עכשיו השעה 3, ואני עוד במשרד.

It is 3 o’clock now, and I am still in the office.

Breakdown of עכשיו השעה 3, ואני עוד במשרד.

• אני: I
• עכשיו: now
• ו: and
• ב: in

Questions & Answers about עכשיו השעה 3, ואני עוד במשרד.

Why does Hebrew say השעה 3 instead of just giving the number?

In standard Hebrew, a common way to tell the time is with השעה ... literally the hour is ....

So:

• השעה שלוש = it is three o’clock
• השעה אחת = it is one o’clock
• השעה שתיים = it is two o’clock

This is just a normal Hebrew time-telling pattern. In everyday speech, people also often shorten it and simply say עכשיו שלוש.

Why is the number written as 3? How would you read it out loud?

Using digits is very common in modern Hebrew, especially in informal or everyday writing.

So השעה 3 is read aloud as:

• השעה שלוש

If you wrote the whole sentence out in words, it would be:

• עכשיו השעה שלוש, ואני עוד במשרד.

Why is it שלוש and not some other form of three?

Hebrew numbers have masculine and feminine forms. Here, the number is read as שלוש, the feminine form, because שעה is a feminine noun.

A few examples:

• שעה אחת
• שעה שתיים
• שעה שלוש
• שעה ארבע

So even though English just says three, Hebrew has to choose the form that matches the noun.