# להיות



## whenu

Shalom. Could someone tell me if "להיות" is pronounced lihyot, lihiyot, or liheyot? I'm really confused. Thanks in advance.


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## I see you

I'm not sure, but I think "liheyot" is the formal pronunciation while "lihiyot" is colloquial. I've never come across "lihyot", but my guess is it's slang.


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## Drink

Actually lihyot is the technically correct pronunciation, but many speakers find it difficult to pronounce "h" at the end of a syllable, so they add "e" or "i". Those who drop the "h" just say "liyot".


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## whenu

I just checked Assimil l'hebreu sans peine. It states that it is to be pronounced "liheyot".


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## aavichai

the pure form is
lih-yot

but the /ih/ "pushes" to pronounce another /i/
and therefore it is pronounces "lihiyot" (wheather you want it or not)

a lot of speaker don't even pronounce the H
and say
lii-yot


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## I see you

That's really strange. I always thought "liheyot" was the formal pronunciation.


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## aavichai

i never heard "li-he-yot"

but the "added" vowel after the H comes naturally from the speaker

so each one "create" the comfortable vowel for him

**
the form of Lihyot
is like 
לשמור - Lish-mor
ללמוד - Lil-mod
and so
להיות - Lih-yot

but as i said - it is hard to stop at the H completly
and so the speaker "help jimself" by adding a another vowel


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## Ali Smith

FSI Hebrew clearly states that the infinitive is to be pronounced lihyot, but strangely enough it also states that the future tense will have an _i_ inserted in all the forms (e.g. tihiye, yihiye, nihiye) except the first person singular, which is to be pronounced eheye. Inconsistency rules!


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## Ali Smith

Drink said:


> Actually lihyot is the technically correct pronunciation, but many speakers find it difficult to pronounce "h" at the end of a syllable, so they add "e" or "i". Those who drop the "h" just say "liyot".


But gutturals can’t take shwas, can they?
That’s why if you remove the ל you’re left with היות _heyot_, in which the first letter has a compound shwa.
So, when we add ל to the beginning shouldn’t it have the corresponding full vowel, namely סגול? Witness לעמוד and לאמור.


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## Drink

Ali Smith said:


> But gutturals can’t take shwas, can they?



Yes, they can. They can have shva nach, just not shva na.



Ali Smith said:


> That’s why if you remove the ל you’re left with היות _heyot_, in which the first letter has a compound shwa.



When you remove the ל, it can no longer be a shva nach and gutturals cannot have shva na.



Ali Smith said:


> So, when we add ל to the beginning shouldn’t it have the corresponding full vowel, namely סגול? Witness לעמוד and לאמור.



Normally it should, but there are exceptions such as with להיות and לחיות. Note also how וְ- + הֱיֵה becomes וֶהְיֵה.


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## Ali Smith

That makes sense. Thanks! And I just came across the following, which supports what you said:

וִהְיִ֤יתֶם לִי֙ קְדֹשִׁ֔ים כִּ֥י קָד֖וֹשׁ אֲנִ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה וָאַבְדִּ֥ל אֶתְכֶ֛ם מִן־הָֽעַמִּ֖ים לִהְי֥וֹת לִֽי׃
(ויקרא כ כו)


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## elroy

I've always said lihyot, ehye, tihye, tihyi, yihye, nihye, tihyu, yihyu.


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## Drink

I thought @Ali Smith meant to highlight וִהְיִ֤יתֶם, but I could be wrong. This is definitely an unusual form by modern standards.


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