# לחיים - לחי



## airelibre

Could you tell me the pronunciation of לחיים (cheeks), preferably באמצעות נקודות? Is it a homophone of lechaim (cheers), or is it lchayaim, or something else?


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## arielipi

lechaya(y)im


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## airelibre

Is that first 'e' a shva, segol or tzere?


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## ystab

לְחָיַיִם. In the bible you can find an example in Deut. 18:3.


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## arielipi

לֶחִי
i do not knwo the plural form


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## ystab

arielipi, in such a small font it appears (at least on my screen) that the singular form is with tzere, rather than segol. Can you please edit and make the font bigger, so others won't misread it? Thanks.


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## C_J

The common ptonunciation is, as arielipi said is לֶחִי (penultimate stress). There is also an attested variation of  לְחִי (ultimate stress) which is also the nismakh form.
The plural/dual is, as ystab said, לְחָיַיִם.
The only case that is homophonic is in the nismakh forms such as "לְחָיֵי הבהבמה" and "לְחַיֵּי הבהמה!"


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## airelibre

Thanks to everyone for the help.


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