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Foreign Language French - Basic study materials
Foreign Language French - Basic study resources

Foreign Language French - Basic: Reading comprehension - short texts and notices

Foreign Language French - Basic · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Reading comprehension - short texts and notices

Domain 2 - Reading comprehension: short texts and notices. You will meet signs, labels, timetables, small ads, emails and form instructions of two to eight lines. The task is rarely full translation; it is locating the one detail that answers the question - an opening time, a condition, a prohibition - while ignoring decoration.

Signal words that carry the answer

  • Prohibition: Ne pas fumer, Défense de stationner, Interdit au public, Prière de ne pas toucher.
  • Instruction: Poussez / Tirez (push/pull), Sonner, Compostez votre billet, Fermez la porte s'il vous plaît.
  • Availability: libre, disponible, ouvert, complet (no places left), en rupture de stock.
  • Exception words: sauf (except), excepté, uniquement, réservé aux, hors service.
  • Time words: dès 9 h (from 9), jusqu'à 18 h, fermeture hebdomadaire le lundi, ouvert en continu, exceptionnellement.

False friends that decide the question

librairie = bookshop (the library is la bibliothèque); assister à = to attend; demander = to ask; actuellement = currently; éventuellement = possibly; sensible = sensitive; personne = nobody in personne n'est venu; rester = to stay; visiter a place but rendre visite à a person.

Abbreviations worth knowing

h for heures (9 h 30); env. for environ; CB for carte bancaire; TTC (tax included) and HT (before tax); R.-V. for rendez-vous; Mme and M.; 1er / 1re.

Worked example

Notice: Le magasin sera fermé le lundi 14 juillet. Ouverture exceptionnelle le dimanche 13, de 10 h à 18 h. Question: can you shop on Monday 14 July? Reasoning: fermé governs 14 July; ouverture exceptionnelle governs Sunday 13, a different date; the hours 10–18 belong to Sunday. Answer: no, the shop is closed on Monday 14.

Traps that cost marks

Picking the day nearest the word ouverture without checking which date it belongs to; reading complet as "complete/open"; taking sauf le mardi to mean "only Tuesday"; missing the restrictive ne … que (only); ignoring a second sentence that reverses the first (mais, toutefois, cependant).