HSK 5 · Adjectives

合法 héfǎ “lawful” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 合法 means

  1. lawful
  2. legitimate
  3. legal

How to say 合法

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale合hé2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale法fǎ3rd tone, dipping

合法 in a sentence

  1. 你的行为完全合法。

    Nǐ de xíngwéi wánquán héfǎ.

    Your conduct is perfectly legal.

    Sentence #334888 from Tatoeba

  2. 这样合法吗？

    Zhèyàng héfǎ ma?

    Is this legal?

    Sentence #2307505 from Tatoeba

  3. 自行车从右侧超过汽车是不合法的。

    Zìxíngchē cóng yòucè chāoguò qìchē shì bù héfǎ de.

    It’s illegal for bicycles to overtake cars on the right.

    Sentence #333124 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 合法 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 合 (hé) with each of its parts in a different colour
合héto close
  • 亼to assemble · jí
  • 口mouth · kǒu
The character 法 (fǎ) with each of its parts in a different colour
法fǎlaw
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐ
  • 去to go away · qù

Memory aidTraditionally explained as water 氵, which always lies level and so is fair, with 去 (qù) “to remove”, driving the guilty away: law, method.

How to write 合法

合 6 strokes · 法 8 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

合法 (héfǎ) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 合法 (héfǎ). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 合法

Words with 合

符合fúhé · in keeping with适合shìhé · to fit合格hégé · to meet the standard required合适héshì · suitable合影héyǐng · to take a joint photo集合jíhé · to gather结合jiéhé · to combine联合liánhé · to combine配合pèihé · to cooperate组合zǔhé · to assemble

Words with 法

办法bànfǎ · method法fǎ · law看法kànfǎ · way of looking at a thing语法yǔfǎ · grammar法律fǎlǜ · law方法fāngfǎ · method无法wúfǎ · to be unable to法院fǎyuàn · court of law法人fǎrén · legal entity非法fēifǎ · illegal

More words: Adjectives

广大guǎngdà · (of an area) vast or extensive广泛guǎngfàn · extensive过分guòfèn · excessive豪华háohuá · luxurious合理hélǐ · rational糊涂hútu · muddled慌张huāngzhāng · flustered灰huī · grey

FAQs

合法 (héfǎ) means “lawful” or “legitimate”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it héfǎ: hé with a 2nd tone, then fǎ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 合法 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type hefa with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 合法 from the suggestions. Typing hefa into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
合法 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.