JC French cheat sheet

JC listening passages are read twice at near-natural speed; the first hearing is for gist (topic, speaker relationship, register), the second for the specific detail the question asks about.

Register cues: 'tu' forms, contractions like 't'as' and dropped 'ne' (''j'sais pas'') signal informal speech; 'vous', full negation and 'nous' signal formal or public speech.

Numbers and dates are the most common trap: 'quatre-vingt-dix' = 90, 'soixante et onze' = 71, 'quinze jours' = two weeks, 'en huit' = in a week, 'le premier' vs 'le premier du mois'.

Homophone discrimination: 'il a' / 'il y a', 'plutôt' / 'plus tôt', 'davantage' / 'd'avantage', 'quoique' / 'quoi que', 'censé' / 'sensé' - meaning changes with spelling but not sound.

Negation heard in fast speech: 'ne' is often elided, so 'je sais pas', 'y a rien', 'on peut pas' must be parsed as negative from context and the 'pas/rien/jamais' particle.

Discourse markers carry the answer: 'en fait' (correction), 'par contre' (contrast), 'donc' (conclusion), 'pourtant' (concession), 'bref' (summary) - the question often targets what follows them.

Liaison and enchaînement change word boundaries: 'les_amis' sounds like 'lé-zami', 'un_homme' like 'un-nom'; do not hear a plural 's' as a separate word.

Time and tense in audio: passé composé vs imparfait distinguishes a completed event from background; 'venait de' = had just, 'allait' + infinitive = was going to.

Scan for the question's keyword first, then read the surrounding sentence closely; JC texts reward locating the exact clause rather than reading everything at equal speed.

Cognate traps ('faux amis'): 'actuellement' = currently (not actually), 'éventuellement' = possibly, 'assister à' = to attend, 'demander' = to ask, 'sensible' = sensitive.

Pronoun reference is a standard question type: 'celui-ci/celle-là' point to the nearer or just-mentioned noun; 'en' replaces 'de + noun', 'y' replaces 'à + place/thing'.

Logical connectors determine the answer: 'or' = yet/now, 'ainsi' = thus, 'toutefois' = however, 'en revanche' = on the other hand, 'par conséquent' = consequently.

Register and text type: a 'fait divers' uses passé composé and neutral tone; an editorial uses evaluative adjectives and the first-person plural; a formal letter closes with 'Je vous prie d'agréer...'.

Inference questions ask what is implied, not stated: the answer must follow necessarily from the text, so reject options that add outside information even if plausible.

Negative and restrictive structures change truth value: 'ne...que' = only, 'nullement' = not at all, 'guère' = hardly, 'sans doute' = probably (not 'without doubt').

Titles, subheadings and the first/last sentence of each paragraph usually carry the main idea; the answer to a 'thème principal' question is rarely a detail from the middle.

Passé composé agreement: with 'être' the past participle agrees with the subject (elle est partie); with 'avoir' it agrees only with a preceding direct object ('les lettres que j'ai écrites').

Subjunctive triggers: 'il faut que', 'bien que', 'pour que', 'avant que', 'je doute que', superlatives and 'le seul/le premier... que'; regular endings -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent.

'Si' clauses: si + présent → futur; si + imparfait → conditionnel présent; si + plus-que-parfait → conditionnel passé. Never 'si + conditionnel'.

Articles: 'de' replaces 'des' before a plural adjective preceding the noun ('de bons amis'); with negation 'ne...pas de' replaces un/une/des but not definite articles.

Relative pronouns: 'qui' = subject, 'que' = direct object, 'dont' = de + noun, 'où' = place or time, 'lequel/auquel/duquel' after a preposition.

Verbs followed by 'à' vs 'de': 'commencer à', 'réussir à', 'penser à' (idea) vs 'penser de' (opinion); 'décider de', 'essayer de', 'oublier de'.

Word formation: prefixes 're-', 'dé-', 'in-/im-/il-', 'sur-'; suffixes '-ment' (adverb), '-tion', '-eur', '-able'; guessing from a Latin root is reliable for academic vocabulary.

Agreement of 'tout': 'tout le monde' (singular), 'tous les jours' (plural), 'toutes' before feminine plural; 'quelque' vs 'quel que' (whatever) differ in agreement.

Formal letter frame: 'Madame, Monsieur,' → body → closing formula 'Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées.'; informal closes with 'Amicalement' or 'À bientôt'.

Written register markers: avoid 'on' for 'nous' in formal prose, keep 'ne' in negation, prefer 'il convient de' / 'il s'agit de' to 'il faut', and vary connectors rather than repeating 'et' and 'mais'.

Argumentative essay structure: introduction with problématique, two or three developed parts each with a thesis sentence and an example, conclusion that answers the problématique without new arguments.

Cultural reference points: 1 May (Fête du Travail), 14 July (Fête nationale, 1789), 11 November (Armistice 1918), 8 May (Victoire 1945); 'laïcité' as the 1905 separation of Church and State.

Institutions: President elected for five years by direct universal suffrage (since 2000, previously seven); Assemblée nationale and Sénat form Parliament; 'le préfet' represents the State in a département.

Francophone geography: 29 countries have French as an official language; 'la Francophonie' organisation is distinct from France's domestic politics; Quebec, Senegal, Belgium and Switzerland are standard exam references.

Media and abbreviations in written prompts: 'SNCF' (railways), 'EDF' (electricity), 'PACS' (civil union), 'SMIC' (minimum wage), 'TGV' (high-speed train) - expand once if the task requires formal style.

Punctuation differs from English: a space before ':' ';' '!' '?' and inside « guillemets », and no Oxford comma; 'œ' ligature appears in 'cœur', 'œuvre', 'sœur'.