Version et thème (Translation): French into English and back
The translation section has two directions: version, rendering a short French passage into natural English, and thème, rendering short English sentences into correct French. Marks reward meaning and grammar, not word-for-word correspondence - a natural sentence that keeps the sense scores; a literal one that breaks the target language does not.
Method that works under exam pressure
- Read the whole sentence before writing anything; find the main verb.
- Decide tense, aspect and register from context, not from the first word.
- Translate clause by clause, then reread the target sentence alone: does it sound like real English/French?
- Check articles, prepositions, agreements and plurals last.
Structures that recur
- avoir beau + infinitive = however much: Il a beau pleuvoir, il sort → « However much it rains, he goes out ».
- venir de + infinitive = to have just: Je viens d'arriver → « I have just arrived ».
- être en train de = to be in the middle of; il s'agit de = it is about; il y a = there is / ago.
- manquer de = to lack; rendre visite à = to visit a person (not a place); passer un examen = to take an exam.
- False friends: sensible (sensitive), la librairie (bookshop), le coin (corner), la chair (flesh).
- Proper nouns: le Cameroun → Cameroon, le fleuve Sanaga → the Sanaga River, Yaoundé unchanged.
Worked example
French: « Il y a deux ans qu'il est parti ; il a dû trouver du travail à Douala. » Reasoning: il y a + duration + que with a past tense = « ago » → he left two years ago. A dû + infinitive is deduction, not obligation: « he must have found work ». Result: « He left two years ago; he must have found work in Douala. » For thème, reverse the check: English simple past usually becomes passé composé for a single event, imparfait for description or habit.
Traps that cost marks
Word-for-word rendering (« It has two years that he is left »); translating a dû as « had to » when the context is deduction; forgetting de after a negation (je n'ai pas d'argent); leaving a gap instead of attempting a sentence; translating proper nouns and currency (5 000 FCFA stays FCFA).