French GCSE

French GCSE glossary

237 key terms for French GCSE, A to Z, each linked to the topic pages that use it.

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A

Abstract nouns: Nouns ending in '-té' express qualities or states, and their meaning can be deduced by identifying the root adjective.AQA
Abstract versus concrete nouns: An abstract noun formed from an adjective denotes a quality or state, whereas an agent noun derived from a verb refers to the person or thing performing the…AQA
Accompaniment: 'Avec' (with) is applied to indicate accompaniment or instrument.AQA
Action sequencing: The prefix can also imply a return to a previous state, not just repeating an action, as seen in 'revenir' (to come back).AQA
Adapted literary texts: Abridged or adapted literary extracts in which students understand character motivations, viewpoints or plot points.AQA
Adding nuance to opinions: Using these invariable words to add nuance to opinions, describe quantities accurately and express excess or insufficiency.AQA
Adjectival agreement: In the verb or gerund use the present participle is invariable, so do not add adjective agreement to en + present participle.AQA
Adjective agreement: The adjective grand takes an 's' in the plural phrase les grands ponts, matching the plural noun, although it sounds identical to the singular.AQA
Adjective agreement and position: French adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe, and most follow the noun, but some common ones precede it.AQA
Adjective endings: The French phonetic termination [if] is spelled as -if, and the feminine form of these French adjectives changes to -ive.AQA
Adjectives: These must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe, including within comparative and superlative structures.AQA
Advantages and disadvantages of marriage: Expressing and justifying opinions on marriage, for example that it is important for security or that it costs too much.AQA
Advantages of mobile communication: The benefits of mobile devices, such as staying in touch with friends.AQA
Adverb formation: French adverbs ending with ment usually translate to English words ending with 'ly'.AQA
Adverbial modification: Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.AQA
Adverbs: Words that can be formed by adding the termination [mα˜] to many of the adjectives in the lists.AQA
Advice and recommendations: The imperative mood in French is used to give commands, instructions, or advice, and exists in three forms: 'tu', 'nous' and 'vous'.AQA
Agreement of past participles: The past participle in a passive construction must agree in gender and number with the subject.AQA
Articles and determiners: The small words preceding nouns carry the essential grammatical information about number, so listening for them is crucial for accurate comprehension.AQA
Asking and answering questions: Constructing and recognising interrogative forms using intonation, 'est-ce que', or inversion, and forming negative sentences with 'ne' and 'pas' around the…AQA
Asking for clarification: Using a French phrase such as "Qu'est-ce que c'est ?" to ask for vocabulary instead of asking the examiner in English.AQA
Asking questions: The interrogative pronouns 'qui' (who) and 'que' (what) are used to ask questions.AQA
Asking questions with interrogatives: Interrogative adjectives quel, quelle, quels and quelles mean which or what.AQA
Attending concerts and listening habits: Discussing how you consume music, whether écouter en ligne, télécharger des chansons or aller à un concert, using a variety of tenses.AQA
Audience and purpose: Identifying whether a text is aimed at a friend, the general public or a professional helps you better understand its tone.AQA
Authentic sources: Real materials in French in which students recognise important themes and overarching ideas.AQA
Authentic sources and complex language: Real materials that may contain idioms or complex structures, which students navigate by focusing on the overall message rather than translating word-for-word.AQA
Auxiliary verbs: The verb 'avoir' or 'être', used in the imperfect tense before the past participle of the main verb to form the pluperfect.AQA
Avoiding repetition: Pronouns replace nouns to avoid repetition, and 'y' replaces places or things introduced by 'à' while 'en' replaces quantities or nouns introduced by 'de'.AQA

B

Benefits of digital communication: The positive aspects, such as staying in touch.AQA

