feminine numbers?

Question

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"?

Answer

Hola SpeckGood 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

Answer

But date = fecha which is feminine. "The date" is a compound of día, número, mes and año all of which are masculine.

Answer

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