”. Use ON only when a specific calendar date is included: “on May 14th”.

2 Tier 2 – Essential Prepositions & Regional Variants

⚖️ In + Month vs On + Date

IN + Month	“My school starts in September.”
ON + Date	“Our first exam is on September 20th.”

🔗 Time Collocations with Months

– at the beginning of July

– at the end of December

– next / last month (no preposition)

– during the summer holidays

3 Tier 3 – Top 3 Common Learner Pitfalls

✗ ~~My birthday is on August.~~

✓ My birthday is in August. / on August 12th.

– Rule: Use in with months alone; use on only when a specific day/date is present.

✗ ~~We go to Canada in the october.~~

✓ We go to Canada in October.

– Rule: Never put the before month names.

✗ ~~I was born in feburary.~~

✓ I was born in February.

– Rule: Always capitalize and remember the first ‘r’ in Feb-ru-ary.

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Tier 4 – Interactive Practice: Work through the calendar ordering and season drills in Exercises A–D below!