C

Causes and alternatives: Causal and alternative relationships are recognised using 'à cause de' and 'au lieu de'.AQA
Cognates and near-cognates: The two main categories of 'good friends' of which anglophone learners of French can make good use.AQA
Combining gestures and speech: Accompanying physical gesture with simple, relevant French phrases so that the interaction remains natural and target-language focused.AQA
Comparatives: These use 'plus...AQA
Comparing past and present technology habits: Using different tenses to compare past and present habits, for example saying that before, you used to read books, but now you spend your time on your…AQA
Comparisons: The comparative of adverbs is formed using 'plus' (more), 'moins' (less), or 'aussi' (as) followed by the adverb and 'que' (than/as).AQA
Comparisons and superlatives: Comparatives use plus, moins or aussi with an adjective and que, while superlatives add the definite article, and bon becomes meilleur and le meilleur.AQA
Complex language structures: More sophisticated vocabulary and structures that learners must navigate to comprehend the author's intent in written passages.AQA
Complex sentences: Using en with the present participle adds fluency and complexity to sentences, which is excellent for describing two simultaneous actions.AQA
Conjunctions: Set phrases such as bien que, meaning although, which is followed by the subjunctive.AQA
Conservation and recycling: Actions taken to protect the environment, using verbs like 'protéger', 'recycler' and 'réduire', such as sorting rubbish or saving water.AQA
Consonant substitutions: French words ending in que match English words ending in 'c', 'ck', 'ch', 'k', or 'cal', and French words ending in f match English words ending in 've'.AQA
Contemporary and cultural themes: Relevant themes addressed in authentic material, from which students extract key information.AQA
Contextual deduction: Using the visual and verbal context to check whether the assumed meaning of a word makes sense.AQA
Coordinating conjunctions: Conjunctions that connect items of equal rank, such as 'car', 'donc', 'ensuite', 'et', 'mais', 'ou', 'ou bien' and 'puis'.AQA
Current actions: The present tense in French is used to describe actions happening now.AQA

D

Daily routines: The present tense in French is used to describe regular habits.AQA
Dangers and disadvantages of screen time: The negative side of mobile devices, such as the risks of cyberbullying.AQA
Dangers and risks of social media: The negative impacts, such as cyberbullying or screen addiction.AQA
Deducing meaning from context: Working out what unfamiliar words mean by reading the whole sentence or paragraph around them rather than stopping at the first unknown word.AQA
Definite and indefinite articles: Masculine singular nouns often use 'le' or 'un', while feminine singular nouns use 'la' or 'une'.AQA
Definite articles: The words le and les, where le is pronounced with a schwa sound and les with an 'ay' sound, and this is the only auditory difference between the singular and…AQA
Demonstrative and possessive determiners: Demonstrative adjectives ce, cet, cette and ces mean this, that, these or those, and possessive adjectives such as mon, ton and son show ownership.AQA
Demonstrative language: Appropriate spoken language that may accompany pointing and demonstration, such as "Comme ça…".AQA
depuis: A preposition meaning 'since' or 'for', used with the present tense to describe an action that began in the past and is still continuing.AQA
Descriptions in the past: It is essential for setting the scene in past narratives, providing background details like weather or emotions.AQA
Diet and nutrition: Vocabulary for what a person eats, including 'manger équilibré' (to eat a balanced diet) and 'les matières grasses' and 'les fruits et légumes'.AQA
Diminutive suffixes: The French suffix '-ette' is a diminutive ending added to nouns to indicate a smaller version of the original object.AQA
Diphthongs: English vowel sounds that may appear in words such as pipe or mine where French uses the sound [i].AQA
Drawing inferences: Using contextual clues, tone and vocabulary choices to deduce hidden meanings and infer the writer's true intentions.AQA
Duration of actions: The time phrase following depuis indicates the duration or starting point of the past action.AQA

