how to say “to pronounce” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/להגות-1.m4a” /]לְבַטֵּא, לַהֲגוֹת

Hebrew has two words for to pronouce.

לבטא[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/להגות-2.m4a” /], a פיעל verb, means literally to give expression and is sometimes also used to mean to pronounce, as in:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/להגות-3.m4a” /]איך מבטאים את המילה הזאת?

How do you pronounce this word?

The other word, the פעל verb להגות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/להגות-4.m4a” /], means literally to utter (also to think). It is the more precise term for to pronounce, used by language specialists.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/להגות-5.m4a” /]לא תמיד ברור איך צריך להגות מילה עברית כתובה.

It’s not always clear how one should pronounce a written Hebrew word.

The noun version of להגות is הגייה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/להגות-6.m4a” /] – pronunciation, while the noun version of לבטא is ביטוי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/להגות-7.m4a” /] – expression.