Translation into French
Practise Translation into French 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). Paper 4 Writing includes translating sentences from English into French.
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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.
Topic overview
Translation into French is marked on grammatical accuracy, so the strategy is to control what you write rather than attempt what you cannot check.
Work out the verb and tense first, then the subject, then everything else. Check three things in every sentence: does the verb agree with its subject, do the adjectives agree with their nouns, and is the correct article present.
The articles are where most marks are lost, because English omits them. J'aime le sport needs le. Je mange du pain needs du. J'étudie le français needs le. Scanning your finished translation specifically for missing articles is the single most productive check you can make.
Revision notes
The method
Establish the verb and tense first, then the subject, then the rest.
Write what you are confident is correct rather than attempting a complex structure you cannot verify. Accuracy earns the marks, not ambition.
The three checks
Does the verb agree with its subject? Do adjectives agree with their nouns?
Is the correct article present? Running these three checks on every sentence catches the majority of avoidable errors.
Articles are the biggest risk
English omits articles that French requires.
J'aime le sport. Je mange du pain. J'étudie le français. Scanning specifically for missing articles is the most productive single check available.
Key points
- Identify the verb and tense first.
- Write what you can check rather than what is ambitious.
- Check verb agreement with the subject.
- Check adjective agreement with nouns.
- Check the article is present.
- Missing articles are the most common error.
Worked examples
Example 1
Translate into French: I like sport. [2 marks]
Working
Example 2
Translate into French: She is tall. [2 marks]
Working
Example 3
State the three checks to run on each sentence. [3 marks]
Working
Common mistakes
Omitting articles.
French requires them where English does not.
Forgetting adjective agreement.
Check every adjective against its noun.
Attempting structures you cannot check.
Accuracy earns more than ambition.
Not checking the verb ending.
It must match the subject.
Exam tips
- Identify the verb and tense before writing.
- Run the three checks on every sentence.
- Scan specifically for missing articles.
- Write what you can verify as correct.
Key terms
- Agreement
- Matching verb to subject and adjective to noun.
- Article
- Le, la, du or des, often omitted in error.
- Accuracy
- What the translation marks are awarded for.
- Checking
- Reviewing each sentence against the three tests.
Related topics
Written and reviewed against the current AQA specification. Spotted an error? Let us know.