forcer la main
\fɔʁ.se la mɛ̃\
The verdict
“forcer la main” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Contraindre quelqu'un à faire quelque chose.
Corpus desk
Index FR-forcer-la-main · forcer la main · French
forcer la main · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | forcer la main |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \fɔʁ.se la mɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « forcer la main » en français
Rare enough to double-check
forcer la main is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \fɔʁ.se la mɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
forcer la main has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is forcer la main, spelled F-O-R-C-E-R- -L-A- -M-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Contraindre quelqu'un à faire quelque chose.
- 2Pour un cheval, s’emporter malgré le cavalier.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how forcer la main appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
— Je ne puis rien, je ne puis rien… Mais, naturellement, je ne demande pas mieux que vous me fassiez forcer la main par ces dames du comité.
Il se trouva que j’étais le seul à pouvoir recueillir cet enfant et m’occuper de lui. Je voulus m’en défendre mais la loi intervint et me força la main.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.