Breakdown of À force de prononcer cette consonne, on a mal à la tête.
on
one / we (informal)
ce
this (before a noun)
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
avoir mal
to be in pain, to hurt
la tête
the head
à force de
by dint of / through repeatedly
prononcer
to pronounce
la consonne
the consonant
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?
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"?
On is incredibly versatile. While you likely know it as the informal replacement for nous (we), here it acts as the impersonal "one" or "people in general". The sentence states a general truth: anyone who pronounces this consonant a lot will get a headache. English often translates this general concept as "we" or "you" to sound more natural, but French prefers on.
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