# Pronunciation of ילדיו and כלביה



## Drink

I just tried out the new Duolingo Hebrew course just for fun. It's got some flaws, but overall it's pretty good. Anyway, I noticed that the audio recordings pronounce the words ילדיו and כלביה as _yaldav_ and _kalbeha_, rather than _yeladav_ and _klaveha_. My ears almost fell off when I heard this! Is this simply an error, or do people actually pronounce these words this way nowadays?


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## oopqoo

I think both yaldav and kalbeha are righ in terms of correct high-register speech, but no one really speaks that way in everyday speech.

In colloquial speech it would be yeladav (even though the actual colloquial way to say it is הילדים שלו, because the possession suffix is a little too fancy for everyday speech).
For כלביה, it would be (again in colloquial) either kalbea or klavea, without any preponderance of one over the other. You also wouldn't hear any "h" sound unless the person is really trying to sound overly correct. But again, it's way more common to just hear הכלבים שלה.


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## Drink

Actually, in correct high-register speech, _yeladav_ and _klaveha_ are the correct forms. So I'm still confused, are _yaldav_ and _kalbeha_ colloquial? Maybe they are pseudo-formal (like when someone is trying to sound formal but doesn't actually know the rules)?

By the way, a colloquial situation where people might pronounce these words could just be someone casually reading a newspaper article aloud to his friends.


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## oopqoo

Oh I didn't even know  In any case I'll just sum it up by sayng that all the following pronunciations would convey (for me personally) the same level of formality/colloquialness:
yaldav, yeladav
kalbea, klavea, kalbeha, klaveha, kalbeya, klaveya
So as to your question, the yaldav and kalbeha pronunciations (in my opinion) are within the spectrum of colloquial speech, and it would be pseudo-formal as you described. I personally wouldn't be able to tell which is the correct form because I didn't know until now, so all of these would sound equally as good for my ears. It surely shouldn't cause your ears to fall off though haha


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## Drink

The strange thing is, the recordings are very "formally correct" in other aspects, for example they pronounce העתיד as _h*e*-atid_, which is a much more difficult thing to get right than _yeladav_ and _klaveha_.


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## oopqoo

That's a pity though, they should just stick to one form of speech, colloquial or 100%-correct. I just downloaded Duolingo to check what it sounds like and for the first couple recordings it sounds too robotic (which could be okay for 100%-correct speech, but it has errors, so that beats the purpose).


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## utopia

yaldav and kalbeha are incorrect in any aspect of the Hebrew language.

I don't know if anyone would pronounce those words in this way, but that could happen to people who don't know what is usually an Israeli consent.

Kalbeha is a mixture of klaveha and kalbah, and yaldav is a mixture of yaldo and the suffix of "his+plural".


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## bazq

I agree yaldav is odd and I don't see how someone would ever say that (yeladav is actually not that uncommon so Israelis wouldn't make that particular mistake). Kalbeha on the other hand sounds like something an Israeli could probably say.


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## Drink

Well the Israeli doing the recordings for Duolingo _did_ make these mistakes. That's an undeniable fact.


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## bazq

True, can't say why. It's definitely not something you'd hear in my honest opinion (yaldav).


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## Albert Schlef

I don't know anybody who pronounces these two words differently than the correct way: yeladav, klaveha. (Most don't pronounce the "h", though.)

I don't know why @oopqoo claim that people pronounce it various other ways.


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