GCSE French grammar guides
32 lessons. Each has a full explanation, worked examples, practice questions with answers and the mistakes students make.
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Grade 2 Near future and recent past: aller and venir de
Say what you are going to do with aller plus an infinitive, what you have just done with venir de, and what is happening with être en train de.Grade 2 Nouns: gender and plurals
Masculine and feminine nouns, the clues in word endings, feminine forms of people and jobs, and regular and irregular plurals.Grade 2 Present tense: regular verbs
The present tense of regular -er, -ir and -re verbs, the spelling changes in manger, commencer, acheter and appeler, and how the present is used.Grade 3 Adjectives: agreement and position
Making adjectives agree in gender and number, irregular patterns, invariable adjectives and where adjectives go.Grade 3 Adverbs and quantifiers
Adverbs in -ment, common irregular adverbs, where adverbs go, time and place adverbs, intensifiers and question words.Grade 3 Articles: le, un, du and de
Definite, indefinite and partitive articles, contractions with à and de, and why de replaces the article after a negative or a quantity.Grade 3 Asking questions: est-ce que, inversion, qui, que
Three ways to ask a question, the question words, qui and que, and how to ask questions in role plays.Grade 3 Giving orders: the imperative
Commands, advice and instructions with tu, nous and vous, the irregular forms, the negative and the polite alternatives.Grade 3 My, this, which and each
Possessive adjectives (mon, ma, son), demonstratives (ce, cet, cette), quel and the indefinite chaque, quelques, plusieurs and tout.Grade 3 Negatives: ne pas, jamais, plus, rien
Say no and never in French: ne ... pas, jamais, plus, rien, personne, ni ... ni, ne ... que, and where the negative goes in every tense.Grade 3 Perfect tense with avoir
Say what you did: avoir plus a past participle, regular and irregular participles, the negative, pronouns and time words.Grade 3 Prepositions: à, de, en, dans, chez, depuis
Common and compound prepositions of place, time, transport and manner, and which one to use when English has only one word.Grade 3 Present tense: irregular verbs
être, avoir, aller, faire, pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, savoir, venir, prendre, voir, dire and the other irregular verbs you must know by heart.Grade 3 Pronouns: je, on, moi, quelqu'un, ça
Subject pronouns including on, c'est and il est, emphatic pronouns (moi, toi, lui), indefinite pronouns and the demonstratives ça and cela.Grade 3 Word families, cognates and false friends
Use prefixes, suffixes and word families to work out unknown words, spot cognates and avoid false friends.Grade 4 Comparing: plus, moins, meilleur, mieux
Comparatives and superlatives of adjectives and adverbs, the irregular meilleur, pire and mieux, and comparing quantities.Grade 4 Perfect tense with être
The verbs of movement and change that use être, how the participle agrees with the subject, and the verbs that take either auxiliary.Grade 4 Reflexive verbs: se lever, s'amuser
Reflexive pronouns, the present and perfect of reflexive verbs, daily routine, negatives, infinitives and commands.Grade 4 The imperfect tense
Describe how things were and what used to happen: forming the imperfect, être and il y avait, habits, descriptions and time words.Grade 4 Verbs followed by an infinitive and impersonal verbs
Which verbs take the infinitive directly, which need à or de, prepositions before an infinitive, and il faut, il y a and other impersonal forms.Grade 5 Depuis, pendant and il y a
How long and since when: depuis with the present and the imperfect, ça fait ... que, pendant and il y a.Grade 5 Object pronouns: le, la, lui, leur
Direct and indirect object pronouns, where they go in the present, perfect, infinitive and negative, and the order of two pronouns.Grade 5 Perfect or imperfect?
Choose the right past tense: events and changes in the perfect, scenes, habits and states in the imperfect, and tell a story with both.Grade 5 Relative pronouns: qui, que, dont, où
Join sentences with qui and que, understand dont, and use où, ce qui and ce que to add detail.Grade 5 The future tense
Plans, predictions and promises with the simple future: regular endings, irregular stems, si clauses and quand with the future.Grade 5 The passive voice
Recognise and use the passive: être plus a past participle, in the present, imperfect, perfect and future, and how to avoid it with on.Grade 5 The pronouns y and en
Y for there and to it, en for some and of it, where they go in a sentence and how to use them in speaking and writing.Grade 6 En + present participle and après avoir
Doing two things at once with en plus the present participle, and what happened before with the perfect infinitive.Grade 6 The conditional and si clauses
Would and could: polite requests, wishes and advice, si clauses with the imperfect, and the conditional perfect for regrets.Grade 6 The pluperfect: what had happened
Say what had already happened: avoir or être in the imperfect plus a past participle, and where it fits in a story.Grade 7 Celui, celle and le mien
Read and use the pronouns celui, celle, ceux, celles and le mien, le tien, le sien, le nôtre, le vôtre, le leur.Grade 7 The present subjunctive
Understand the present subjunctive after il faut que, bien que, pour que and vouloir que, and use the safe forms yourself.
