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   Strumming is a general term that means the 'act' of moving your arm up and down and playing most or all of the strings on your guitar, There are a few different categories of 'strumming' such as Rake, Chop, Arpeggio and just a general strum...

   The 'rake' is a sweeping strum and the 'chop' is a super quick strum, The 'Arpeggio' is for the most part a super slow (note by note) strum. The act of 'strumming' while you are concentrating on what chords to change to can be a challenge in the beginning, After a while you will be able to do simple strum patterns like the simple 1234...

   With the '1234' strumming pattern there are 'four' (beats) so it would be more like (one) (two) (three) (four), This strum pattern uses '4 beats per measure' and a '3' beat pattern might look like (one) (two) (three) using only three beats per measure. Each of those are then split up into more complex patterns like:

(1) (1) (12) (12)...
(1) (1) (12) (1)...
(12) (1) (12) (1)...
(12) (12) (12) (1234)...

   All four are still (one) (two) (three) (four) and you can even string two 'measures' together to make (one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight), Rythms are like compound fractions so you can cut the tempo in half or double it and use a different pattern like:

(12) (12) (12) (1234)                60bpm (one measure)
(1) (1) (1) (1) (1) (1) (12) (12) 120bpm (two measures)

   Those two are the exact same strumming pattern and the one that is drawn out to two measures is probably easier to read, The best way to pick up what strumming pattern a song is using is by listening. You should try to picture each 'beat' as a word and the rhythmns (12) as syllables, Sometimes you will even find that the 'strumming pattern' follows along with the 'phrases' of the song...

(once) (up-on) (a) (time) (there) (were) (three) (lit-tle) (pigs)
(1) (12) (1) (1) (1) (1) (1) (12) (1)...

(once) (up-on) (a-time) (there-were) (three) (lit-tle-pigs)
(1) (12) (12) (12) (1) (123)...