chanter

The everyday verb for 'to sing,' also extended into common idioms — faire chanter quelqu'un means to blackmail someone (literally, to 'make them sing'), and si ça vous chante means 'if you feel like it.'

• Elle chante dans une chorale le dimanche. — She sings in a choir on Sundays.
• Il a été accusé d'avoir fait chanter son associé. — He was accused of blackmailing his business partner.
• On y va si ça te chante. — We'll go if you feel like it.

Faire chanter someone doesn't mean 'to make them sing' literally — it's the standard idiom for blackmail, dating back to 17th-century slang where chanter meant 'to confess.'

• expression Faire chanter — The standard French idiom for 'to blackmail,' dating to 17th-century argot where chanter meant 'to confess' — it broadened to mean extorting money via the threat of revealing secrets.
• song Je chante — Charles Trenet's 1937 song, later used in the 1938 film of the same name — a landmark of French chanson, still widely known and covered (e.g. by Mika in 2015).