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Customs, Festivals and Celebrations

FoundationHigherAQA

Revise Customs, Festivals and Celebrations 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 2 Topic 2 covers French-speaking festivals, traditions and family celebrations.

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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

Festivals and customs vocabulary appears in reading and listening texts about French culture, and it carries some specific grammar.

The main festivals are Noël, Pâques, le Nouvel An, la Saint-Valentin and le quatorze juillet, which is the French national day. Note that Noël takes no article in most expressions: à Noël, pour Noël.

Dates use cardinal numbers except the first: le premier janvier, but le vingt-cinq décembre. Months take no capital letter in French — janvier, février, mars — which differs from English. Useful verbs are fêter, célébrer and offrir, with offrir meaning to give as a present rather than simply to offer.

Revision notes

The main festivals

Noël, Pâques, le Nouvel An, la Saint-Valentin, le quatorze juillet.

Le quatorze juillet is the French national day. Noël takes no article in most expressions: à Noël, pour Noël, joyeux Noël.

Dates and months

Cardinal numbers except the first: le premier janvier, le vingt-cinq décembre.

Months take no capital letter: janvier, février, mars, avril. This differs from English and is a straightforward spelling mark.

Useful verbs

Fêter and célébrer both mean to celebrate.

Offrir means to give as a present, not simply to offer — on offre des cadeaux means we give presents. Se réunir means to gather, useful for describing family celebrations.

Key points

  • Noël and Pâques are the main festivals.
  • Le quatorze juillet is the national day.
  • Noël takes no article in most expressions.
  • Dates use cardinals except the first.
  • Months take no capital letter.
  • Offrir means to give as a present.

Worked examples

Example 1

Translate: the twenty-fifth of December. [2 marks]

Working

le vingt-cinq décembreuse the cardinal number
Décembre takes no capital letter in Frenchnote the spelling

Example 2

Translate: the first of January. [2 marks]

Working

le premier janvieruse the ordinal for the first
Only the first of the month uses an ordinalexplain the exception

Example 3

Translate: we give presents. [2 marks]

Working

On offre des cadeauxuse offrir with the partitive
Offrir means to give as a present here, not to offerexplain the meaning

Common mistakes

  • Capitalising months.

    French uses lower case: janvier, not Janvier.

  • Using ordinals for all dates.

    Only the first takes premier.

  • Translating offrir as to offer.

    In this context it means to give as a present.

  • Adding an article to Noël.

    À Noël, not à le Noël.

Exam tips

  • Write months in lower case.
  • Use cardinals for dates except the first.
  • Learn offrir as to give a present.
  • Remember Noël takes no article.

Key terms

Noël
Christmas, taking no article.
Le quatorze juillet
The French national day.
Offrir
To give as a present.
Fêter
To celebrate.

Related topics

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