E

Emphasising opinions: Disjunctive or emphatic pronouns are used after prepositions or for emphasis, and at the beginning of sentences they indicate strong personal opinions.AQA
Environmental problems: Local and global issues such as pollution, climate change and deforestation that students must discuss.AQA
Everyday contexts: Familiar topics such as school, holidays or family in which common vocabulary is used.AQA
Everyday uses of smartphones and tablets: Vocabulary about smartphones and their everyday uses, including the apps you use and how often you use your phone.AQA
Exact cognates: Words which have the same form and essentially the same meaning in French and in English, such as innocent, justice, muscle and rectangle.AQA
Expressing and justifying opinions: Using adjectives like divertissant and synonyms such as ça m'énerve or c'est passionnant to give and support views.AQA
Expressing degree and intensity: Using words such as 'très' and 'assez' to modify the intensity of adjectives and adverbs.AQA
Expressing desires and preferences: The conditional forms of 'vouloir' and 'aimer' are highly useful for expressing desires and preferences, with 'j'aimerais' often used to express a wish.AQA
Expressing emotions and doubt: One of the uses of the present subjunctive mood, which is used to express doubt, necessity, emotion, or uncertainty.AQA
Expressing frequency and manner: Common adverbial phrases such as de temps en temps and tout à coup add information about frequency, manner or sudden change.AQA
Expressing necessity: Using a trigger phrase such as il faut que, meaning it is necessary that, which is followed by the present subjunctive.AQA
Expressing obligation: Using impersonal verbs, which only use 'il', such as 'il faut' followed by an infinitive, to identify obligations or necessities.AQA
Expressing opinions on food: Identifying positive and negative opinions about food and dining experiences, including adjectives describing food such as épicé or froid.AQA
Expressing quantities: Partitive articles express 'some' or 'any' for uncountable quantities.AQA
Extended reading comprehension: Synthesising information from longer passages to identify the overall message and key points, breaking texts down into paragraphs where needed.AQA
Extended written texts: Longer pieces of writing from which students must extract key information and specific details.AQA

F

faire du bénévolat: A charitable action meaning volunteering, where un bénévole is a volunteer who provides help rather than a beneficiary of charity.AQA
False friends (faux amis): Words that look similar in French and English but have different meanings, so this strategy must be used with care.AQA
Family and relationship vocabulary: Vocabulary related to marriage and civil partnerships, such as les noces, le mari, la femme and le PACS.AQA
Family members and descriptions: Describing family members, friends and yourself, including physical appearance and personality traits, with correct adjectival agreement.AQA
Film and television genres: Vocabulary for types of films and TV programmes, such as les films d'action and les documentaires.AQA
Fixed grammatical patterns: Singular-only impersonal expressions are learned as fixed forms, and a plural ending should not be added to them.AQA
Food and drink vocabulary: Words for naming various food items such as la viande and les légumes, meals such as le petit-déjeuner and le dîner, and drinks.AQA
Formal and informal communication: Applying the correct mode of address, using 'tu' for informal singular and 'vous' for formal or plural.AQA
Formal and informal registers: A formal letter will use the pronoun vous and standard greetings, whereas a blog post might feature colloquialisms and the pronoun tu.AQA
French cultural relationship norms: Understanding cultural references such as the PACS (Pacte Civil de Solidarité) in France.AQA
Frequency of technology use: Detailing usage habits with adverbs such as 'souvent' or 'rarement'.AQA
Friendship and personality traits: Describing friends and yourself through personality traits, using a variety of adjectives for personality and appearance to make descriptions more detailed…AQA
Future plans and intentions: Both the near future and the simple future are essential for discussing future plans, predictions and intentions in spoken and written French.AQA
Future relationship plans: Discussing plans such as getting married (se marier), living together (cohabiter), or entering a civil partnership (se pacser).AQA

