Grammar patterns · GCSE French
Translation into French
GCSE French translation: spot tense magnets, avoid English order, avoir for age, agreements, and the high-mark checklist for sentence translation.
Time phrase first. Conjugate. Agreement last. Je suis quinze ans is never French — j’ai quinze ans.
The important bits
What you need to know
- 1
Identify tense from English: every day → present; yesterday → perfect; I would → conditional; tomorrow → future.
- 2
French word order: adjectives often after nouns; negatives ne…pas around verb; pronouns before verb.
- 3
Age, hunger, heat: j’ai quinze ans, j’ai faim, j’ai chaud — not je suis.
- 4
Perfect: auxiliary choice — movement/reflexive être with agreement; most verbs avoir.
- 5
Articles: le/la/les with general nouns; du/de la/des for some; de after negative.
- 6
Prepositions: jouer au foot, faire de la natation, aller à Paris — learn chunks not word-for-word.
- 7
Connectives from English because/since → parce que/car; however → cependant/par contre.
- 8
Checklist: person ending, gender on adjectives, auxiliary, j’ before vowel, silent -ent on ils.
Quotations worth analysing
Short evidence. Real method.
“Hier, je suis allé(e) au cinéma avec mes amis et j’ai regardé un film intéressant.”
Hier → perfect. Être for aller with agreement. Avoir for regarder. Adjective after noun.
Go deeper
How do I tackle a translation sentence?
Step 1: circle English tense markers. Step 2: pick French time phrase (hier, d’habitude, demain). Step 3: conjugate — do not leave infinitives. Step 4: fix calques — I am 15 → j’ai quinze ans; I like football → j’aime le football. Step 5: agreement pass on adjectives and être participles. Higher papers may bundle two clauses — translate in order, do not merge into English syntax.
Go deeper
Top calques that lose marks
Je suis quinze ans; je suis faim; je suis chaud. J’ai allé. Je très aime. La voiture rouge grande (English adjective order). Je pense à c’est bien (need je pense que). Mon opinion est… (prefer à mon avis). C’est ma première fois (often je vais pour la première fois). Learn correct chunks and swap English glue words for French connectives.
Go deeper
Building range without breaking accuracy
One opinion + parce que, one connective, one comparative if natural. Complexity you misspell is a major error. Two clean clauses beat three broken ones. In listening-to-writing crossover revision, reuse 90-word sentence patterns — they are translation-ready. Role-play phrases are also translation drills: Je voudrais… s’il vous plaît.
See the idea in action
English: Last year I went to Paris with my family because I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. French: L’année dernière, je suis allé(e) à Paris avec ma famille parce que je voulais voir la tour Eiffel. Hier/l’année dernière → perfect être; parce que; voulais imperfect for wanted (ongoing desire in past) or ai voulu if single wish — GCSE often accepts voulais for wanted.
Exam technique
Turn knowledge into marks
Leave 30 seconds to circle every adjective and check feminine/plural. Circle auxiliaries on past sentences.
Common mistakes
Do not give these marks away
- 01
English word order with French words.
- 02
Wrong tense from ignored time marker.
- 03
Je suis + age/hunger/heat calques.
Translate: I am 14 years old.
AJ’ai quatorze ans.
BJe suis quatorze ans.
CJ’ai quatorze années.
Show the answer
J’ai quatorze ans.. Age uses avoir. Ans not années for age. Je suis is wrong.
Quick questions
If this is the bit you searched
Perfect or imperfect for used to?
Used to → imperfect: je jouais. Single yesterday event → perfect.
Do accents matter in translation?
Yes when they change tense: hablé vs habla. French: passé composé accents on past participles -é.