tenir la forme

\tə.niʁ la fɔʁm\

/\tə.niʁ la fɔʁm\/ verb

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency French
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Conserver une bonne santé, une bonne forme.

Key facts for tenir la forme
PropertyValue
Headwordtenir la forme
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\tə.niʁ la fɔʁm\
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “tenir la forme” sits in French frequency

tenir 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 tenir la forme is 14 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \tə.niʁ 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: "Conserver une bonne santé, une bonne forme.".

No misspelling variants are generated for tenir 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 tenir la forme, spelled T-E-N-I-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
    Conserver une bonne santé, une bonne forme.

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, “tenir 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/tenir-la-forme

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tenir la forme"?
"tenir la forme" is spelled T-E-N-I-R- -L-A- -F-O-R-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \tə.niʁ la fɔʁm\.
What does "tenir la forme" mean?
As a verb, "tenir la forme" means: Conserver une bonne santé, une bonne forme.
How do you pronounce "tenir la forme"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tenir la forme" is \tə.niʁ la fɔʁm\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tenir la forme" come from?
"tenir 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 “tenir la forme”

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

  • The one correct French spelling is T-E-N-I-R- -L-A- -F-O-R-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \tə.niʁ 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 T in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

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