G

Gender and number agreement: French articles agree in gender and number with the noun they precede.AQA
Gender of nouns: The feminine equivalent of a profession noun ending in '-ier' changes the ending to '-ière', such as 'une fermière'.AQA
General comprehension: Establishing the broad theme or overall context of a French text by skimming it first.AQA
General facts: The present tense in French is used to describe general truths.AQA
Giving instructions: The imperative mood in French is used to give commands, instructions, or advice, and exists in three forms: 'tu', 'nous' and 'vous'.AQA
Global warming: 'Le réchauffement de la terre', a key environmental problem to identify from French audio or text.AQA
Grammar and syntax: The simple future is formed from the infinitive, with the final e removed from -re verbs, plus the endings -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez or -ont.AQA
Grammatical gender patterns: Nouns ending in '-eur' denoting abstract qualities are typically feminine, while agent nouns are usually masculine but can have feminine equivalents.AQA
Grammatical gender rules: Nouns ending in '-ette' are almost always feminine, regardless of the gender of the root noun.AQA
Grammatical markers: Markers in the spoken language which are often quite different from those in the written one, the most obvious being the plural forms.AQA

H

Habitual actions: Actions in the past that were continuous or habitual, translated as 'was doing' or 'used to do'.AQA
High-frequency vocabulary: Common, everyday words that learners understand and that appear across a range of contexts.AQA
Hypothetical situations: The conditional mood is used to express what 'would' happen under certain conditions, and it is frequently used with 'si' (if) clauses to describe…AQA

I

Impersonal expressions: Expressions used only in third-person singular forms, such as il faut, il y a and il pleut, which have no plural form at all.AQA
Important themes and ideas: The overarching ideas in a text, which students must distinguish from supporting details.AQA
Invariability of adverbs: Adverbs, unlike adjectives, are invariable and do not agree in gender or number.AQA
Irregular adverbs: The adverb 'bien' (well) has irregular comparative and superlative forms: 'mieux' (better) and 'le mieux' (the best).AQA
Irregular forms: 'Meilleur' replaces 'plus bon' and 'pire' replaces 'plus mauvais', with superlatives 'le/la/les meilleur(e)(s)' and 'le/la/les pire(s)'.AQA
Irregular nouns: Nouns ending in '-s', '-x' or '-z' do not change in the plural, nouns ending in '-eau' or '-eu' take an '-x', and nouns ending in '-al' often change to '-aux'.AQA
Irregular verb stems: Several common verbs have irregular future stems, such as 'aller' (ir-), 'avoir' (aur-), 'être' (ser-) and 'faire' (fer-).AQA
Irregular verbs: High-frequency verbs such as faire, être, avoir, and aller, whose present subjunctive forms like fasse, soit, ait, and aille must be recognised.AQA

L

le chômage: A social issue related to poverty that must be correctly identified in context and not confused with le champ.AQA
le conditionnel: A tense used when speakers suggest solutions to poverty, for example il faudrait, meaning it would be necessary.AQA
les sans-abri: This term refers to homeless people, and the acronym SDF stands for sans domicile fixe.AQA
Listening comprehension: Focus attention on the small words preceding nouns, as they carry the essential grammatical information about number.AQA
Listening comprehension strategies: Recognising specific consonant sounds, such as the 'd' in 'vendent' or the 'ss' in 'finissent', to distinguish between singular and plural subjects when the…AQA
Locations and destinations: Prepositions link words and show relationships such as location, time, or possession, and 'à' (at/to/in) is used for destination, as in 'aller au parc'.AQA

M

Marriage and future partnerships: Expressing and justifying opinions about marriage and future partnerships, giving reasons for your views using conjunctions like 'parce que' or 'puisque'.AQA
Meals and dietary habits: Language for expressing preferences and dietary habits, such as being vegetarian (être végétarien).AQA
Medical role-play: Practising medical scenarios using "Ça fait mal ici" while pointing to different body parts.AQA
Methods and means: Using 'en' with the present participle can express 'while' or 'by' doing something, as in en écoutant.AQA
Modifying actions and descriptions: Regular adverbs such as 'souvent' and 'rapidement' are invariable, and comparative and superlative adverbial structures use plus/moins/aussi + adverb + que,…AQA
Modifying verbs: Using 'beaucoup', 'peu' and 'trop' to indicate the extent of an action.AQA
Music genres and preferences: Vocabulary for different types of music, such as la musique pop, le rap or le rock, and for discussing which ones you prefer.AQA

