In short

This lesson puts your numbers to work on three everyday jobs: saying what time it is, giving the day and date, and telling how old someone is. All three are built the Hebrew way — with no verb. “It’s three o’clock,” “today is the twelfth of May,” and “I’m twenty” are all verbless nominal sentences (lesson 5); there is no “it is”, and — the trap English and Romance speakers fall into — there is no “I have twenty years”.

Two number facts run through the whole lesson. The hour is feminine, because שעה (sha’a) ‘hour’ is feminine, so you say השעה שלוש (ha-sha’a shalosh), never *שלושה. And age counts שנים (shanim) ‘years’, also feminine, so the age numeral is feminine too — even for a man. Only three little words do the heavy lifting: ו־ and ל־ for minutes, and בן / בת (ben / bat) for age.

The rule

Asking and giving the time — the hour is feminine. Ask מה השעה? (ma ha-sha’a?) ‘what’s the time?’. Answer with השעה (ha-sha’a) + a feminine numeral, because שעה is a feminine noun (lesson 12): השעה שלוש (ha-sha’a shalosh) ‘it’s three’, השעה חמש (ha-sha’a chamesh) ‘it’s five’, השעה שתים עשרה (ha-sha’a shteim esre) ‘it’s twelve’. Never use the ־ה masculine-counting form here: השעה שלושה is wrong. In casual speech people often drop השעה and just say שלוש (shalosh) or, for on-the-hour, שלוש בדיוק (shalosh be-diyuk) ‘three exactly’.

Minutes past — join them with ו־. For the first half of the hour, name the hour, then add the minutes with the conjunction ו־ (ve-/va-): שלוש ורבע (shalosh va-reva) ‘quarter past three’, שלוש וחצי (shalosh va-chetzi) ‘half past three’, שבע ועשרים (sheva ve-esrim) ‘seven twenty’. Notice רבע (reva) ‘a quarter’ and חצי (chetzi) ‘a half’ are nouns, not numbers.

Minutes to — count down with ל־. For the second half of the hour, give the minutes remaining, then ל־ (‘to’) + the coming hour: רבע לארבע (reva le-arba) ‘quarter to four’, עשרים לחמש (esrim le-chamesh) ‘twenty to five’, עשרה לשמונה (asara le-shmone) ‘ten to eight’. A quirk worth flagging: the small minute-counts 5 and 10 show up in their masculine shapes here — חמישה (chamisha), עשרה (asara) — even though the hour itself is feminine.

Day-parts pin the 12-hour clock. Israel writes schedules on the 24-hour clock but speaks on the 12-hour one, adding a time-of-day word: בבוקר (ba-boker) ‘in the morning’, בצוהריים (ba-tzohorayim) ‘at noon’, אחר הצוהריים (achar ha-tzohorayim) ‘in the afternoon’, בערב (ba-erev) ‘in the evening’, בלילה (ba-layla) ‘at night’. So שמונה בבוקר (shmone ba-boker) is 8 a.m. and שמונה בערב (shmone ba-erev) is 8 p.m.

The date: weekday, day-of-month, month. Ask מה התאריך היום? (ma ha-taarich ha-yom?) ‘what’s today’s date?’ or איזה יום היום? (eize yom ha-yom?) ‘what day is it?’. Weekdays are frozen phrases — יום (yom) ‘day’ plus a fixed ordinal-looking word, in that order: יום ראשון (yom rishon) ‘Sunday’ … יום שישי (yom shishi) ‘Friday’, with שבת (shabat) ‘Saturday’. Learn them as vocabulary; the ordinal system itself waits for lesson 29. Months are the international names, spelled out: מאי (mai), יולי (yuli), דצמבר (detsember).

