GCSE French: Translation into French

Every GCSE French writing paper asks you to translate from English into French, and the DfE subject content requires it at both tiers, using the vocabulary and grammar specified for the tier. For example, in AQA's writing paper the translation is a set of English sentences totalling at least 35 words at Foundation tier and 50 words at Higher tier. Marks go to accurate French that conveys the whole meaning, so this is the task where small grammar slips cost the most. This material trains exactly those points.

The quiz has twelve English sentences, each with four French versions, of which only one is correct. The wrong versions each contain one error that students often make: avoir instead of être with aller, a missing agreement on the past participle (allée, arrivées), des instead of de after a negative, the wrong preposition with a country, an adjective in the wrong place or with the wrong ending, a missing article after aimer and détester, the perfect tense instead of the present with depuis, jouer du instead of jouer au, the perfect tense instead of the imperfect for 'used to', an object pronoun after the verb, pas and rien used together, and the conditional j'irais instead of the future j'irai. Each explanation states the rule.

The fourteen flashcards turn these rules into quick English-to-French prompts: perfect tense with être and with avoir, the imperfect, aller + infinitive, je voudrais, pas de, à/en/au with places, adjective position, articles with things in general, depuis, days of the week, jouer au and jouer de, avoir for age and feelings, and the position of object pronouns.

The written work gives seven original English passages to translate on paper: three in the style of Foundation tier (about 35 words, on family, a weekend and school) and four in the style of Higher tier (about 50 words, on moving to a city, the environment, a best friend and phone use). Each comes with a model French translation and five marking points, one per idea, and other accurate renderings are accepted. The eighth task asks you to explain five checks to make before handing in a translation.

The sentences stay within the GCSE grammar lists: the Higher passages use depuis, the imperfect, the future of aller, object pronouns and il vaut mieux, and nothing beyond the lists, such as the subjunctive, is needed. All passages are original practice texts, not taken from any exam paper.

• Translate English sentences into accurate French at Foundation and Higher level
• Choose avoir or être in the perfect tense and make the past participle agree
• Use pas de, ne… jamais and ne… rien correctly
• Use à, en and au with places, and place and agree adjectives
• Translate 'used to', 'have been -ing for' and 'will' with the right French tense
• Check a translation for the most common errors

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE subject content for French, German and Spanish (September 2025 version: translation from English into the language; Annex A French grammar) and, for the task format, the AQA GCSE French (8652) specification (Paper 4 Writing, translation question).