N

Near-cognates: Words in French and English that are similar, where the French sound [i] involves the French letter i while the English word may use a diphthong.AQA
Negative constructions: In negative sentences, indefinite and partitive articles change to 'de' or 'd''.AQA
Noun categories: Indefinite articles are used for countable nouns, while partitive articles are used for uncountable nouns.AQA
Noun formation: Many French verbs can be transformed into related nouns by dropping the infinitive ending and adding '-ion' or '-ation'.AQA
Noun gender: Every French noun is masculine or feminine, and this gender is shown by articles such as 'le' or 'un' for masculine and 'la' or 'une' for feminine.AQA
Noun modification: Adding '-ette' to a noun creates a smaller version of the original object, such as 'maison' becoming 'maisonnette'.AQA
Nouns: These words are feminine nouns and are typically followed by 'de' before the noun they quantify, such as 'une centaine de personnes'.AQA
Numbers and quantities: Adding '-aine' to a number forms a feminine noun expressing an approximate quantity or a collective group, such as 'une quinzaine' or 'une centaine'.AQA

O

Opinions and justifications: Personal views that must be distinguished from factual details, helped by opinion markers such as je pense que and à mon avis.AQA
Opinions on artists and bands: Expressing and justifying opinions on un chanteur or une chanteuse and un groupe, explaining why you like or dislike them.AQA
Organising relevant details: Presenting relevant details accurately and logically in response to questions.AQA

P

Past actions: Completed actions in the past are described using the perfect tense, which is formed using two parts.AQA
Past continuous events: Ongoing actions in the past, which the imperfect tense describes and which are translated as 'was doing'.AQA
Past descriptions: The imperfect tense describes ongoing past actions, habits, or background information such as weather, age, and feelings.AQA
Past habits and routines: The imperfect tense is used to describe past states, habits, and ongoing actions without a defined end, translating to 'used to do'.AQA
Past participle agreement: Rules applied exactly as in the perfect tense, adding 'e' for feminine and 's' for plural when using 'être' or with a preceding direct object.AQA
Past participles: Regular forms end in -é for -er verbs, -i for -ir verbs and -u for -re verbs, but many common verbs have irregular forms.AQA
Past time frames: The imperfect tense with depuis describes an action that had been going on for a certain amount of time in the past when another past action interrupted it or…AQA
Personal background: The imperfect of 'avoir' states age in the past, as in 'j'avais cinq ans'.AQA
Personal identification: All subjects, including 'on', are covered as personal subject pronouns that replace nouns as the subject of a verb.AQA
Phonetics and pronunciation: The auditory differences in spoken French, such as hearing the 'd' in 'vendent' or the 'ss' in 'finissent', which are essential for correctly identifying…AQA
Photo descriptions: Spatial prepositions such as 'au premier plan', 'à côté de' and 'derrière' are used to structure a description of a photo.AQA
Physical exercise and fitness: Vocabulary for physical activity, using 'faire de l'exercice' or 'faire du sport' rather than 'exercer'.AQA
Places of work: Recognising the pattern helps you link workplaces or concepts to the people associated with them, so look at the root word to guess the profession.AQA
Playing musical instruments: Using jouer de with instruments, for example jouer de la guitare or jouer du piano, rather than jouer à.AQA
Plural formation: To form the plural, you typically add an '-s' to the singular noun, which is usually silent.AQA
Plurality in spoken French: Nouns and adjectives frequently sound exactly the same in their plural forms as in their singular forms, so plurality is shown by a change in the…AQA
Polite requests: The conditional forms of 'vouloir' and 'aimer' are highly useful for expressing polite requests, such as 'je voudrais' when ordering food or buying tickets.AQA
Polite requests and wishes: The conditional mood is often used for polite requests and wishes, for example 'je voudrais' and 'j'aimerais'.AQA
Possession and origins: 'De' (of/from) is used for possession, such as 'le livre du garçon', and contracts to 'du' (de + le) and 'des' (de + les).AQA
Prefixes indicating repetition: The French prefix 're-' (sometimes 'ré-' or 'r-') is added to the beginning of verbs to indicate the repetition of an action, much like the English prefix…AQA
Prepositions: The present participle is frequently used after en to mean "while", "by", or "upon" doing something.AQA
Prepositions of time: The preposition depuis, meaning since or for, is used with the imperfect tense to describe an action ongoing in the past.AQA
Present participles: French words ending in ant that match English words ending in 'ing', where the infinitive of the verb is a listed word.AQA
Present tense: The tense French requires with 'depuis' for an ongoing action, contrasting with English, which uses the present perfect tense.AQA
Professions and occupations: Nouns formed with the suffix '-ier', or '-ière' for the feminine, indicate a person's profession or occupation, often derived from the place of work or the…AQA
Pronoun replacement: Direct object pronouns replace nouns directly receiving an action, while indirect object pronouns replace nouns preceded by 'à'.AQA
Pronunciation differences: The written form of an exact cognate is identical, but the pronunciation in French will follow French phonetic rules.AQA

