PSEB Class 12 French flashcards

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

Lecture globale du texte

Reading strategy for the main idea: read the title, first sentence and last sentence of each paragraph to identify the theme before answering detail questions.

Vrai, Faux ou Justifiez

Exam instruction requiring a choice plus textual proof. The justification must quote or closely paraphrase the passage; an unproven answer scores zero.

Mots interrogatifs

Question words that locate detail answers: qui (person), que/quoi (thing), où (place), quand (time), combien (quantity), pourquoi (cause), comment (manner).

Négation dans un texte

Markers such as ne…pas, ne…jamais, ne…que, ne…personne, ne…rien. They reverse or restrict meaning and are frequent targets of comprehension questions.

Repérage des temps

Identifying the tense of a passage: présent for description, passé composé for completed events, imparfait for background, futur for plans or predictions.

Inférence lexicale

Deducing an unknown word from context or morphology: suffixes like -tion, -té, -ment, -eur, -iste often correspond to an English cognate.

Formule d'appel

Opening line of a letter: Madame, Monsieur, for formal correspondence; Cher/Chère plus first name for a friend. It fixes the register for the whole text.

Formule de politesse

Closing formula of a formal French letter, for example « Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées », followed by the signature.

Objet d'une lettre

Short line placed after the formule d'appel stating the purpose of a formal letter, such as « Objet : demande d'inscription au cours de français ».

Connecteurs logiques

Linking words that structure a composition: d'abord, ensuite, de plus, cependant, en revanche, donc, enfin, en conclusion. They raise the coherence mark.

Description : repères spatiaux

Spatial markers used to organise a description: au premier plan, à l'arrière-plan, à gauche, à droite, au loin, au centre, près de, derrière.

Message amical

Short informal text to a friend: Cher/Chère plus first name, tu forms throughout, a closing such as Bises, Amitiés or À bientôt, then the first name only.

Plan de la composition

Three-part structure for a short essay: introduction presenting the topic, two or three developed paragraphs with examples, conclusion giving an opinion or wish.

Vouvoiement et tutoiement

Register rules: vous plus Monsieur/Madame for formal or unknown adults; tu plus first name for friends, family and children. Mixing them is an error.

Auxiliaires du passé composé

Avoir for most verbs; être for pronominal verbs and the movement/change-of-state list: aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber, devenir, revenir, rentrer.

Accord du participe passé

With être the participle agrees with the subject (elle est partie). With avoir it agrees only with a direct object placed before the verb (les lettres que j'ai écrites).

Formation de l'imparfait

Take the nous form of the present, remove -ons, add -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. The only irregular stem is être: ét-.

Futur simple irrégulier

Irregular stems: ser- (être), aur- (avoir), ir- (aller), fer- (faire), pourr- (pouvoir), viendr- (venir), verr- (voir), voudr- (vouloir), saur- (savoir).

Déclencheurs du subjonctif

Expressions followed by que plus subjunctive: il faut que, bien que, avant que, pour que, je veux que, je doute que, je suis content que. Endings: -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent.

Ordre des pronoms doubles

Sequence in a sentence: me/te/se/nous/vous, then le/la/les, then lui/leur, then y, then en. In the affirmative imperative the order reverses and me/te become moi/toi.

Comparatif et superlatif

Comparatives use plus/moins/aussi plus adjective plus que. Superlatives use le/la/les plus adjective, with de for the group: le plus grand de la classe.

Pronoms relatifs simples

qui replaces a subject, que a direct object, dont a de-complement, où a place or time, ce qui/ce que refer to an idea rather than a noun.

Alexandrin et sonnet

An alexandrin is a twelve-syllable verse; a décasyllabe has ten and an octosyllabe eight. A sonnet has fourteen verses: two quatrains and two tercets.

Les Lumières

Eighteenth-century movement valuing reason, criticism and tolerance, embodied by Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu et Diderot, authors of the Encyclopédie.

Le classicisme

Seventeenth-century French movement of order and rules, including the three units of theatre (time, place, action), illustrated by Molière, Racine et Corneille.

Le romantisme

Nineteenth-century movement centred on sentiment, nature and the individual self, with Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Musset et Chateaubriand as leading figures.

Réalisme et naturalisme

Nineteenth-century movements depicting society through observation: Balzac, Flaubert et Maupassant for realism; Zola, who applied science and heredity, for naturalism.

La devise républicaine

« Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité » is the motto of the French Republic, alongside La Marseillaise as anthem and 14 July as national day.

Institutions françaises

The président de la République is elected directly for five years; the Parlement comprises the Assemblée nationale and the Sénat; the baccalauréat ends the lycée.

La francophonie

The French-speaking world beyond France: official language in Québec, Belgium, Switzerland, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroun, Haïti; the OIF has over eighty members.

Didascalies

Stage directions in a play, usually in italics or brackets, giving setting, gestures and tone. They are not spoken by the actors.

Citer un texte littéraire

Referring to a work by title, author and, for theatre, act and scene; a quotation in quotation marks followed by an analytical sentence earns literary marks.