# בחור/ה



## Zeevdovtarnegolet

Is this word an equivalent to yeled and yalda?  Is there any difference?


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## origumi

Different ages. ילד can be between 3-15 years old, בחור between 20-30. The numbers are not scinetific of course.


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## Zeevdovtarnegolet

ahhhhh ok so more of a "young man / woman" thing.  Thanks! ;0


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## Egmont

I'd put the dividing line a bit lower. An 18-year-old soldier is without a doubt a (בחור(ה, not a (ילד(ה. Ditto for most secondary school students. Even a 9th-year student might be offended at being called a (ילד(ה.

In English the term "young (wo)man" can be used in jest. I can imagine an older man - for example, me - saying to his six-year-old grandson "Come here, young man." The same would be possible in Hebrew, too, with the same jesting connotation.


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## Aoyama

One could also place different categories.
בחור could be a _teen-ager, a youngster _or as Egmont said "young (wo)man"_, _whereas ילדwould be a _child _or a _kid_ in all its meanings.
Furthermore, I would say/think that someone would usually call a young person (that he/she doesn't know)  Bakhur/a as in "hey kid !", not yeled/yalda (unless in a school class).


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## Zeevdovtarnegolet

Thanks! It's all clear now!


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## Ali Smith

The masculine form is pronounced bakhur. Why isn’t the feminine form pronounced bekhura?


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## Abaye

Not sure there's an answer *why*. This is one of the words where long-a (qamatz) changes to short-a (patach) in inflections.


> בשם בָּחוּר הקמץ משתנה בנטייה לפתח, כגון בַּחוּר־(חמד) בַּחוּרָה בַּחוּרִים בַּחוּרֵי־.


תחומים 1.1 הקמץ - האקדמיה ללשון העברית


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## Drink

Ali Smith said:


> The masculine form is pronounced bakhur. Why isn’t the feminine form pronounced bekhura?



In this case, it's a weird irregular effect of the letter ח on the preceding vowel, that occurs (with slightly different manifestations) in words like אחד, אחים, נחמה. But it doesn't happen regular, for example שחורים is shkhorim as expected and not shakhorim, etc. (Note that it's only ח that has this effect and not other gutturals letters.) I wouldn't worry about it too much, just take it as a given.

BUT... Note that there are classes of words where the preservation of the "a" is regular, like צדיק/צדיקים (tzaddik/tzaddikim), תקין/תקינים (taqqin/taqqinim), etc.


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