Translation and transformation (French–English, English–French, sentence rephrasing)
Translation and transformation tests two directions (French→English, English→French) and rephrasing: active to passive, direct to indirect speech, statement to question or negation, and joining sentences with relative pronouns.
French → English
Watch tense mapping: imparfait = "was …-ing / used to"; depuis + present = present perfect + for/since; venir de + infinitive = "has just"; il y a = "there is" or "ago"; on = "one/we/they" according to context. Aim for idiomatic English rather than word-for-word transfer.
English → French
Build the sentence around the verb: choose the tense, then check agreement, then place pronouns, then prepositions. Remember avoir for age, hunger, thirst, cold (avoir quinze ans, avoir faim, avoir froid) and faire for weather (il fait beau). Countries take en/au/aux and de/du/des.
Transformation patterns
Passive: Le professeur corrige les copies → Les copies sont corrigées par le professeur (the participle agrees with the new subject). Indirect speech: present → imparfait, passé composé → plus-que-parfait, and adjust time words (aujourd'hui → ce jour-là). Question by inversion: Tu viens ? → Viens-tu ?
Worked example
Translate: Il habite à Paris depuis cinq ans. Answer: He has been living in Paris for five years. Reasoning: French uses the present for a state that began in the past and still continues; English needs the present perfect with for. The literal "He lives in Paris since five years" is the classic lost mark.
Traps that cost marks
Translating depuis as "since" before a duration. Dropping ne in negation. Forgetting participle agreement in the passive. Keeping French word order in English ("It rains a lot" for il pleut beaucoup). Rendering on dit que as "one says that" when "people say" is the natural English.