Q

Quantifying nouns: Combining 'beaucoup', 'peu' and 'trop' with 'de' to describe amounts of nouns accurately.AQA
Question formation: Interrogative adverbs such as 'comment' and 'quand' form questions and are used to extract or request information.AQA

R

Reading and listening: In reading and listening, the surrounding subject and meaning are used to interpret an impersonal expression accurately.AQA
Reading comprehension: Recognising this common pattern allows you to deduce the meaning of unfamiliar adjectives if you already know the root verb, expanding your receptive…AQA
Reading comprehension strategies: Recognising the familiar root word and understanding that the prefix simply negates its meaning helps students deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words in…AQA
Reading vs listening strategies: Patterns such as those outlined are generally more easily applied in reading than in listening, as reading offers more opportunities to slow down, look at…AQA
Reasons for helping others: Students must learn to discuss reasons for volunteering, including aider les autres (to help others), and express opinions on the importance of charity work.AQA
Receptive comprehension: At Foundation tier learners recognise and understand the simple future in reading and listening, and distinguish it from the near future tense.AQA
Receptive grammar recognition: Demonstrative pronouns like 'celui' and possessive pronouns like 'le mien' are for receptive understanding and must agree in gender and number with the noun…AQA
Recognising implicit meaning: Understanding what the text suggests without stating it directly, including attitudes or emotions not explicitly stated by the writer.AQA
Reflexive actions: Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and object are the same, and the reflexive pronoun must match the subject.AQA
Regular '-ir' and '-re' verbs: Verb groups where the singular form ends in a silent consonant, as in 'il vend' with a silent 'd' and 'il finit' with a silent 't', while the plural…AQA
Relationship dynamics and conflict: Getting along with others, arguing and spending time together, using reflexive verbs such as 's'entendre bien' and 'se disputer' correctly.AQA
Relative clauses: Relative pronouns link clauses, with 'que' replacing a direct object and 'dont' replacing a noun introduced by 'de'.AQA
Restaurant transactions: Restaurant vocabulary such as la carte (the menu) and l'addition (the bill), plus ordering phrases such as Je voudrais...AQA
Role-play and transactional language: 'Je voudrais' is often used when ordering food or buying tickets, and can be followed by a noun or an infinitive in role-play tasks.AQA

