Breakdown of Он встаёт в семь часов.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
в
in / to (direction)
семь
seven
час
hour
Questions & Answers about Он встаёт в семь часов.
Why does the verb встаёт look so short compared to its infinitive вставать?
Verbs ending in -давать, -знавать, and -ставать drop the -ва- part when you conjugate them in the present tense. That is why it becomes встаёт instead of "вставает".
Why do we use в here to say "at" seven o'clock?
In Russian, to say that an event happens "at" a specific hour on the clock, you use the preposition в followed by the Accusative case. Here, the number семь is in the Accusative case, which looks identical to its dictionary form.
Why is the word for "o'clock" written as часов instead of час or часа?
After numbers 5 and higher (like семь), Russian requires the following noun to be in the Genitive plural. The Genitive plural of час (hour) is часов. You would use час for 1, and часа for 2, 3, and 4.