Day-of-month is a masculine cardinal + ב־. Colloquially the date is a plain cardinal number attached with ב־ (‘in/on’) to the month: שנים עשר במאי (shneim asar be-mai) ‘the twelfth of May’, ארבעה ביולי (arba’a be-yuli) ‘the fourth of July’. The numeral is masculine here (it agrees with the masculine יום), which contrasts neatly with the clock: 12:00 is feminine שתים עשרה (shteim esre) but “the 12th” is masculine שנים עשר (shneim asar). The formal register uses ordinals (הראשון ב־, ha-rishon be-) — that belongs to lesson 29. The year is just recited: אלפיים עשרים ושש (alpayim esrim ve-shesh) ‘2026’.

Age with בן / בת — verbless, the person’s gender. To state age, say בן (ben) ‘son of’ for a male or בת (bat) ‘daughter of’ for a female, plus the number of years: אני בן עשרים (ani ben esrim) ‘I’m twenty’ (man), אני בת שלושים ושתיים (ani bat shloshim u-shtayim) ‘I’m thirty-two’ (woman). בן/בת reflects the person’s gender; the number stays feminine because it counts שנים — so a three-year-old boy is בן שלוש (ben shalosh), never *בן שלושה. Ask בן כמה אתה? (ben kama ata?) to a male, בת כמה את? (bat kama at?) to a female.

Never “I have X years.” Age carries no verb and no יש (yesh). יש לי עשרים שנים — a direct calque of “I have twenty years” — is simply not Hebrew; the יש … ל־ pattern (lesson 14) is for possessions, not age. Use בן/בת and nothing else.

Forms & patterns

The hour — always the feminine numeral (שעה is feminine):

Minutes — ו־ (‘and’) for past, ל־ (‘to’) for the second half:

Day-parts:

Weekdays — frozen phrases (learn as vocabulary):

Months — international names:

Age — בן/בת by the person’s gender, feminine numeral:

Examples

Common mistakes

• השעה שלושה -> השעה שלוש (ha-sha’a shalosh) - שעה is feminine, so the hour takes the feminine numeral; שלושה is the masculine-counting form.
• יש לי עשרים שנים -> אני בן עשרים (ani ben esrim) - Hebrew has no “I have X years”; age is verbless with בן/בת, never יש + a verb ‘to have’.
• אני בן שלושה (of a 3-year-old boy) -> אני בן שלוש (ani ben shalosh) - the numeral counts שנים (feminine), so it stays feminine; only בן/בת shows the person’s gender.
• הוא בת עשרים -> הוא בן עשרים (hu ben esrim) - בן/בת must match the person: a male is בן, a female is בת.
• בן כמה את? (to a woman) -> בת כמה את? (bat kama at?) - use בת with a feminine addressee, בן with a masculine one.
• ראשון יום -> יום ראשון (yom rishon) - a weekday is the fixed phrase יום + the day-word, in that order.
• שתים עשרה במאי -> שנים עשר במאי (shneim asar be-mai) - the day-of-month is a masculine cardinal (agreeing with יום); the feminine שתים עשרה is only for the clock.
• רבע אחרי שלוש -> שלוש ורבע (shalosh va-reva) - “quarter past” joins with ו־ after the hour, not with a word for “after”.

Tips

• Lock in the two anchors: the hour is feminine (השעה שלוש) and the age numeral is feminine (בן שלוש) — both because their hidden noun, שעה and שנים, is feminine.
• Split the clock at the half: minutes past attach with ו־ (שלוש ורבע), minutes to count down with ל־ + the next hour (רבע לארבע).
• רבע (reva) and חצי (chetzi) are nouns ‘a quarter’ and ‘a half’, so they never change shape — no gender to worry about there.
• Israel writes 24-hour times (20:30) but says them 12-hour with a day-part: add בבוקר / בערב / בלילה to make 8 a.m. vs 8 p.m. clear.
• For the date, keep the order weekday → number → month: יום שני, שנים עשר במאי. The day number is masculine; the ordinal “the first / the second” style is formal and comes in lesson 29.
• Age is one of the most-tested calque traps: drill “אני בן/בת …” until “I have … years” stops feeling natural. To ask, mirror the addressee: בן כמה אתה? / בת כמה את?
• Weekday names and month names are pure vocabulary — memorize them as blocks; you don’t build them from the number rules.