Learn French: À force de prononcer cette consonne, on a mal à la tête. - Through repeatedly pronouncing this consonant, our head hurts.

À force de prononcer cette consonne, on a mal à la tête.

Through repeatedly pronouncing this consonant, our head hurts.

Breakdown of À force de prononcer cette consonne, on a mal à la tête.

one / we (informal)

this (before a noun)

at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)

avoir mal

to be in pain, to hurt

Questions & Answers about À force de prononcer cette consonne, on a mal à la tête.

Why is the infinitive prononcer used after à force de?

You must use the infinitive because the verb directly follows the preposition de. À force de is used to show that an outcome happens because of intense or repeated action. Whenever a verb immediately follows a preposition like de, à, or pour in French, it remains in its infinitive form.

Can I use a noun instead of a verb with à force de?

Yes, absolutely! While this sentence demonstrates à force de + infinitive, you can also use it with a noun to express that something was achieved through a lot of a certain thing. For example, you could say à force de répétition (by dint of repetition) or à force de courage (through sheer courage).

The translation says "our head", so why does the French say la tête instead of notre tête?

In French, you rarely use possessive adjectives (mon, ton, notre, etc.) with body parts. Because the subject of the sentence (on) already tells us whose head is hurting, adding a possessive would feel redundant to a French speaker. You simply use the definite article (le, la, les) instead.

Why does the sentence use on if the English translation uses "our"?