S

Scanning for information: Moving the eyes quickly over the text to find specific keywords related to the question, rather than reading every word slowly.AQA
Sentence cohesion: Relative pronouns connect clauses, with 'qui' acting as the subject of the relative clause and 'que' as the direct object.AQA
Sentence structure: Object pronouns generally precede the conjugated verb in French, and their position and order before the verb are receptive.AQA
Sentence structure and word order: Direct object pronouns and indirect object pronouns precede the verb, and with multiple pronouns the order is me/te/nous/vous, then le/la/les, then lui/leur,…AQA
Sequencing events: Understanding this structure is crucial for accurately sequencing past events in reading and listening comprehension.AQA
Sequencing past events: Using the pluperfect to clarify the order of events in past narratives by showing what had happened before a main event.AQA
Short narratives: Texts whose characters, settings and events students show they understand, paying attention to verb endings to understand when events occurred.AQA
Silent final consonants: The final consonants 'd', 't' and 's' are not pronounced, so grand and pont sound exactly the same in both singular and plural forms.AQA
Silent letters: The plural 's' or 'x' added in writing is usually silent, so the noun or adjective itself does not typically show plurality.AQA
Simultaneous actions: Two actions performed by the same subject at the same time, which the present participle after en is excellent for describing.AQA
Singular versus plural distinction: The contrast in which the '-ent' ending itself remains silent but causes the preceding consonant to be pronounced, so the 'd' in 'ils vendent' and the 'ss' in…AQA
Singular vs plural pronunciation: In writing the plural is marked by adding 's' to both the adjective and the noun, but in speech the words are pronounced identically and only the article…AQA
Social issues and vulnerable groups: These include specific groups that charities help, such as the homeless (les sans-abris) or the elderly (les personnes âgées).AQA
Spatial descriptions: Simple prepositions such as 'sur', 'sous', 'devant', 'derrière' and 'entre' identify spatial relationships, and compound prepositions ending in 'de' also…AQA
Specific detail extraction: Scanning a passage for precise factual elements such as times, quantities or locations.AQA
Spoken versus written French: A contrast in which grammatical markers in the spoken language are often quite different from those in the written one, most obviously in the plural forms.AQA
Stylistic conventions: Each text type has distinct conventions, and recognising these stylistic differences aids in understanding the context and the author intent.AQA
Subordinating conjunctions: Conjunctions that introduce dependent clauses, such as 'comme', 'lorsque', 'parce que', 'puisque', 'quand', 'que' and 'si'.AQA
Suffix patterns: The predictable pattern in which the French phonetic termination [œr] is consistently spelled as eur and frequently corresponds to either -or or -er in English.AQA
Suffixes: Endings such as the termination [mα˜], which is highly similar to adding '-ly' to an adjective in English.AQA
Suffixes and word endings: Common spelling patterns between French and English, such as French words ending in 'e' or 'é' often corresponding to English words ending in 'y'.AQA
Suffixes indicating agents and qualities: Applied to a verb, the '-eur' ending creates a noun representing the person or thing performing the action; applied to an adjective, it forms an abstract noun…AQA
Superlatives: These express the highest or lowest degree using the definite article 'le/la/les plus' or 'le/la/les moins'.AQA

T

Tense contrast: The imperfect is often used alongside the perfect tense, which describes specific, completed actions.AQA
Tense identification: Paying attention to the tense of the verb 'être' to correctly identify when the action took place: future, imperfect or perfect.AQA
Text types and formats: Written French comes in a wide variety of formats, ranging from informal emails and text messages to formal articles, literary extracts and advertisements.AQA
The circumflex accent: A French accent that often indicates a missing 's' in the English equivalent.AQA
Time and location markers: Adverbs of time and place, including aujourd'hui, demain, ici and là-bas, establish when and where an event occurs.AQA
Time and sequencing: 'Avant' means before in time and 'après' means after in time, and they are used to sequence events in time.AQA
Time durations: 'Depuis' is used for an ongoing action starting in the past, while 'pendant' is used for a completed duration.AQA
Time expressions: 'Une quinzaine' can mean about fifteen or a fortnight, and 'une quinzaine de jours' is a common way to say a fortnight or two weeks.AQA
Time frames and chronology: The simple future describes actions that will happen in the future, and context clues such as time markers like demain or l'année prochaine confirm the tense.AQA
Time frames and tenses: Recognising the relationship between past, present and future events by paying attention to verb endings and time indicators.AQA
Time markers: Clues such as 'souvent' (often) or 'tous les jours' (every day) in past contexts that show the imperfect tense is being used.AQA
Timeframes and chronology: Time phrases like 'l'année prochaine' or 'à l'avenir' signal that a future tense is required.AQA
Timeframes and tenses: Using time phrases and mixed tenses to narrate past viewings and future plans.AQA
Types of charitable organisations: These are called les associations caritatives, and well-known French examples often mentioned in exams include Les Restos du Cœur and Médecins Sans Frontières.AQA

