Definition

1. Verb:
   • To regularize: To make something official, valid, or compliant with established rules, laws, or formal procedures. It involves bringing an existing situation, document, or status into proper legal or formal order.
   • To legalize: To give legal authority or sanction to something, often implying a process of formal recognition by an official body.
   • To formalize: To make an arrangement, agreement, or situation formal and officially recognized.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Chính phủ đang tìm cách hợp thức hóa tình trạng cư trú của những người nhập cư. (The government is seeking to regularize the residency status of the immigrants.)
  • Hai công ty cần hợp thức hóa thỏa thuận bằng một bản hợp đồng. (The two companies need to formalize the agreement with a contract.)
  • Việc hợp thức hóa giấy tờ đất đai mất nhiều thời gian. (Legalizing land papers takes a lot of time.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is often used in bureaucratic, legal, and administrative contexts. It implies a transition from an informal, unofficial, or irregular state to a formally accepted one.
• "hợp thức hóa hồ sơ": to regularize/legalize a dossier.
  • Anh ấy phải hợp thức hóa hồ sơ xin visa. (He had to regularize his visa application dossier.)

Variants and Related Words

• Hợp thức (adj): legitimate, legal, valid.

  • Giấy tờ hợp thức (legitimate papers)

• Hợp pháp hóa (v): to legalize (often with a stronger emphasis on making something lawful, sometimes used interchangeably with "hợp thức hóa").

  • hợp pháp hóa hôn nhân (to legalize a marriage)

Synonyms

• Regularize: To make something conform to rules or standards.
• Legalize: To make something permissible by law.
• Formalize: To give a definite form or official status to.
• Validate: To make legally valid or official.

Related Idioms

• While not a direct idiom, the concept is central to phrases like:
  • Mang ra ánh sáng và hợp thức hóa: To bring to light and formalize (a process or arrangement).

verb

1. to regularize