על פי חוק
“על פי חוק” (аль пи хок) — by law in Hebrew. Phrase, level B1. Literally by the mouth of the law: pi — the mouth, chok — the law. The same al pi means according to: al pi luach — by the schedule. In a live sentence: “על פי החוק יש חופשה בקיץ.” — By law there is a vacation in the summer. Written with the characters ע, ל, פ, י, ח, ו, ק. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | על פי חוק |
| Read in Latin letters | аль пи хок |
| Translation | by law |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally by the mouth of the law: pi — the mouth, chok — the law. The same al pi means according to: al pi luach — by the schedule
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- על פי החוק יש חופשה בקיץ.аль пи ха-хок йеш хофша ба-кайиц.By law there is a vacation in the summer.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “by law” in Hebrew?
«על פי חוק», read “аль пи хок”. In a live sentence: “על פי החוק יש חופשה בקיץ.” — By law there is a vacation in the summer. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ע, ל, פ, י, ח, ו, ק.
How is “על פי חוק” written in Latin letters?
аль пи хок. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally by the mouth of the law: pi — the mouth, chok — the law. The same al pi means according to: al pi luach — by the schedule. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.