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Travel, Holidays and Transport

FoundationHigherAQA

Learn Travel, Holidays and Transport for GCSE French with this free worksheet and full mark scheme — Foundation and Higher exam-style practice with worked answers for AQA GCSE French (8652). Theme 3 Topic 1 covers holidays, destinations, transport and accommodation.

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These worksheets and mark schemes are original, written for Virtus Academy and checked against the current AQA specification. Every worksheet comes with a full mark scheme.

Foundation

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Higher

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Topic overview

Holiday vocabulary combines the perfect tense for what you did with prepositions for where you went.

Aller takes être in the perfect tense, so je suis allé with agreement: je suis allée for a female speaker, nous sommes allés for a group. This is the single most useful sentence in the topic and the agreement is where marks are lost.

Prepositions follow the country rules: en France, au Portugal, aux États-Unis, à Paris. Transport uses en for enclosed vehicles — en voiture, en train, en avion — but à for others: à pied, à vélo. Passer is used for spending time: j'ai passé deux semaines en Espagne.

Revision notes

The perfect tense of aller

Aller takes être: je suis allé, je suis allée, nous sommes allés.

The participle agrees with the subject. This is the core sentence of the topic and the agreement is the most frequent error.

Prepositions for places

En for feminine countries, au for masculine, aux for plural, à for towns.

En France, au Portugal, aux États-Unis, à Paris. The same rules as any other context, but they appear constantly here.

Transport and duration

En for enclosed vehicles: en voiture, en train, en avion, en bus.

À for others: à pied, à vélo. Passer for duration: j'ai passé deux semaines en Espagne. Rester also works: je suis resté trois jours.

Key points

  • Aller takes être in the perfect tense.
  • The participle agrees with the subject.
  • En is used for feminine countries.
  • Au is used for masculine countries.
  • En is used for enclosed transport.
  • À is used for pied and vélo.

Worked examples

Example 1

Translate: I went to France, as a female speaker. [2 marks]

Working

Je suis allée en Franceuse être with the agreed participle
Allée takes an -e to agree with the female subjectexplain the agreement

Example 2

Translate: we went by train. [2 marks]

Working

Nous sommes allés en trainuse être with the plural agreement
En is used for enclosed transport such as a trainexplain the preposition

Example 3

Translate: I spent two weeks in Spain. [2 marks]

Working

J'ai passé deux semaines en Espagneuse passer with avoir
Passer takes avoir, and en is used because Espagne is feminineexplain the auxiliary and preposition

Common mistakes

  • Using avoir with aller.

    It takes être in the perfect tense.

  • Forgetting the participle agreement.

    Je suis allée for a female speaker.

  • Using à for countries.

    Countries take en, au or aux.

  • Using en for à pied.

    Walking and cycling take à.

Exam tips

  • Use être with aller and agree the participle.
  • Apply the country preposition rules.
  • Use en for enclosed transport only.
  • Add duration with passer or rester.

Key terms

Aller
To go, taking être in the perfect tense.
Agreement
Matching the participle to the subject.
En
Used for feminine countries and enclosed transport.
Passer
To spend time, taking avoir.

Related topics

Written and reviewed against the current AQA specification. Spotted an error? Let us know.