They didn't "force" people to use French.
After William the Conqueror became King the language used in official things such as court proceedings was French. The rest of the English spoke English.
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I could go on but since about 60% of our language is a type of french it would take too long.
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half of the words you normally use today are french words
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Not really half. English has over a million words (compared to a few ten-thousand words such as French and German) - the majority of them taken from other languages, not just French.
The original Celts had their own language (probably Gaelic, as Scotland and Wales - where they were forced by the Romans - traditionally speak Gaelic).
Then the Romans swaggered over, and had everything official done in Latin.
Then the Saxons came over, and the Vikings after them. Words such as "cunt" are Germanic words brought over by the Saxons and the Vikings. Many English town and city names are derived from the original Roman, Saxon or Viking names.
The Normans came next, and they brought over French.
Over about 2000-and-a-bit years, English has evolved and grown. Modern day English has words from Latin, the Romantic Languages (such as French) and many from the Germanic languages (like German).