forcer

English

Rhubarb forcers in a restaurant vegetable garden

Etymology

Etymology tree

English force

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English forcer

From force + -er.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)sə(ɹ)

Noun

forcer (plural forcers)

1. Agent noun of force.
2. The solid piston of a force pump; the instrument by which water is forced in a pump.
3. A small hand pump for sinking pits, draining cellars, etc.
4. A bell-shaped lidded pot for growing rhubarb, used to limit photosynthesis by excluding light, encouraging early-season growth and blanched stems.

Related terms

• brute-forcer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French forcier, from Vulgar Latin *fortiāre, a verb based on Late Latin fortia, a noun based on Latin fortis (“strong”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔʁ.se/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: forçai, forcé, forcée, forcées, forcés, forcez

Verb

forcer

1. to force

Conjugation

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

Conjugation of forcer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	forcer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	forçant /fɔʁ.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		forcé /fɔʁ.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	force /fɔʁs/	forces /fɔʁs/	force /fɔʁs/	forçons /fɔʁ.sɔ̃/	forcez /fɔʁ.se/	forcent /fɔʁs/
	imperfect	forçais /fɔʁ.sɛ/	forçais /fɔʁ.sɛ/	forçait /fɔʁ.sɛ/	forcions /fɔʁ.sjɔ̃/	forciez /fɔʁ.sje/	forçaient /fɔʁ.sɛ/
	past historic2	forçai /fɔʁ.se/	forças /fɔʁ.sa/	força /fɔʁ.sa/	forçâmes /fɔʁ.sam/	forçâtes /fɔʁ.sat/	forcèrent /fɔʁ.sɛʁ/
	future	forcerai /fɔʁ.sə.ʁe/	forceras /fɔʁ.sə.ʁa/	forcera /fɔʁ.sə.ʁa/	forcerons /fɔʁ.sə.ʁɔ̃/	forcerez /fɔʁ.sə.ʁe/	forceront /fɔʁ.sə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	forcerais /fɔʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	forcerais /fɔʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	forcerait /fɔʁ.sə.ʁɛ/	forcerions /fɔʁ.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	forceriez /fɔʁ.sə.ʁje/	forceraient /fɔʁ.sə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	force /fɔʁs/	forces /fɔʁs/	force /fɔʁs/	forcions /fɔʁ.sjɔ̃/	forciez /fɔʁ.sje/	forcent /fɔʁs/
	imperfect2	forçasse /fɔʁ.sas/	forçasses /fɔʁ.sas/	forçât /fɔʁ.sa/	forçassions /fɔʁ.sa.sjɔ̃/	forçassiez /fɔʁ.sa.sje/	forçassent /fɔʁ.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	force /fɔʁs/	—	forçons /fɔʁ.sɔ̃/	forcez /fɔʁ.se/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• forcer la main
• forcer le trait
• forceur
• marche forcée
• travaux forcés

Further reading

• “forcer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012