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Showing posts from August, 2020

"Mais je t'aime" de Camille Lellouche et Grand Corps Malade

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La chanson "Mais je t'aime", actuellement au top dans les charts fran çais, est devenue numéro 1 en téléchargement sur itunes et le clip vidéo a été visionné des millions de fois sur Youtube. La chanson est le résultat de la collaboration e ntre Camille Lellouche et Grand Corps Malade. Qui est Grand Corps Malade? Grand Corps Malade est le nom de scène de Fabien Marsaud et signifie "Tall Sick Body". Il est originaire de la Seine-Saint-Denis en France et il adore le sport surtout le basket. Il a choisi le nom  Grand Corps Malade à la suite d'un accident en 1997. Cette année-là, il travaillait dans une colonie de vacances et il a eu un accident en plongeant dans une piscine dont le niveau d'eau était trop bas. Il a heurté sa tête et a passé trois mois dans le coma.  Bien qu'on lui ait annoncé qu'il resterait probablement paralysé toute sa vie, il retrouve l'usage de ses jambes en 1999 après une année de rééducation. C'est en référence à ce h...

La négation/ The negative form

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Forming negatives is an important part of speaking and writing French.  You will get extra marks in the knowledge of grammar criteria in speaking and writing for using the negative form accurately.  If you don't know how to say something, you could try and say the opposite by using a negative phrase.  The negative form is made of two parts in French :  - NE that will come after the pronoun or subject and before the conjugated verb. If the verb starts with a vowel NE become N'. - The second part comes after the conjugated verb.  Example : NE ...PAS = NOT Je ne fais pas de sport = I don't do sport. Je n 'ai pas fait de sport hier = I haven't done any sport yesterday. Other negative structures : • ne…jamais = never  Je ne fais jamais de sport = I never do any sport • ne…plus = no longer/ not anymore Je ne fais plus de sport = I don't do sport anymore • ne…pas assez = not enough Il n'y a pas assez de personnes = There are not enough people • ni…ni... = neith...

How to get top marks in the role-play task at GCSE French (AQA)

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 The GCSE French speaking exam consists of 3 tasks : a role-play, a photo-card and a conversation . Before the exam, you have 12 minutes to prepare your answers to the role and the photocard. In this post, let's have a look at how to be successful in the GCSE role-play task at Foundation and Higher tiers.  What is included in the task? - The task will include an introduction with a situation / context. It will also indicate if you need to address the other person as "tu" (informal, when talking to a friend) or "vous" ( formal, when talking to someone you don't know at a ticket office, in a restaurant, at the tourist office etc). Make sure you use the correct pronouns ( tu/ ton/ ta/ tes) (vous/ votre / vos) especially in the questions you have to ask. - For Foundation and Higher tiers, the task includes 5 bullets points, one unprepared question marked as ! and one question ask marked as ? - For Foundation and Higher tiers, remember to keep your answers short ...

How to get full marks on the translation task French to English at GCSE

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In the reading paper, you have to translate a short passage from French to English. In the AQA paper, the question is out of 9 marks and in the Edexcel paper, the question is out of 7 marks.   In this post, you are going to find about the skills assessed in this task and get the maximum mark for this task. 1. Know your vocabulary including false friends It is really important that you dedicate time every week to learning new vocabulary and revise topics regularly.  You can expect to see "false friends" in the translation task. These are words that look like an English word but have a different meaning.  Example :  "attendre" means "to wait" and not " to attend", "un car" means " a coach" not "a car" 2. Understand the difference between JE, ON, NOUS, IL , ELLE , ILS Look the full passage first and identify who speaks (JE, ON, NOUS) and read carefully if there is a change of pronoun, where the passage suddenly talks ab...

10 Top tips for success at A Level French

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  1. Listen to French every day, even if just for 10 minutes . In the long run this will make a big difference to your listening skills and improve your confidence. 2. Read a French news article each week . Look for French websites covering topics that interest you (sports, fashion, science, music). You will learn new vocabulary and reinforce grammar skills and key structures. 3. Attend the weekly conversation class with the French assistant if there is one in your school or speak French with the other students in your course outside lessons. It might be weird at first but it will become a habit in no time! 4. Organise your folder clearly into the different topic areas studied and have sub- sections for vocabulary and grammar. This will save you plenty of time when you do revision. 5. Be pro-active in catching up on work from any lesson which you miss. 6. Take responsibility for learning vocabulary each week (even if it is not a home learning task). 7. If you ident...

Les verbes impersonnels

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Les verbes impersonnels/ Impersonal verbs are verbs which are only used in the il form, the third person singular. Weather phrases Il pleut = It is raining Il fait chaud = It's hot Il fait froid = It's cold Il neige = It is snowing Telling the time Il est midi = It is midday Il est minuit = It is midnight Il est deux heures et demie = It is half past two Other phrases with il Il y a = there is / there are Il faut = you must Il vaut mieux = It is better to Il est évident que = It is obvious that Il reste = ... is left, remaining Il semble que = It seems that Il est + (adjective) clair / évident / important/ essentiel de / que = It is clear/ obvious/ important / essential to / that They can be used in other tenses. Il y a = There is/ are Il y avait = There was / were Il y aura = There will be Il y aurait = There would be Image by  Free-Photos  from  Pixabay  

Les groupes de verbes en français

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In French, verbs are divided into 3 groups according to the ending of their infinitive. The infinitive is the form of the verb in the dictionary, without any mark of a tense. In English, the equivalent to an infinitive is when "to" is used in front of the verb. Example : to play, to go, to listen, to write Knowing which group a verb belongs to will be essential to form tenses accurately. The verbs être and avoir don't belong to a group.       1. Le 1er groupe/ the 1st group Verbs in this group end in - er (sauf aller ) and follow the pattern of the verb parler. Those verbs are regular which means that they will follow a regular pattern. Some verbs in this group have some variations: - Verbs ending in -ayer (p.ex. payer).Those verbs can follow 2 patterns : il paye and il paie - Verbs ending in -ger (p.ex. manger) Those verbs keep the vowel e after the letter g in front of the vowels a and o : il mangeait, nous mangeons. - Verbs endi...

Comment la technologie facilite la vie quotidienne?

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Les nouvelles technologies font désormais partie intégrante de notre vie. Désormais, presque tout le monde peut accéder à l’outil internet, aux appareils mobiles et aux ordinateurs… Et il faut le reconnaître, ces innovations impactent de plus en plus nos habitudes quotidiennes. La technologie au quotidien Aujourd’hui, il est possible d’entrer en contact avec le monde entier en quelques secondes. Grâce aux réseaux sociaux, vous pouvez facilement échanger avec vos amis, votre famille en temps réel tout en étant dans des endroits géographiques différents. La technologie a transformé nos relations et notre façon de vivre et s’immisce dans notre vie quotidienne et nous en sommes devenus dépendants. Plus besoin de faire de brocantes pour vendre les vêtements qu’on ne veut plus, il suffit de déposer une annonce sur des sites de reventes. La technologie nous facilite la vie et il est devenu difficile de nous en passer. Avec un smartphone, il est en effet possible de trouver une réponse à tout ...