Why are numbers written with the feminine article when telling time "es la una y media", but written with the masculine article when writing the date, "mi cumpleaños es el uno/primero de enero"?
feminine numbers?
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Ginkgo L.Kwiziq community member
feminine numbers?
This question relates to:Spanish lesson "Telling the time in Spanish"
Asked 4 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq
Hola Speck
Good question! We use the feminine "la/las" when it is telling the time because we are talking about "hora" (hour, feminine) but we use the masculine "el" for dates because in this case we are talking about "día" (day is masculine, although it doesn't look like a feminine noun - el día).
Mi cumpleaños es el (día) 5 de marzo.
Son las 3 (horas).
I hope this clarified it.
Saludos
Garry M.Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
But date = fecha which is feminine. "The date" is a compound of día, número, mes and año all of which are masculine.
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq
Hola Garry,
yes, we use the masculine article "el" when we say the whole date, for example:
Yo me casé el 4 de agosto de 2009.
This is because it would be "el día 4 ...", día being a masculine noun (although it does look feminine)
Inma
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