Say what you are going to do with aller plus an infinitive, what you have just done with venir de, and what is happening with être en train de.Grade 2 Nouns: gender and plurals
Masculine and feminine nouns, the clues in word endings, feminine forms of people and jobs, and regular and irregular plurals.Grade 2 Present tense: regular verbs
The present tense of regular -er, -ir and -re verbs, the spelling changes in manger, commencer, acheter and appeler, and how the present is used.Grade 3 Adjectives: agreement and position
Making adjectives agree in gender and number, irregular patterns, invariable adjectives and where adjectives go.Grade 3 Adverbs and quantifiers
Adverbs in -ment, common irregular adverbs, where adverbs go, time and place adverbs, intensifiers and question words.Grade 3 Articles: le, un, du and de
Definite, indefinite and partitive articles, contractions with à and de, and why de replaces the article after a negative or a quantity.Grade 3 Asking questions: est-ce que, inversion, qui, que
Three ways to ask a question, the question words, qui and que, and how to ask questions in role plays.Grade 3 Giving orders: the imperative
Commands, advice and instructions with tu, nous and vous, the irregular forms, the negative and the polite alternatives.Grade 3 My, this, which and each
Possessive adjectives (mon, ma, son), demonstratives (ce, cet, cette), quel and the indefinite chaque, quelques, plusieurs and tout.Grade 3 Negatives: ne pas, jamais, plus, rien
Say no and never in French: ne ... pas, jamais, plus, rien, personne, ni ... ni, ne ... que, and where the negative goes in every tense.Grade 3 Perfect tense with avoir
Say what you did: avoir plus a past participle, regular and irregular participles, the negative, pronouns and time words.Grade 3 Prepositions: à, de, en, dans, chez, depuis
Common and compound prepositions of place, time, transport and manner, and which one to use when English has only one word.Grade 3 Present tense: irregular verbs
être, avoir, aller, faire, pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, savoir, venir, prendre, voir, dire and the other irregular verbs you must know by heart.Grade 3 Pronouns: je, on, moi, quelqu'un, ça
Subject pronouns including on, c'est and il est, emphatic pronouns (moi, toi, lui), indefinite pronouns and the demonstratives ça and cela.Grade 3 Word families, cognates and false friends
Use prefixes, suffixes and word families to work out unknown words, spot cognates and avoid false friends.Grade 4 Comparing: plus, moins, meilleur, mieux
Comparatives and superlatives of adjectives and adverbs, the irregular meilleur, pire and mieux, and comparing quantities.Grade 4 Perfect tense with être
The verbs of movement and change that use être, how the participle agrees with the subject, and the verbs that take either auxiliary.Grade 4 Reflexive verbs: se lever, s'amuser
Reflexive pronouns, the present and perfect of reflexive verbs, daily routine, negatives, infinitives and commands.Grade 4 The imperfect tense
Describe how things were and what used to happen: forming the imperfect, être and il y avait, habits, descriptions and time words.Grade 4 Verbs followed by an infinitive and impersonal verbs
Which verbs take the infinitive directly, which need à or de, prepositions before an infinitive, and il faut, il y a and other impersonal forms.Grade 5 Depuis, pendant and il y a
How long and since when: depuis with the present and the imperfect, ça fait ... que, pendant and il y a.Grade 5 Object pronouns: le, la, lui, leur
Direct and indirect object pronouns, where they go in the present, perfect, infinitive and negative, and the order of two pronouns.Grade 5 Perfect or imperfect?
Choose the right past tense: events and changes in the perfect, scenes, habits and states in the imperfect, and tell a story with both.Grade 5 Relative pronouns: qui, que, dont, où
Join sentences with qui and que, understand dont, and use où, ce qui and ce que to add detail.Grade 5 The future tense
Plans, predictions and promises with the simple future: regular endings, irregular stems, si clauses and quand with the future.Grade 5 The passive voice
Recognise and use the passive: être plus a past participle, in the present, imperfect, perfect and future, and how to avoid it with on.Grade 5 The pronouns y and en
Y for there and to it, en for some and of it, where they go in a sentence and how to use them in speaking and writing.Grade 6 En + present participle and après avoir
Doing two things at once with en plus the present participle, and what happened before with the perfect infinitive.Grade 6 The conditional and si clauses
Would and could: polite requests, wishes and advice, si clauses with the imperfect, and the conditional perfect for regrets.Grade 6 The pluperfect: what had happened
Say what had already happened: avoir or être in the imperfect plus a past participle, and where it fits in a story.Grade 7 Celui, celle and le mien
Read and use the pronouns celui, celle, ceux, celles and le mien, le tien, le sien, le nôtre, le vôtre, le leur.Grade 7 The present subjunctive
Understand the present subjunctive after il faut que, bien que, pour que and vouloir que, and use the safe forms yourself.
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