Top Tips

TRAVEL

The French for ‘a week’ is une semaine but you can also use huit jours (‘eight days’). 

The French for ‘two weeks’ is deux semaines but you can also say quinze jours (‘15 days’).

The French for ‘a fortnight’ is une quinzaine.

With dates, à partir de means ‘from’ and jusqu’à means ‘until’. For example:  Je vais rester en France (à partir) du deux jusqu’au dix août.  - I’m going to stay in France from the 2nd to the 10th of August.

GETTING AROUND

Take care when talking about different ways of travelling. In English we usually say ‘by’ a means of transport (‘by bus’, ‘by car’ – but we say ‘on foot’). In French, this can vary:

en autobus (by bus) 

en voiture (by car)

en avion (by plane)

à pied (on foot)

à vélo (by bike)

par le train (by train)

HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES 

It can be impressive if you can use a past and a future tense in the same sentence. For example:

En mai je suis partie en France mais la semaine prochaine j’irai en Italie. - In May I went to France but next week I’ll go to Italy.

ACCOMMODATION

Always remember to give as many opinions as you can. So even when you are stating a fact you can always add an extra personal opinion:

J’ai logé dans une villa. C’était très jolie. - I stayed in a villa. It was very pretty. 

THE WEATHER

Most people tend to concentrate on learning nouns and verbs. Make sure you also revise a stock of useful adjectives and adverbs which can be used in most contexts.

Useful adjectives include joli, excellent, amusant and content.

Useful adverbs are soudain, lentement, vite and heureusement. 

LIFE IN OTHER COUNTRIES

Using the pluperfect is really impressive in written work at GCSE. You could bring it in naturally by using a normal perfect tense and then saying what had happened previously. 

J’ai regardé un film mais je l’avais déjà vu. - I watched a film but I had already seen it.

Je suis arrivé à la gare mais le train était déjà parti. - I arrived at the station but the train had

already gone. 

SOCIAL ISSUES

It is vital to give plenty of opinions when talking or writing about an issue. Try, however, to vary the way you express your opinions. Je pense que (I think that) and je crois que (I believe that) are useful but also use à mon avis (in my opinion), il me semble que (it seems to me), en ce qui

me concerne (as far as I’m concerned).