# תשע



## dcx97

Hello,

I was listening to an Israeli say "At nine o'clock" and he said "be sha'a tesha". Later on I heard someone else say "תשע" and she pronounced it "tey sha". I listened to several other speakers and they all said "teysha". Which pronunciation is the correct one: tey sha or te sha?

Thanks.


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## slus

Both pronunciations are acceptable, and it is actually something "in between", because the Niqqud sign is Tseireh.


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## aavichai

the tsere sign is just "E"
and not "EY"

but...
in the Ashkenazi accent they pronounce the Tsere as "EY"

so sometimes there are words in Hebrew that people pronounce "EY"
even though it is not needed

***
The Ashkenazi accent pronounce the Tsere as "EY" to differ it from the Segol sign

but the Tsere is just "E"

***
another thing in that manner are word that use Tsere+Yod letter
like
ביצה=egg
זיתים=olives

even though there is a letter Yod
the word should be pronounced without it
Betsa
Zetim

but in these words the common pronounciation of people is
Beytsa
Zeytim

so some pronounciation are "stuck" in the people's mouth
(and maybe here it was "stuck"  because the letter YOD is written)

**
but as for the Tesha
you should say Tesha
like you say Sefer=book
and not Seyfer
(the S also with Tsere sign here)

so the word Teysha is also one of the words that you can hear
but you can leave it for the people who use to say it like that

if you study the Hebrew
just say - Tesha


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## Drink

The pronunciation "teysha" is an outlier, because it's used even by people who don't say "seyfer" or "beseyder".


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## dcx97

Drink said:


> The pronunciation "teysha" is an outlier, because it's used even by people who don't say "seyfer" or "beseyder".



So if I say "tesha" instead of "teysha" will my pronunciation be considered substandard?


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## aavichai

it is more sttandart to say Tesha than Teysha

say Tesha=nine like you say Sheva=seven

but if you say Teysha or Teisha it is also understood

but there is no need for that
especially if you learning to speak hebrew, and not been influenced by other speakers who pronounce the word naturally as they use too


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## ADoA

I think it's one of those words that no one will even notice whether you pronounced it "teysha" or "tesha." The pronunciation wouldn't stand out either way because both are so common. I was taught to say "teysha" and I'm from a generation born in '80s and until reading this post, I didn't even realize others say "tesha." But I'm sure I've heard it literally thousands of times.


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## dcx97

Yeah, just like some people pronounce שני שקלים (seven shekels) as "shne shkalim" while others say "shney shkalim". Right?


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## bazq

dcx97 said:


> Yeah, just like some people pronounce שני שקלים (seven shekels) as "shne shkalim" while others say "shney shkalim". Right?



Yes. There's currently a clear, ongoing process of monophthongization (/ey/ to /e/) in Modern Hebrew.


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## ADoA

dcx97 said:


> Yeah, just like some people pronounce שני שקלים (seven shekels) as "shne shkalim" while others say "shney shkalim". Right?



You meant to say *two *shekels . But as bazq had mentioned, yes.


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