# אל (to) - pronunciation



## CrimsonMacaw

I've noticed that to say "to" in Hebrew, sometimes el is used, and sometimes al. For example, saying "He is going to..." or "Give that to..." would sometimes be expressed in Hebrew with el, and other times with al.

Could someone explain when I would use the el as opposed to the al, and vice versa?


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## aavichai

there is no such thing

never heard it

maybe you hear it when people talk fast and the vowel getting soften somehow

the right way is alwas El

when you say "to them" = אליהם

it should be "Alehem"

but even that form is commonly and mistake-ly is said "Elehem"


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## orca

Hi,
whereas there is indeed no such thing as "al", there is definitely the form: le...
In your example you mention it yourself: "Give that to..." can be followed only with "le..."
(תן את זה לדני - * ten et ze ledani*) and it represented by L (למד ל) before the word/ name. Ther is alo *"la"* - give that to the girl - תן את זה לילדה - *Ten et ze layalda*. This is because the girl is known, she's not just any girl, it comes to replace: ten et ze le hayalda. So el plus ha (הא הידיעה) = la.
The other example, I'm going to... can be followed by le or *el *(or also* li*, like I'm going to study - אני הולך ללמוד - Ani holech lilmod, before certain verbs), or la (lamacolet - למכולת - to the grocery store, again replacing the "*the *grocery store)).


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## utopia

AL is on:

הספר על השולחן - hasefer al hashulhan

the book is on the table.


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## utopia

But still, I don't know about occurences where people change LE or EL to AL.


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## orca

You are right of course, Al is a word, but I just meant that in this context it is not correct.


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## CrimsonMacaw

In the intro to Marco/Halev <<link to youtube removed by moderator>> there are a few examples.

At 0:56 the lyrics say Hala el harmerhak. At 1:04 it says El hamakom bo ima mehaka, and at 1:12 Rotse lauf el ima. These are all instances of el.

However, when someone says "It's good that you came to me", they would say tov she bata alay.


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## aavichai

never heard of Tov Shebata Alay

always heard "Elay"

maybe the last vowel of the word Bata effect the next vowel /e/ - and therefore you may hear it /a/

personally i never heard it like that
but it maybe because i speak the language so i don't notice that

***
Any way, there is no Alay
it is always Elay


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## Ronch

אֶל -el is "to" while אָל -al is a negative form. "don't smoke here"= " אל תעשן כאן al t'eashen kan" "don't ask= אל תשאל al tishal" etc there's also עַל- al which means on, upon


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