U

Unhealthy habits including smoking and alcohol: Terms such as 'le tabagisme' (smoking), 'l'ivresse' (drunkenness), 'fumer' and 'boire de l'alcool', with negative structures like 'je ne fume plus' changing…AQA
Uses of social media platforms: Describing how platforms are used to share photos, chat with friends or follow influencers.AQA

V

Verb conjugation: The near future is formed with the present tense of 'aller' plus an infinitive, while the simple future adds the endings -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont to the…AQA
Verb conjugations: Forms such as 'il donne' and 'ils donnent', where the '-ent' ending is completely silent, and 'il chantait' and 'ils chantaient', which share the exact same…AQA
Verb formation and stems: Take the 'nous' form of the present tense, drop the '-ons', and add the imperfect endings, with 'ét-' as the only irregular stem for 'être'.AQA
Verb formations: The present participle is normally formed from the nous present-tense stem by replacing -ons with -ant, for example jouons to jouant.AQA
Verb forms: The singular form of an impersonal expression is the normal form, not a missing plural agreement.AQA
Verb modification: Adding the prefix to a root verb creates a new verb meaning the action is done again, as when 'commencer' becomes 'recommencer'.AQA
Verb morphology: Irregular stems include ir- for aller, fer- for faire, ser- for être and aur- for avoir, and the letter r before the ending marks the future tense.AQA
Verb patterns: French verbs ending with er frequently correspond to English verbs ending with 'ate', and French often adds 'r' or 'er' in the infinitive.AQA
Verb recognition: The specification requires you to recognise other common verbs in the imperfect tense rather than to produce them.AQA
Verb stems and endings: To form the conditional, use the future stem and add the imperfect endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.AQA
Viewing habits and technology: Describing how people watch, such as regarder en streaming, downloading, or aller au cinéma.AQA
Vocabulary building: Using '-able' adjectives in your writing to express possibility or suitability shows a wider range of vocabulary.AQA
Vocabulary deduction: Recognising the root verb under the prefix helps learners deduce the meaning of unfamiliar verbs without learning the prefixed verb as an entirely new…AQA
Vocabulary expansion: Understanding this pattern allows students to expand their vocabulary and deduce the meaning of unfamiliar nouns by recognising the root verb.AQA
Voice: The passive voice is used to focus on the recipient of an action rather than the doer, and in it the subject receives the action.AQA
Volunteering activities: These include raising money (récolter des fonds) and distributing food (distribuer de la nourriture), and can be described using the perfect and imperfect…AQA
Vowel substitutions: Words where 'o' or 'u' in English is replaced by ou in French.AQA

W

Weather expressions: The imperfect of 'faire' is used for past weather descriptions, as in 'il faisait beau'.AQA
Word formation: The suffix '-able' is frequently added to the stem of a verb to form an adjective, indicating that the action described by the verb can be done.AQA

Where these terms come from

Each definition is one we publish on a French GCSE topic page or study guide. Open a term to see how each exam board words it and which topic it belongs to. For the full course, go to French revision or the glossary for every subject.

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