pour la forme

\puʁ la fɔʁm\

/\puʁ la fɔʁm\/ adv

The verdict

“pour la forme” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) — Afin de se conformer aux usages reçus ou de sauver les apparences.

Key facts for pour la forme
PropertyValue
Headwordpour la forme
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\puʁ la fɔʁm\
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “pour la forme” sits in French frequency

pour la forme falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for pour la forme is 13 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \puʁ la fɔʁm\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Afin de se conformer aux usages reçus ou de sauver les apparences.".

No misspelling variants are generated for pour la forme in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is pour la forme, spelled P-O-U-R- -L-A- -F-O-R-M-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Afin de se conformer aux usages reçus ou de sauver les apparences.

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.

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:

PlainSpell, “pour la forme, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/pour-la-forme

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pour la forme"?
"pour la forme" is spelled P-O-U-R- -L-A- -F-O-R-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \puʁ la fɔʁm\.
What does "pour la forme" mean?
As an adverb, "pour la forme" means: Afin de se conformer aux usages reçus ou de sauver les apparences.
How do you pronounce "pour la forme"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pour la forme" is \puʁ la fɔʁm\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pour la forme" come from?
"pour la forme" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “pour la forme”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is P-O-U-R- -L-A- -F-O-R-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \puʁ la fɔʁm\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our French index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list