# I'm attached to them.



## Just in time

Hi, everyone! If I were talking about my parents and wanted to say, "I'm attached to them" would I say ani qashur eleihem or lahem?

Thanks.


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## slus

eleihem


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## Just in time

Thanks. However, I remember someone saying "ani qashur lahorim sheli". Is this correct too?


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## slus

Yes. It's either קשור אליהם or קשור להורים שלי, but not קשור להם.


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## LXNDR

slus said:


> eleihem



Worth noting that this is a colloquial pronunciation albeit prevalent, the grammatical one is *aleihem*, to quote the Hebrew Academy:

אֲלֵיכֶם, אֲלֵיהֶם (ולא אֵליכם, אֵליהם) – בגלל המרחק מן ההברה המוטעמת הצירי באל"ף הופך לחטף פתח


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## slus

You can still hear "aleihem" in news casts and such.
Another example is קשוב (attentive)
אני קשובה לילדים שלי
אני קשובה אליהם


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## Just in time

slus: Then how do you know whether they mean עליהם or אליהם? Is the stress different?


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## slus

Yes.
In אליהם the stress is on the hem.
In עליהם the stress is on the lei.
Plus, alef and ayin are pronounced differently (in formal speech) and the most important thing is the context.


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## Just in time

Thank you. In אליהם does the stress change depending on whether you pronounce it eleihem or aleihem? I think the stress is on "lei" if you pronounce it "eleihem" but on "hem" if you say "aleihem".


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## slus

You're correct again. As LXNDR rightly said. "eleihem" is the prevalent colloquial pronunciation. Formal Hebrew puts more stress on the last syllable ("Milra") while colloquial Hebrew sometimes prefers stressing the one before last ("Mileil").


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## Just in time

תודה תודה, אדוני!


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## LXNDR

Just in time said:


> תודה תודה, *אדוני*


 *גברתי*, ליתר דיוק​


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## Just in time

סלחי לי.


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## utopia

Just in time said:


> slus: Then how do you know whether they mean עליהם or אליהם? Is the stress different?



If one doesn't pronounce the ain as a guttural consonant, then these two (עליהם - אליהם) sound the same, and the meaning depends on the context.


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## utopia

slus said:


> Yes.
> In אליהם the stress is on the hem.
> In עליהם the stress is on the lei.
> Plus, alef and ayin are pronounced differently (in formal speech) and the most important thing is the context.



Where did you take that from?


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## Ali Smith

slus said:


> Yes.
> In אליהם the stress is on the hem.
> In עליהם the stress is on the lei.
> Plus, alef and ayin are pronounced differently (in formal speech) and the most important thing is the context.



The grammar books say that the stress is on the last syllable in both אליהם and עליהם. There is absolutely no way to tell them apart orally unless, of course, the speaker happens to be Mizrahi (because then he or she will distinguish א and ע). I remember our professor telling us that a lot of people confuse עתה (now) and אתה (you) because they don't distinguish א and ע.


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## LXNDR

Ali Smith said:


> The grammar books say that the stress is on the last syllable in both אליהם and עליהם.



Indeed, slus referred to vernacular pronunciation which in Hebrew is very different from the prescribed one. So in colloquial Hebrew you can definitely distinguish between them, since not only the stress placing may differ but also the vowel


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## Drink

I knew that the first vowel differs in colloquial Hebrew, but I didn't know they differ in stress placement. I thought they'd both be stressed on the middle syllable in colloquial Hebrew.


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## Ali Smith

Drink: I've heard native speakers say things like אני רוצה לבוא אליכם (I want to come to your place.), and they definitely:

1. pronounced the first letter as "e", not "a" (as noted above, the latter would be the formal pronunciation),
2. put the stress on the final syllable.

So, it seems to me that in both colloquial and formal Hebrew the stress is on the last syllable in both אליכם and עליכם. However, in colloquial Hebrew, the vowel beneath the first letter is different, and that's the only way to tell them apart. By contrast, in formal Hebrew there is no way (apart from context) to tell them apart.


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## shalom00

Israelis will always pronounce both with stress on the last syllable, with the exception of some of the Ashkenazi Haredi population whose Hebrew pronounciation is heavily influenced by Yiddish and whose Hebrew pronounciation is in general somewhat different than that of the general Israeli population.


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## Drink

Got it, thanks. So it's different from the תם ending on verbs.


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