Translation into French
English sentences into accurate French, every word and every ending counted.
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Translation into French, explained point by point
Everything the GCSE specification expects you to be able to do, and how to actually do it - the same lesson a signed-in student studies from.
Know how the translation into French is set and marked
It is on the writing paper with both boards, for 10 marks. AQA sets at least 35 words of English at Foundation and 50 at Higher, split into 15 elements: each one whose meaning comes across earns a tick even with a small slip, the ticks give up to 5 marks, and the other 5 are for your knowledge of vocabulary and grammar across the whole translation. Edexcel sets five sentences at Foundation and a short paragraph at Higher, getting harder as they go, and marks both the meaning you carry across and the accuracy of your French.
Spot the grammar each sentence is testing
Each sentence is built around a point of grammar: a tense, an agreement, a negative, a pronoun. 'Last week we went to the beach' tests the perfect with être and its agreement: la semaine dernière, nous sommes allés à la plage. Find the point first, then build the sentence around it.
Translate the meaning, not the English word order
French often orders words differently: most adjectives follow the noun (un chien noir) and object pronouns go before the verb (je le vois, I see him). 'I like football' becomes j'aime le foot, with an article English leaves out, and 'my brother's bike' becomes le vélo de mon frère.
Get the verb right: tense, person and ending
Most of the meaning hangs on the verbs. Decide the tense from the English (did, used to, is going to, will, would), then the person, then the ending: 'she used to live' is elle habitait and 'we are going to eat' is nous allons manger. In the perfect, choose avoir or être first, and know the common participles such as été, eu, fait, pris and vu.
Watch where English says be
English be is not always être. Age, hunger, thirst, cold, heat and fear take avoir (j'ai quinze ans, j'ai froid), and the weather takes il fait (il fait chaud). Choose before you write.
Translate every word and make it agree
Small words are elements too: 'very', 'also', 'always', 'my', 'some'. French needs du, de la or des for some, even where English has no word at all: je bois de l'eau. Make articles and adjectives agree with their noun (les petites maisons), and put ne and pas round the verb for a negative.
Keep to French you know, then check
If a word escapes you, say the same meaning with words you know: a sensible alternative can still carry the element. Then check spellings, accents and apostrophes: très, à, l'école and j'ai all need their marks.
Translation into French key terms
The words the specification and the mark schemes use, each defined the way an examiner wants it.
- Element
- One of the 15 chunks an AQA translation into French is divided into for marking. Each one whose meaning comes across earns a tick, even with a minor slip.
- Rendering of meaning
- Getting the meaning across in the other language. In AQA's translation into French it earns up to 5 of the 10 marks.
- Agreement
- Making articles, adjectives and participles match their noun or subject, as in mes sœurs sont grandes.
- Partitive article
- Du, de la, de l' or des, for some or any, which French needs even where English has no word: j'achète du pain.
- Auxiliary
- The helper verb in the perfect tense: avoir for most verbs, être for verbs of movement and reflexive verbs.
- avoir for be
- The verb French uses where English says be for age, hunger, thirst, cold, heat and fear: j'ai soif means I am thirsty.
- Major error
- An error that gets in the way of the meaning, such as a past tense where the English is in the future, or a missing negative.
- Minor error
- A slip that does not affect the meaning, such as a missing accent that does not change the word.
Common mistakes in Translation into French
The slips that cost marks year after year, and what to do instead.
Translating word by word in English order, as in je suis quinze for I am fifteen.
Translate the meaning with French structures: j'ai quinze ans. Learn the common structures that work differently from English, such as avoir for age and il fait for the weather.
Using the present tense for a sentence about the past or the future.
Look for the English time words (yesterday, last year, tomorrow, used to) and choose the tense before you write: 'Yesterday I went' is hier, je suis allé, not hier, je vais.
Leaving off agreement, as in ma mère est petit.
Find the noun each adjective describes and match its gender and number: ma mère est petite, mes amis sont sympas.
Leaving out a word or a phrase that is hard to translate.
Each element can earn a tick, so a gap loses one for certain while a sensible attempt may still earn it. Write the best French you can, using a simpler word with the same meaning if you need to.
Dropping accents, or writing a where you mean à.
Accents are part of accurate spelling, and some change the word: a means has and à means to or at. Check each word on your final read-through.