PSEB Class 12 French common mistakes
PSEB Class 12 French · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering comprehension questions by copying a full sentence from the passage verbatim instead of answering in your own words, or lifting a sentence that contains the question word and thus answers nothing.
Under time pressure, candidates scan for a keyword, find the line where it appears, and transcribe the whole line, believing that any text taken from the passage must be correct. They have not checked whether the copied sentence actually responds to the question asked (qui / pourquoi / comment).
What to do instead
After copying, re-read the question and underline the interrogative word; then check that your answer contains the information that word demands (a person for qui, a reason for pourquoi, a manner for comment). Practise reformulating: change the subject, replace a noun with a pronoun, or begin with the question's stem (e.g. « L'auteur dit que… »). Aim for a short, complete sentence of your own, not a paragraph lifted from the text.
Treating vrai/faux or multiple-choice items as guesswork and leaving them blank, or ticking vrai because a word from the statement appears somewhere in the passage even when the passage says the opposite.
Candidates look for word-matching rather than meaning-matching, and they are afraid of committing to an answer. Negation, restrictive words (ne… que, seulement) and antonyms are missed because the eye catches the familiar noun first.
What to do instead
For each statement, locate the exact line, then read the whole sentence including negatives and quantifiers. Write the justification (the quoting phrase) beside your choice before ticking - PSEB-style items usually require you to justify. If the passage says « peu de gens » and the statement says « tout le monde », the answer is faux; train yourself to circle such quantifiers. Never leave a blank: an unjustified guess still has a chance, a blank has none.
In letter writing, producing a composition with no letter format at all: no place and date, no salutation, no closing formula, and no addressee - just paragraphs of content.
Candidates memorise content phrases (opinions, arguments) but treat format as decoration, and in the exam rush they start directly with the body. Many have never internalised that French letters have a fixed skeleton whose absence costs marks independently of the French.
What to do instead
Before writing, draw the skeleton in the margin: lieu et date (e.g. « Chandigarh, le 12 mars »), formule d'appel (Cher ami, / Madame, Monsieur,), corps, formule de politesse, signature/prénom. Use the informal register for a friend (tu, bises, À bientôt) and the formal one for an unknown adult (vous, Je vous prie d'agréer…). Write two or three model letters from memory and reuse the skeleton in every practice answer.
Ignoring the word limit and the task instructions: writing 250 words for a 60-word message, or writing a description when the question asks for an opinion, or omitting one of two required points (e.g. « parle de tes projets ET invite ton ami »).
Candidates write everything they know about the topic because they fear having too little to say, and they read the prompt once, quickly, missing the second instruction. Long answers also hide errors and eat time needed for comprehension.
What to do instead
Underline every instruction verb in the prompt (décris, raconte, invite, explique pourquoi) and number them; tick each off as you cover it. Count words roughly by lines (about 10–12 words per handwritten line) and stop near the limit - extra length earns nothing and loses accuracy. Practise timed 50–60-word messages so the length becomes instinctive.
Writing the composition in the present tense throughout, even when the task is a past narration (raconte un souvenir, raconte tes dernières vacances), producing sentences like « Hier je vais au marché et j'achète… ».
Candidates control the present tense best and default to it under pressure; they also do not distinguish the passé composé (completed events) from the imparfait (description, habitual action, background), so they avoid both.
What to do instead
Before writing a narration, decide the tense and write it at the top of your rough work. Use passé composé for single completed actions (je suis allé, j'ai acheté) and imparfait for setting and habit (il faisait beau, nous visitions souvent). Learn the auxiliary and agreement rules for être-verbs (elle est partie, ils sont arrivés). Do five short narration drills of 60 words, then check every verb's tense before moving on.
Applying English word order and structure inside French sentences: placing adjectives wrongly (une rouge robe), omitting the partitive article (Je mange pain), forgetting inversion or est-ce que in questions, and translating idioms literally (Je suis d'accord with… / J'ai 15 ans written as Je suis 15 ans).
The candidate's first language and English both interfere; classroom drills cover isolated rules but not the automatic contrast, so the English pattern surfaces whenever attention is on meaning rather than form.
What to do instead
Keep a personal contrast list (age: avoir, not être; partitive du/de la/des for unspecified quantity; most adjectives after the noun, but petit, grand, beau, jeune, vieux before). For questions, fix one formula per register: inversion in writing (Veux-tu…?), est-ce que in speech. Rewrite five of your own incorrect sentences correctly each week and re-read the list before the exam.
Confusing the tense and mood forms that look alike on paper: passé composé vs imparfait, futur simple vs conditionnel (je serai / je serais), and failing to form the subjunctive after il faut que, bien que, pour que.
The endings -ai and -ais sound identical in many accents, so candidates rely on pronunciation; and the subjunctive is learned as a list of phrases rather than a triggered form, so it is dropped in context.
What to do instead
Learn the triggers, not the labels: après il faut que / bien que / avant que / pour que + subjunctive; si + imparfait → conditionnel in the other clause. Drill minimal pairs in writing (je viendrai / je viendrais; il mangeait / il a mangé) and say aloud which is which. In context exercises, identify the trigger word first, then choose the form, rather than translating from English.
Answering literature questions with vague generalities about the author's greatness, or retelling the plot of a story when the question asks about a theme, a character, or the author's message - with no names, no titles, no textual detail.
Candidates revise summaries rather than texts, so they can only paraphrase the story; they also fear getting details wrong and retreat to safe generalities. Many cannot connect an author to a movement or a work to its period.
What to do instead
Build one card per prescribed author and text: author, title, date, genre, two main characters, one central theme, one memorable scene or image, one quote. In the exam, answer the question asked: if it asks how a theme is treated, name the theme, give one precise example from the text, then say what it shows. Use the author's and characters' names explicitly - specificity earns marks, vagueness does not.
Mixing up authors, works and periods (attributing a text to the wrong writer, placing a 20th-century author in the 19th century) and knowing nothing concrete about francophone countries beyond France.
Revision is done as a blur of names close to the exam; dates and movements are memorised without anchors, and civilisation is skipped as 'general knowledge' that will not be asked.
What to do instead
Anchor each author to one date and one movement (e.g. 19th-century realism, 20th-century engagement) and test yourself by covering the name and recalling it from the date. For civilisation, learn a small fixed set per country or region: capital, currency, one writer or musician, one historical fact - and be able to write two sentences on each. Rehearse the map of la francophonie (Afrique de l'Ouest, Québec, Belgique, Suisse, Maghreb) so you can name examples, not just 'les pays francophones'.
Mismanaging time and layout: spending most of the paper on the seen passage, leaving the writing task half-finished, writing answers in the wrong section of the answer sheet, and producing unreadable corrections that make the examiner guess.
Candidates start at question one and work straight through without a plan, so the high-value writing section is squeezed at the end; and they cross out heavily instead of planning, so the final copy is messy and hard to mark.
What to do instead
Before starting, read the whole paper and allocate minutes per section (roughly proportional to marks), reserving the last 25–30% for writing. Answer in the numbered space for each question and label sections clearly. Do writing tasks from a short rough plan (3 bullet points) and copy once, cleanly; if you must correct, strike a single line through the word. Leave five minutes to check verb endings, agreements and that every question number has an answer.