Grammatical accuracy and control
What you must understand
Accuracy is judged on consistent control, especially of structures that differ from English. Prioritise: gender and agreement (articles, adjectives), verb conjugation and tense choice (passé composé versus imparfait; futur versus conditionnel), pronoun order (il me le donne), subjunctive after triggers (il faut que tu viennes), and prepositions with verbs and places (penser à, aller en France, aller au Canada).
Traps that appear
- Passé composé versus imparfait: background and habit take the imparfait; completed events take the passé composé. Candidates often narrate everything in the passé composé.
- Auxiliary choice: être verbs and pronominals (je me suis levé), agreement of the past participle.
- Subjunctive avoidance: after il faut que, bien que, pour que the subjunctive is expected; using the indicative is a visible error.
- Pronoun clusters: le lui, y en - order is fixed and frequently reversed by learners.
- Conditional in hypotheses: si j'avais su, j'aurais fait - never si j'aurais.
Rule of thumb
When unsure mid-sentence, simplify the structure rather than guess. A clean simple sentence with correct agreement scores higher than an ambitious sentence with a broken subjunctive.
Worked example
Wrong: « Si j'aurais le temps, je viendrais. » Right: « Si j'avais le temps, je viendrais. » The si clause takes the imparfait; the result clause takes the conditional.