Anglais - Bac C
The English paper tests reading comprehension, grammar in context, vocabulary and written production (guided composition, letter or short essay, sometimes a précis). Accuracy matters more than ambitious vocabulary.
Core areas
- Tenses: present perfect versus simple past; past perfect for an earlier past action.
- Conditionals: type 1 (if + present, will), type 2 (if + past, would + base verb), type 3 (if + had + past participle, would have + past participle).
- Reported speech: backshift of tenses, change of pronouns and time markers.
- Passive voice, modals, relative clauses, gerund versus infinitive.
Worked example
Direct speech: "I have finished my work," he said. Reported speech: He said (that) he had finished his work. Reasoning: the reporting verb is in the past ("said"), so the present perfect shifts back to the past perfect; the pronoun "I" becomes "he". No time marker needs changing here. A common variant: "I will come tomorrow" becomes "He said he would come the next day" - will becomes would, tomorrow becomes the next day.
Traps that cost marks
- Translating word for word from French ("I have 17 years" instead of "I am 17").
- Forgetting the backshift in reported speech.
- Mixing conditional types ("If I would have known" is wrong).
- Copying whole sentences from the passage in comprehension answers.
- Ignoring the word limit in the writing task.