חמות הבעל
“חמות הבעל” (хамот ха-бааль) — mother-in-law (husband's) in Hebrew. Noun, level A1. Hebrew has no separate word: the chamot covers both the wife's mother and the husband's — so the husband's mother is called literally the mother of the husband. In a live sentence: “חמות הבעל גרה קרוב.” — The mother-in-law lives next door. Written with the characters ח, מ, ו, ת, ה, ב, ע, ל. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | חמות הבעל |
| Read in Latin letters | хамот ха-бааль |
| Translation | mother-in-law (husband's) |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Hebrew has no separate word: the chamot covers both the wife's mother and the husband's — so the husband's mother is called literally the mother of the husband
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.
- חמות הבעל גרה קרוב.хамот ха-бааль гера каров.The mother-in-law lives next door.
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 “mother-in-law (husband's)” in Hebrew?
«חמות הבעל», read “хамот ха-бааль”. In a live sentence: “חמות הבעל גרה קרוב.” — The mother-in-law lives next door. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ח, מ, ו, ת, ה, ב, ע, ל.
How is “חמות הבעל” written in Latin letters?
хамот ха-бааль. 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?
Hebrew has no separate word: the chamot covers both the wife's mother and the husband's — so the husband's mother is called literally the mother of the husband. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.