Dictation and Accents in Written Production
A BGCSE written task requires a short message of about 60 words describing your weekend. You draft: « Samedi, je suis alle au marche avec ma soeur. Nous avons achete des fruits et nous avons mange au cafe. Dimanche, j'ai regarde un film et j'ai ecoute de la musique. » You have 10 minutes left to check your work. The mark scheme rewards accurate spelling, accents, and past-tense agreement.
1. List the corrections needed and explain the grammar behind each.
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Corrections: allé (past participle with être agrees with masculine subject - here no extra -e, but the accent is required), marché (accent), sœur (ligature), acheté and mangé (accents on past participles), café (accent), regardé, écouté. The grammar point is twofold: accents change meaning/spelling and are marked; and with être the participle agrees with the subject (allée if the writer were female). With avoir, no agreement with the subject. Check each participle deliberately.
2. Should you add more content or focus on accuracy in the final 10 minutes?
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Focus on accuracy. The message already covers Saturday and Sunday with several activities and is near the required length. Adding sentences risks new errors and may exceed the word limit. Spend the time checking: accents, participle endings, articles (des fruits, de la musique), and subject-verb agreement. In a short production task, eliminating errors in existing sentences usually gains more marks than adding a risky extra clause.