GCSE French Vocabulary: Media, Technology and Celebrity Culture

The reformed GCSE French is built on a defined vocabulary list: the DfE subject content requires about 1,200 words and phrases for Foundation tier and a further 500 for Higher tier, most of them chosen for their frequency in modern French, and every reading, listening and writing task is written from that list. Each exam board publishes its own list; the words here are taken from AQA's list, the most widely taught, and most of them are high-frequency words found on other boards' lists as well. This material works on the words of one topic: media and technology together with celebrity culture — computers, phones and screens, apps and social media, sharing and recording, online risks, advertising, singers, actors, interviews and tours.

The quiz has twelve questions. Each shows a short French sentence with one word or phrase in capitals, and you choose its English meaning from four options. The sentences give context, so you practise the skill the reading paper also tests: working out meaning from the rest of the sentence. The words tested are enregistrer, partager, l'écran, gratuit, suivre, célèbre, les paroles, l'entretien, and four Higher words: harceler, la publicité, recharger and la tournée. Words marked Higher tier are on the Higher list only. The explanation of each question gives the meaning, related forms and, where useful, the word that is often confused with it.

The flashcards give eighteen words and phrases with their English meanings: l'ordinateur and l'écran, le portable, l'appli, les réseaux sociaux, partager and poster, enregistrer, envoyer un message, gratuit, dangereux and sûr, suivre and l'influenceur, célèbre, la célébrité and la star, les paroles and la chanson, l'entretien, l'émission and la série, plus Higher words.

The written work has eight tasks to complete on paper: translating sentences both ways, a gap-fill text about phone use, a short reading text about a young online cook with questions in English, an advantage and a disadvantage of social media, a 50-word paragraph about a famous person you admire, working out derived words (utilisation, utilisateur, directement, inutile), and explaining pairs such as gratuit and libre. Each task comes with a model answer and marking points.

All sentences and texts are original and use high-frequency vocabulary; nothing is taken from any exam paper. Use the flashcards first, then the quiz to test yourself in context, then the written tasks to use the words actively.

• Understand and use key words for technology and social media
• Talk about online risks with harceler and dangereux
• Understand and use words for fame, music and film
• Work out the meaning of a word from its sentence context
• Distinguish gratuit / libre and the two meanings of je suis

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE subject content for French, German and Spanish (September 2025 version: vocabulary requirements) and the AQA GCSE French (8652) vocabulary list (topics: Media and technology; Celebrity culture).