ILTS World Language: French (252) flashcards

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

Liaison obligatoire

A required pronunciation link between a silent final consonant and a following vowel-initial word, as in les_amis, vous_avez, and un_homme. It occurs after determiners, subject pronouns, and most prepositions.

H aspiré

A historical marker blocking liaison and elision before certain h-initial words, such as les héros, le haut, and en haut. The h is never pronounced, but the word behaves as consonant-initial.

Nasal vowel denasalization

A nasal vowel loses nasality when a nasal consonant begins the next syllable within the word, as in bon [bɔ̃] versus bonne [bɔn], and vin versus vigne. Syllable structure, not spelling, controls it.

Passé composé agreement

With avoir, the past participle agrees only with a preceding direct object: les lettres que j'ai écrites. With être and pronominal verbs, it agrees with the subject: elle est partie.

Subjunctive triggers

Structures requiring the subjunctive include doubt, necessity, emotion, and conjunctions like bien que, avant que, pour que, and à moins que, as in Il faut que tu viennes.

Si-clause sequence

Si plus présent yields futur; si plus imparfait yields conditionnel présent; si plus plus-que-parfait yields conditionnel passé. French never uses futur or conditionnel directly after si.

Pronoun order

Clitic pronouns precede the verb in the order me/te/se/nous/vous, then le/la/les, then lui/leur, then y, then en, as in Il me le donne and Je lui en parle.

Partitive article

Du, de la, de l', and des express unspecified quantity, as in Je bois du café. After negation or a quantity expression, the partitive becomes de: Je ne bois pas de café.

Adjective meaning shift

Some adjectives change meaning by position: un ancien professeur is a former teacher, un professeur ancien is an elderly one; similar shifts occur with cher, propre, pauvre, and grand homme.

Relative pronoun dont

Dont replaces de plus its antecedent and can mark possession, as in l'auteur dont je parle or l'homme dont le fils est médecin. It never follows a preposition other than de.

False friend actuellement

Actuellement means currently or at present, not actually. The English actually is usually en fait or effectivement, a frequent distractor in reading items.

False friend librairie

Librairie means bookstore; a library is une bibliothèque. Similarly, préservatif means condom, and éventuellement means possibly rather than eventually.

Discourse markers

Connectors such as pourtant, donc, en revanche, par ailleurs, and d'ailleurs signal contrast, consequence, or addition. Recognizing their function supports inference in reading passages.

Idiom avoir beau

Avoir beau plus infinitive means to do something in vain, as in J'ai beau chercher, je ne trouve pas. It is a fixed structure and should not be translated literally.

Formal letter closing

Standard formal closings include Cordialement for professional contacts and Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées for very formal correspondence.

ACTFL proficiency levels

The scale runs Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior, Distinguished, each with Low, Mid, and High sublevels. Teachers use it to place learner samples and design level-appropriate tasks.

Three communication modes

Interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes organize communicative tasks. Interpretive involves understanding authentic input; interpersonal is negotiation of meaning; presentational is one-way production for an audience.

Backward design

Wiggins and McTighe's model plans units by first identifying desired results, then determining acceptable evidence, then designing instruction and learning experiences aligned to both.

Comprehensible input

Krashen's hypothesis holds that acquisition occurs when learners understand input slightly beyond their current level (i plus one), with grammar study playing only a monitoring role.

Communicative competence

Canale and Swain describe grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence. A communicative task may target any one, so items often ask which is being developed.

Authentic materials

Menus, newscasts, songs, and infographics created for native speakers rather than learners. They support interpretive tasks when glossing is minimal and learners infer meaning from context.

Integrated Performance Assessment

An IPA cycle links interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational tasks around one theme, scored with rubrics aligned to ACTFL proficiency levels rather than to arbitrary point totals.

Recast versus explicit correction

A recast restates a learner's error correctly without interrupting fluency; explicit correction names the error. Fluency work favors recasts, while accuracy-focused practice may justify explicit correction.

Seal of Biliteracy

A recognition awarded by many states, including Illinois, to students who demonstrate proficiency in English and another language, often through portfolio or assessment evidence.

Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts

A 1539 royal ordinance requiring French instead of Latin in legal and administrative documents, a landmark in the standardization and official status of French.

Loi Toubon

A 1994 French law regulating the use of French in commerce, advertising, and public communication, requiring French translations alongside foreign terms in specified contexts.

Laïcité

The French constitutional principle of state neutrality toward religion, separating public institutions from religious expression. It shapes debates about schools, dress, and public space.

Francophonie scope

French is official in 29 countries across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and Canada. Major varieties include Québécois, Belgian, Swiss, Acadian, and West African French.

CEFR scale

Levels A1 to C2 describe functional language ability. A B1 learner handles routine transactions and simple connected text but not abstract argumentation, which requires B2 or above.

Proficiency versus achievement

Proficiency is generalized ability to use language across contexts; achievement is mastery of specific taught material. Assessments must match the construct they claim to measure.

Inter-rater reliability

The consistency of scores across raters, improved by analytic rubrics, anchor papers, and rater training, and estimated statistically with Cohen's kappa or percent agreement.

French number formation

Seventy is soixante-dix, eighty is quatre-vingts, ninety is quatre-vingt-dix. Note soixante et onze uses et, while quatre-vingt-un does not, and quatre-vingts drops the s before another numeral.