# How are Hebrew Calendar dates written and said?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-hebrew-calendar-dates-written-and-said/917766>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 11, 2020, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-hebrew-calendar-dates-written-and-said/917766 "2020-08-11T04:11:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2020, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-hebrew-calendar-dates-written-and-said/917766/22 "2020-08-13T11:09:23Z")

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Speaking of Hebrew, my Hebrew grammar book states that

> In numbering days of the month and years, the cardinals are very frequently used instead of the ordinals even for the numbers from 1 to 10…

which explains “תשעה באב” (tishah b’Av), [day] nine in Av.

What I was wondering about is why it’s בְּ there while “בְּתִשְׁעָה לַחֹדֶשׁ” (on the ninth day of the month) uses לְ, here meaning [belonging] to ? The section on prepositions simply translates

> בְּ [poet. בְּמוֹ] _in, at, with_.  
> לְ [poet. לְמוֹ] _towards_, (belonging) _to, for_, Lat. _ad._

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2020, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-hebrew-calendar-dates-written-and-said/917766/23 "2020-08-13T11:39:07Z")

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> [@DPRK](#):
>
> What I was wondering about is why it’s בְּ there while “בְּתִשְׁעָה לַחֹדֶשׁ” (on the ninth day of the month) uses לְ, here meaning [belonging] to ? The section on prepositions simply translates
> 
> > בְּ [poet. בְּמוֹ] _in, at, with_ .  
> > לְ [poet. לְמוֹ] _towards_ , (belonging) _to, for_ , Lat. _ad._

This was actually the subject of some discussion in Hebrew linguistic circles, and the conclusion was: nobody knows. Just one of those things, I guess.

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