Vocabulary and idiomatic usage (lexical fields, synonyms/antonyms, expressions)
Vocabulary and idiomatic usage rewards precision: the paper tests lexical fields (family, school, travel, environment, health, media), word formation, synonyms and antonyms, and fixed expressions. It appears as matching, gap-fill, donnez le contraire de, and idiom-completion items.
Build fields, not lists
Store words in clusters with their collocations: prendre le petit déjeuner, rater le train, attraper un rhume, protéger l'environnement, faire des recherches. A word learned inside a phrase is retrievable under exam pressure; an isolated word usually is not.
Word formation
Prefixes reverse or modify meaning: re- (refaire), in-/im-/il- (impossible, illisible), dé- (défaire), mal- (malheureux). Suffixes give the category: -ment (adverb), -tion/-age (noun), -able (adjective), -eur (agent). This lets you guess the class, and often the sense, of an unseen word.
False friends and fixed expressions
Librairie = bookshop (bibliothèque = library); monnaie = change; sensible = sensitive. Idioms: avoir le cafard (feel low), coûter les yeux de la tête (cost a fortune), avoir du pain sur la planche (have a lot of work), il pleut des cordes (it is pouring), faire la grasse matinée (sleep in). Verbs with fixed prepositions: jouer à (sport, game) vs jouer de (instrument); assister à (attend); rendre visite à (visit a person) vs visiter (a place).
Worked example
Donnez un synonyme de « énorme » : immense / minuscule / étroit. Answer: immense. Reasoning: énorme and immense both mean very large; minuscule is the antonym and étroit means narrow. The distractors test whether you read the instruction - synonym, not opposite.
Traps that cost marks
Giving the antonym when the synonym is asked. Translating English idioms word for word. Using visiter for a person. Confusing savoir (know a fact or how to) with connaître (know a person or place). Choosing a familiar-looking cognate over the meaning the sentence actually needs.