Maharashtra HSC French (MSBSHSE) common mistakes
Maharashtra HSC French (MSBSHSE) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Writing a free composition in the passé composé while leaving every past participle unagreed, e.g. "Elle est allé", "les lettres que j'ai écrit", "nous avons arrivé".
Candidates memorise the auxiliary table but treat participle agreement as a spelling detail; under time pressure they default to the masculine singular form and never check the auxiliary (être vs avoir) or the position of the preceding direct object.
What to do instead
Before the exam, drill a three-question checklist for every past participle: (1) Which auxiliary? (2) If être, does the subject agree? (3) If avoir, is there a preceding direct object? Apply it mechanically to your own draft, circling each participle and writing the justification above it; in the writing task reserve two minutes at the end solely for this check.
Translating English sentences word-for-word into French, producing structures like "Je suis d'accord avec que...", "Il m'a demandé que je parte" for "he asked me to leave", or "J'ai 18 ans vieux".
Candidates compose in English first and substitute French words one by one, so English syntax (that-clauses, verb + infinitive, adjective order) leaks through; they have not stored French clause patterns as chunks.
What to do instead
Build a personal list of 20 high-frequency structural equivalents (demander à qn de faire, vouloir que + subjunctive, avoir envie de, il faut que) and practise transforming the same English sentence into French three different ways; in the translation task, identify the main verb pattern first and only then choose vocabulary.
Answering reading-comprehension questions by copying a full sentence from the passage that contains the keyword, without checking whether the question asks for cause, contrast, or the author's attitude.
Keyword matching feels safe and fast; candidates treat the task as locating words rather than interpreting relations between ideas, and they ignore connectors such as cependant, donc, bien que, en revanche that carry the answer.
What to do instead
Underline the question's interrogative word (pourquoi, quel, comment, selon l'auteur) before reading, then locate the connector in the passage and paraphrase the answer in your own French words; practise by writing one-line answers that never repeat more than three consecutive words from the text.
Confusing French and English prepositions and omitting the article in fixed expressions: "Je vais en France" written as "Je vais à France", "penser à" used for "penser de", "jouer au football" written "jouer le football", "à la maison" written "à maison".
Prepositions are learned as vocabulary items rather than as part of memorised phrases, and English interference makes à/en/au/de feel interchangeable; candidates also forget that most French nouns need a determiner.
What to do instead
Keep a phrase notebook organised by preposition (à, de, en, dans, sur, pour, par) and record whole expressions, not single words; when correcting a draft, highlight every preposition and ask whether it belongs to a stored phrase, and test yourself with gap-fill sentences where only the preposition is missing.
Using the wrong register or format in the writing task: opening a formal letter with "Salut" and closing with "Bisous", omitting the date and place, or writing a dialogue with no speaker labels and no line breaks.
Candidates focus entirely on grammar and treat format as decoration; many have never seen a model of a French formal letter (Madame, Monsieur / Je vous prie d'agréer...) or a properly laid-out dialogue, so they improvise from English habits.
What to do instead
Memorise two templates by hand until automatic: a formal letter (place and date top right, salutation, body paragraphs, formule de politesse) and an informal message (Cher/Chère, opening, closing, signature). For dialogue, use speaker names followed by a colon and start each turn on a new line; practise writing the same content in both registers and compare.
Choosing between passé composé and imparfait by translating the English tense rather than by aspect, producing "Quand j'étais petit, j'ai joué au cricket tous les jours" or "Hier, je mangeais une pizza".
English simple past maps onto both French past tenses, so candidates pick the one that sounds like the English form; they have not internalised the distinction between background/habit (imparfait) and single completed event (passé composé).
What to do instead
Learn the test as a question: is this a completed event that moves the story forward, or a description/repeated habit? Rewrite ten short narratives, marking each verb E (event) or B (background) before conjugating; also practise the classic combination "Il lisait quand le téléphone a sonné" until the pattern is automatic.
Giving a one-word synonym or a literal gloss when asked for the meaning of an idiomatic expression, e.g. rendering "avoir le coup de foudre" as "to have lightning" or "coup de main" as "hand blow", and failing to use the expression in context.
Candidates treat idioms as transparent word sums and have not recorded them with a situation; exam tasks often ask for meaning plus a sentence, and a literal gloss shows the expression was never understood.
What to do instead
Study idioms in thematic groups (corps: coup de main, coup de foudre, avoir le bras long; animaux; nourriture) with a short French definition and one personal example sentence each; for the exam, always give meaning plus a full French sentence showing the situation, and check that the sentence would still make sense if the idiom were removed.
In culture questions, answering with vague generalities ("la France est un pays riche en culture") or mixing up facts such as the number of regions, the capital of a francophone country, or which dish belongs to which region.
Candidates rely on general knowledge from films and social media and never build a structured fact file; the prescribed content is skimmed rather than learned with names, places, and numbers.
What to do instead
Make a one-page grid by theme (geography and regions, institutions and daily life, francophone countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Canada, festivals and gastronomy) and fill it with five precise facts per cell, including numbers and proper names; test yourself by explaining each fact aloud in two French sentences.
Retelling the plot of a prescribed textbook extract in detail while ignoring the question about character, theme, or the narrator's point of view, and quoting characters' names without any supporting detail from the text.
Candidates memorise summaries from guides and reproduce them regardless of the prompt; they have not practised the difference between summary and analysis, and they fear that interpretation is guesswork.
What to do instead
For each prescribed chapter, prepare a five-line card: main event, one key quotation, one trait of each main character with evidence, and one theme. In the exam, answer the question asked by naming the trait, giving evidence from the text, and explaining the effect; practise by turning each card into a 60-word French paragraph.
Rephrasing transformation items by changing only one word ("Il est parti" rewritten as "Il est allé") or by shifting a sentence into the passive without adjusting the object pronoun and participle agreement ("Le livre a été lu par Marie" written "Le livre a été lu par elle" for "Elle a lu le livre").
Candidates do not know what the task rewards; they make the smallest visible change, and passive or pronominal transformations expose gaps in pronoun order and agreement that were never drilled.
What to do instead
Learn the standard transformation pairs (active/passive, direct/indirect speech, affirmative/negative, noun/verb, two clauses/one clause with a relative pronoun) and practise each with five sentences, checking pronoun order (me/le/lui/y/en) and agreement every time; in the exam, verify that your version differs structurally, not just lexically, and that the meaning is unchanged.