JC French flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Quinze jours

French idiom meaning two weeks, not fifteen days. Appears constantly in listening passages about holidays and appointments, so misreading it as fifteen days will produce a wrong answer.

En fait

Discourse marker meaning in fact or actually, used to correct or contradict what was just said. In listening, the real answer often follows this marker rather than preceding it.

Liaison with les amis

The plural article les links to a following vowel as a z sound, so les amis sounds like lé-zami. Learners may mishear a separate word; the same happens with des_enfants and les_hommes.

Venir de + infinitive

Expresses the recent past: je viens d'arriver means I have just arrived. Contrast with aller + infinitive for the near future, je vais partir, I am going to leave.

Faux ami: actuellement

Actuellement means currently or at present, not actually. The English actually is usually en fait or effectivement, a distinction tested in both listening and reading items.

Faux ami: assister à

Assister à means to attend an event, not to assist someone. To help is aider or assister quelqu'un without à. The preposition changes the meaning entirely.

Connector: or

The conjunction or means yet or now, introducing a fact that contrasts with what precedes. It is not the English alternative or, which is ou in French.

Ne...que restriction

Ne...que means only, not no. Il ne reste que deux places means only two seats remain. Misreading it as a plain negative reverses the meaning of the sentence.

Pronoun en

Replaces a noun phrase introduced by de or a partitive article: tu veux du café? Oui, j'en veux. It can also replace a quantity expression like deux.

Sans doute

Means probably, not without doubt. Certainty is expressed by sans aucun doute or certainement. Reading questions often test this distinction in opinion texts.

Passé composé with être

A small set of verbs, including aller, venir, partir, entrer, sortir, naître, mourir and all pronominal verbs, form the passé composé with être, and the participle agrees with the subject.

Preceding direct object agreement

With avoir, the past participle agrees only with a direct object placed before it: les lettres que j'ai écrites. No agreement occurs when the object follows the verb.

Subjunctive after bien que

Bien que meaning although always takes the subjunctive: bien qu'il soit tard. Other triggers include il faut que, pour que, avant que, je doute que and le seul que.

Si + imparfait → conditionnel

A hypothetical present or future uses si with the imperfect and a conditional main clause: si j'avais le temps, je voyagerais. A conditional form after si is never correct.

De replaces des before adjective

A plural indefinite article becomes de when an adjective precedes the noun: de bons amis, de belles maisons. The plural des remains before adjectives that form a fixed unit with the noun.

Relative pronoun dont

Dont replaces de plus a noun and covers possession, origin or topic: le livre dont je parle, l'auteur dont le roman. It cannot follow a preposition other than de.

Verbs with à: réussir à

Réussir à, commencer à, arriver à, penser à and s'intéresser à take à before an infinitive or noun. Compare décider de, essayer de and oublier de, which take de.

Tout agreement

Tout is invariable as an adverb, tout doucement, but agrees as an adjective: tout le monde is singular, tous les jours and toutes les femmes are plural.

Formal letter closing

Standard formal closing: Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées. A shorter professional variant is Cordialement, while Amicalement is reserved for friends.

Laïcité

The French principle of state neutrality toward religion, anchored in the 1905 law separating Church and State. It guarantees freedom of conscience and is a frequent cultural knowledge item.

14 July

France's national day, commemorating the 1789 storming of the Bastille. It is a public holiday with a military parade in Paris and is distinct from 1 May, the Fête du Travail.

French presidential term

The President is elected by direct universal suffrage for five years, reduced from seven by referendum in 2000. The change first applied to the 2002 election.

Problématique

The central question an argumentative essay answers. It is stated in the introduction, developed across two or three parts, and resolved in the conclusion without introducing new arguments.

Guillemets spacing

French typography uses « guillemets » with a space inside each mark and a space before the colon, semicolon, exclamation and question marks. English conventions differ on all these points.

Le préfet

The State's representative in a département, appointed by the government and responsible for applying national policy locally. Do not confuse with le maire, elected head of a commune.

Negative without ne

In informal spoken French, ne is dropped: je sais pas, y a rien, on peut pas. The negative meaning is carried by pas, rien, jamais or personne, which must still be heard.

Inference question rule

The correct answer must follow necessarily from the text alone. Options that are true in general but not supported by the passage are wrong, however plausible they sound.

Ne...guère

Literary negation meaning hardly or scarcely: il n'est guère probable means it is hardly likely. It is weaker than ne...pas and appears in formal written texts.

Quel que agreement

Quel que, meaning whatever, agrees with the following subject: quel que soit le résultat, quelle que soit la décision, quels que soient les obstacles. Quelque as an adverb is invariable.

Depuis with present tense

French uses the present with depuis for an action still continuing: j'habite ici depuis trois ans. English uses the perfect, so tense choice is a common error and test point.

SMIC and PACS

SMIC is the French minimum wage, salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance. PACS is the civil solidarity pact, a registered union distinct from marriage. Both appear in reading texts.

Registre soutenu markers

Formal written French keeps ne in negation, avoids on for nous, and prefers il convient de, il s'agit de and varied connectors over repetitive et and mais.