French Language Structures and Vocabulary
French Language Structures and Vocabulary tests explicit control of grammar, syntax, and lexis in context: articles and prepositions, verb tense and mood, agreement, pronoun systems, relative clauses, word formation, register, and idioms. Items usually present a sentence with a blank or an underlined segment and ask for the form that is both grammatical and appropriate to the register.
Core rules
- Subjunctive after expressions of doubt, necessity, emotion, and certain conjunctions: il faut que, bien que, avant que, pour que, je doute que. Indicative after espérer que, parce que, and, in careful usage, après que.
- si + imperfect → conditional present; never si + conditional.
- The past participle agrees with a preceding direct object: les lettres que j'ai écrites. With avoir, there is no agreement when the object follows.
- y replaces a place or à + thing; en replaces de + noun or a quantity: J'en ai trois.
- leur (pronoun, invariable) vs leurs (possessive, plural): Je leur parle / leurs amis.
Worked example
Je doute qu'il ___ demain. Options: vient, viendra, vienne, viendrait. Reasoning: douter que expresses doubt and requires the subjunctive. Venir is irregular: que je vienne, que tu viennes, qu'il vienne. Viendra is future indicative and viendrait is conditional, both excluded by mood. Answer: vienne.
Traps that cost marks
- penser que and croire que take the indicative in affirmatives but the subjunctive in negations and questions in formal usage.
- quel que (whatever) agrees: quelle que soit la décision; quelque (some) does not.
- English phrasal verbs mislead: dépendre de, se souvenir de, obéir à, manquer de.
- Register: bouffer, bosser, flic fit dialogue but are wrong in a formal notice.
- depuis + present for an ongoing action, not the passé composé.