GCSE French: Grammar

Ten sentences with a gap in them, and four forms to choose from. The questions are in English and the French is in the sentence, so what is being tested is whether you know the rule rather than whether you can guess from the surrounding words.

The wrong options are the mistakes students actually make. An unagreed past participle when "que" has pushed the object in front of the verb. The avoir auxiliary on a verb that takes être — even though the agreed participle "partie" is sitting there telling you otherwise. "Lui" where the object is direct, not indirect. "Nouvel" in front of a feminine noun, when that form exists only for a masculine noun starting with a vowel. The perfect where a repeated childhood habit calls for the imperfect. Every explanation names the rule, gives the English of the sentence so you can check the meaning, and says what the tempting wrong answer would have meant instead.

One question is deliberately built the other way round. In "Je n'ai ______ mangé ce matin" all four negatives give you perfectly good French, so the question states the English meaning and asks which one carries it — because that is the real skill, and because a question that quietly has four right answers teaches nothing.

The set covers participle agreement, the auxiliary choice, the imperfect and the conditional, direct object and relative pronouns, adjective position and agreement, negatives in a compound tense, prepositions with countries, and the subjunctive after "il faut que".

Every sentence here was written for this set. Exam board specifications, past papers and mark schemes are copyright material and nothing is taken from them.

Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any exam board and it is not an exam centre.

• Agree a past participle with a direct object that has been moved in front of the verb
• Choose between avoir and être as the auxiliary in the perfect tense, and read the participle as a clue
• Choose between the imperfect, the perfect and the conditional according to the meaning required
• Place a direct object pronoun correctly, and tell it apart from an indirect object pronoun
• Put an adjective in the right position and give it the right agreement
• Select the negative that carries a stated meaning, and place both halves around a compound verb
• Recognise the subjunctive after il faut que, including the irregular form of faire

Which option completes the sentence so that it means 'I haven't eaten ANYTHING this morning'? « Je n'ai ______ mangé ce matin. » — one of ten gap-fill questions written for this set, alongside participle agreement, the être auxiliary, the imperfect, pronouns, adjective position, prepositions and the subjunctive.