PAU French II (Castilla-La Mancha) key terms

Reading skill assessed through authentic French texts such as articles, notices, or literary extracts, requiring the candidate to locate information, infer meaning, and identify the writer's purpose or tone.

The central point a paragraph or whole text conveys, distinct from supporting details; questions often ask the candidate to choose the statement that best summarises it.

A conclusion drawn from clues in the text rather than stated outright, such as guessing a character's mood from behaviour or the implicit opinion behind a remark.

A word carrying the essential information of a sentence or passage; recognising keywords helps scan a text quickly and match questions to the relevant lines.

Scanning a text for specific data such as dates, prices, names, or places without reading every word, a technique tested by detailed factual questions.

The attitude an author conveys through word choice and structure, for example ironic, nostalgic, critical, or humorous; identifying it supports questions about intention.

A word with a meaning close to another, such as content and heureux; lexical questions ask candidates to pick the synonym that fits the context of a sentence.

A word expressing the opposite of another, formed sometimes with a prefix such as in-, dé-, or mal-; identifying opposites tests precise vocabulary knowledge.

A set of words linked by a shared theme, such as terms for transport or the environment; recognising the field helps infer the meaning of unknown words.

Words sharing a common root, for example chant, chanteur, chanson; knowing the root allows a candidate to deduce the meaning of unfamiliar derived forms.

The base part of a word that carries its core meaning and to which prefixes and suffixes attach, as in the porter of transporter or importable.

A bound element placed before a root to modify meaning, such as re- for repetition, in- for negation, or sur- for excess; recognising it aids comprehension of new words.

An element added after a root that changes meaning or word class, for example -ment forming adverbs or -eur forming agent nouns like vendeur.

Forming a noun from a verb or adjective, often with suffixes such as -tion, -age, or -ité, as in arriver to arrivée; frequent in formal written French.

A French word resembling an English word but differing in meaning, such as actuellement meaning currently rather than actually, or librairie meaning bookshop.

The surrounding words and situation that determine a word's intended sense; using context is the main strategy for resolving ambiguity in reading tasks.

Rule governing past participle agreement: with avoir it agrees with a preceding direct object, with être it agrees with the subject, and pronominal verbs follow specific patterns.

Agreement in person and number between a verb and its subject, complicated by collective nouns, inverted subjects, and subjects joined by et or ni.

The system of verb endings varying with tense, mood, person, and number; candidates must conjugate regular -er, -ir, and -re verbs plus common irregulars accurately.

A form locating an action in time, such as présent, imparfait, passé composé, futur simple, or plus-que-parfait; choosing correctly depends on aspect and context.

The way a verb form presents an action, for example completed versus ongoing; the imparfait describes habitual or background states while the passé composé marks completed events.

Past tense used for descriptions, habitual actions, and background circumstances, contrasted with the passé composé for single completed events in narrative texts.

Compound past tense formed with avoir or être plus a past participle, expressing completed actions; a set of verbs of motion and pronominal verbs take être.

Mood expressing subjectivity, will, doubt, or emotion, required after expressions like il faut que or bien que; present and past forms must be recognised and produced.

Mood used for hypotheses, polite requests, and reported future; the conditional past expresses unrealised past situations in si-clauses.

A conditional sentence pattern: si plus present for real possibilities, si plus imparfait with conditional for unreal present, si plus plus-que-parfait with conditional past for unreal past.

The grammatical category reflecting the speaker's attitude, principally indicative for statements, subjunctive for subjectivity, conditional for hypothesis, and imperative for commands.

Words such as qui, que, dont, and où linking a clause to a noun; choosing correctly depends on the grammatical function of the antecedent in the subordinate clause.

The arrangement of words and clauses in a sentence, including word order, negation placement, and question formation, all tested in transformation exercises.

A linking word joining clauses or phrases, such as mais, donc, or parce que; some require the subjunctive, for example bien que or pour que.

A discourse marker signalling logical relations between ideas, such as cependant for contrast, en effet for confirmation, or par conséquent for consequence.

The logical unity of a written text achieved through consistent ideas, appropriate connectors, and clear progression from introduction to conclusion.

The structured outline of a short composition, typically introduction, two developed parts, and conclusion, ensuring the response addresses the prompt fully.

The writing task requiring a short text such as a message, opinion piece, or narrative, assessed on task completion, range of language, and accuracy.

The level of formality in language, from familier through courant to soutenu; written tasks usually require the standard or formal register with appropriate opening and closing formulas.

Conventional closing phrase in letters and emails, such as cordialement or je vous prie d'agréer mes salutations distinguées, chosen to match the relationship and register.

The community of French-speaking countries and regions across Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia, with shared language but diverse cultures and varieties.

A form of French shaped by local usage, such as Quebecois or Belgian vocabulary and pronunciation, which may appear in authentic reading texts.

The French principle of state neutrality toward religion, guaranteeing freedom of belief while keeping religious expression out of public institutions; a frequent theme in cultural texts.

A fixed oversimplified image of a group or culture; reading tasks may ask candidates to identify or challenge stereotypes about France and French-speaking societies.