Written Expression and Error Analysis
Domain overview
This domain asks you to produce and correct French that suits a purpose and a register: a short message, a formal letter, a description, an opinion paragraph. Items often present a sentence and ask which version is accurate and idiomatic.
Register and formula
- Formal writing uses vous throughout, opens with « Madame, Monsieur, » and closes with « Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées. » Informal writing allows salut, tu and bises.
- Connectors carry the argument: d'abord, ensuite, en outre, cependant, en revanche, par conséquent, en définitive. Avoid chaining short clauses with et.
- Written French retains ne in negation and prefers the passé composé in correspondence, the passé simple in narrative.
Accuracy checks
- Agreement of adjectives and participles; plurals -al → -aux, -eau → -eaux.
- Anglicisms: réaliser means "to carry out or achieve", not "to become aware"; supporter means "to endure"; demander means "to ask", not "to demand".
- Accents change meaning: ou (or) / où (where); a (has) / à (at); sur (on) / sûr (sure).
Worked example
Intended meaning: "I have lived in Detroit for two years and would like to teach French." Weak: « J'habite à Detroit depuis deux ans et je veux enseigner le français. » Better in a formal application: « Je réside à Detroit depuis deux ans et je souhaiterais enseigner le français. » Two fixes: depuis takes the present for an ongoing situation, and the conditional softens a request.
Traps
Rendering "eventually" as éventuellement (correct: finalement); omitting a required preposition before an infinitive (commencer à, décider de, réussir à); overusing the passé composé in a literary-style passage that expects the passé simple.