Bulgaria DZI French cheat sheet

Skim the questions before the text to identify the information type needed: date, name, opinion, cause, or main idea.

Scan for proper nouns, numbers, and cognates first; they anchor the location of answers in the passage.

Distinguish global questions (title, purpose, tone) from local questions (detail, reference); answer local items first.

Watch for French connectors that signal contrast or consequence: mais, cependant, donc, ainsi, en revanche.

For inference items, reject options that are true in general but not supported by the specific passage.

Pronoun reference items: trace the pronoun to the nearest preceding noun that agrees in gender and number.

In true/false/not-stated tasks, mark 'not stated' when the text neither confirms nor contradicts the proposition.

Vocabulary-in-context items: substitute each option into the sentence and check grammatical and semantic fit.

Use the pre-listening pause to read options and predict the topic, speakers' roles, and likely vocabulary.

Identify the register (formal/informal) from greetings and address forms: vous vs tu, bonjour vs salut.

Numbers, prices, dates, and times are frequent distractors; note corrections such as 'non, plutôt' or 'en fait'.

Listen for discourse markers that organize speech: d'abord, ensuite, enfin, par contre, en fait.

In multiple-choice items, eliminate options contradicted by a single word (negation, tense, or quantity).

For gap-fill listening, predict the part of speech needed (noun, verb, adjective) before hearing the audio.

Intonation carries meaning: rising pitch often signals a question or doubt; flat pitch may signal a list.

If a word is missed, keep listening; later context often restates or clarifies the missed information.

Passé composé: most verbs use avoir; verbs of motion and pronominal verbs use être, and the past participle agrees with the subject.

Imparfait vs passé composé: imparfait for background, habit, or ongoing state; passé composé for completed events.

Futur simple endings are -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont added to the infinitive or irregular stem (ser-, aur-, ir-, fer-).

Conditionnel présent = futur stem + imparfait endings (-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient).

Subjonctif after expressions of necessity, doubt, emotion, and conjunctions such as bien que, pour que, avant que.

Direct object pronouns: le, la, les; indirect: lui, leur; y replaces à + place/thing; en replaces de + noun.

Agreement of adjectives: add -e for feminine, -s for plural, -es for feminine plural; irregular forms (beau/belle, vieux/vieille).

Negation: ne + verb + pas/plus/jamais/rien/personne; with infinitives, both parts precede the infinitive.

Guided tasks: follow the prompt's required elements (number of ideas, register, word count) before polishing style.

Formal letters: open with Madame, Monsieur, and close with Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, mes salutations distinguées.

Informal messages: use salut, bises, à bientôt; avoid vous unless the relationship requires it.

Cohesion: link sentences with d'une part... d'autre part, en effet, par conséquent, cependant, enfin.

Word-count checks: count only the body, not the greeting or signature, unless the rubric states otherwise.

Avoid literal translation from Bulgarian; use French collocations such as prendre une décision, faire attention.

Past narration: set the scene with imparfait and advance the plot with passé composé.

Proofread for agreement (subject-verb, noun-adjective) and for accents that change meaning (a/à, ou/où, e/é).

Translate meaning, not word order: French adjective placement, pronoun order, and verb tense may differ from the source.

Bulgarian definite article is a suffix; French uses articles (le, la, les) and partitives (du, de la, des).

Bulgarian has no infinitive after modal-like expressions in some cases; French requires the infinitive (je peux venir).

Render aspect: Bulgarian perfective/imperfective pairs map to passé composé/imparfait or to tense choices in context.

False friends: French actuel = current, not actual; éventuel = possible, not eventual; librairie = bookshop, not library.

Mediation tasks: summarize the source's purpose and key points for a target reader, not a sentence-by-sentence transfer.

Keep proper names, numbers, and dates exact; adapt idioms to a French equivalent rather than translating literally.

Check register consistency: a formal source should remain formal in French (vous, conditional politeness).