Tips for success in Arts subjects

[ninwa]

The written exam will comprise the following sections:
1. An exercise to test your ability to conjugate verbs in the person indicated (je, tu, etc). (5% of written exam)

2. 2 gap filling exercises to test other key grammar structures learnt this semester. (5% each)

3. Sentences to translate into French to test the vocabulary and grammar covered in Vis-à-vis this semester. (30%)

4. A reading comprehension of a French text on a topic covered this semester with short answer questions to be answered in English and an exercise asking you to find in the text the French equivalents of short English phrases. (15%)

5. Creative writing:  A choice of 3 titles on which to write 80 - 100 words.  A chance to show your knowledge of vocabulary and grammar and your creative genius!  The word length is kept short deliberately to give you time to concentrate on quality (40 %).

[ninwa]

My laptop died mid last year and all of my uni work up to then was lost, so I don't actually have the unit guide for French 1 anymore. But judging from my notebook, in FRN1010 we studied (I made notes on every tiny thing we studied... so yeah ):

- greetings etc. (like hello, what's your name, how are you, my name is..., I don't understand, thank you, goodbye etc.)
- alphabet pronunciation
- names of accents
- "les mots apparentés" ("equivalents" between French and English spelling... e.g. -ing in English equates to -ant in French, as in amusing/amusant - if you want I can type up this table for you, it's not very big)
- indefinite/definite articles, partitive articles
- asking questions
- numbers (jejak I can type up these notes for you if you like, they're really detailed because I was still an enthusiastic jaffy full of motivation back then)
- days of the week
- months
- genders of nouns (incl. which endings were more likely to be feminine etc.)
- pluralising nouns
- pronunciation (have good info sheets on this if you want)
- verb conjugation for:

• regular verbs ending in -er
• the verb être (to be)
• the verb avoir (to have)
• regular verbs ending in -ir
• the verb aller (to go)
• the verb faire (to do)
• regular verbs ending in -re
• the verb boire (to drink)
• the verb prendre (to take)

- negation (e.g. ne...pas)
- some adverbs
- some adjective qualifiers (e.g. un peu - a little)
- c'est/ce sont vs. il/elle est
- expressions with avoir (e.g. avoir faim/soif - to be hungry/thirsty, avoir de la chance - to be lucky)
- different levels of formality in asking questions
- adjective agreement
- the prepositions à and de
- indefinite articles after ne...pas
- interrogative words (e.g. quand - when, pourquoi - why)
- the placement of adjectives (adjectives usually come after the noun, but there are exceptions)
- possessives (my, your, theirs etc. - I don't know what they're actually called in English - possessive pronouns??)
- imperatives
- interrogative adjectives (which/what, this/that/these/those)
- how to tell the time in 12-hour and 24-hour time


... this seems like a lot more than it actually was, so don't be freaked out! And I'm happy to scan my notes on any of these topics if you want them

[jejak]

Thanks so much for that detailed list, ninwa. I'm comfortable with most of the structural/grammatical items you have listed (I'm assuming that the verbs need only be conjugated in the present indicative?), but not the vocab-ish ones. Also, I had no idea there was a difference between il est and c'est... à and de trip me up a lot.

And I'm happy to scan my notes on any of these topics if you want them

Would that be too much trouble? There are some that I would find really useful. Would I be able to PM you with a couple of requests? (Okay, I'll be upfront - having all of the notes would be awesome, but I'm sure that's too much scanning for one person to do.)

Again, thanks so much!!

[ninwa]

Ah yes, definitely just present indicative looks like I was wrong, we didn't even do passe compose until level 2!

Sure PM if you want, or you can write it here, I'll upload the ones you want here first (in case other ppl wanna see it) and do the rest if I have time. Some of my notes are probably confusing (I have strange methods of remembering things and my notes reflect that occasionally) so I'll type them up in uncrazy-people-language

[jejak]

Okay, I hope this isn't too much to request. The ones in bold would be most useful.

- numbers
- telling time
- the prepositions à and de
- indefinite articles after ne...pas
- c'est/ce sont vs. il/elle est

Merci bcp!

[ninwa]

apologies in advance for the shitty quality, I used a camera because my scanner isn't working -_-
if you can't see properly I'll just type them up - it's good revision for me, anyway

[ninwa]

[ninwa]

[ninwa]

had to type this up because only I would understand the notes I actually wrote -_-

zéro
un
deux
trois
quatre
cinq
six
sept
huit
neuf
dix
onze
douze
treize
quatorze
quinze
seize
dix-sept
dix-huit
dix-neuf   
20 : vingt
21 : vingt et un
22 : vingt-deux
23 : vingt-trois
(etc.)
30 : trente
31 : trente et un
32 : trente-deux
(etc.)
40 : quarante
(etc.)
50 : cinquante
(etc.)
60 : soixante
(etc.)   
70 : soixante-dix (sixty-ten)
71 : soixante et onze (sixty-eleven)
72 : soixante-douze (sixty-twelve)
73 : soixante-treize (sixty-thirteen)
(etc.)
80 : quatre-vingts (four-twenties)
81 : quatre-vingt-un (four-twenty-one – note that there is no « et » from 81 onwards like there is in trente *et* un, for example)
82 : quatre-vingt-deux (four-twenty-two)
83 : quatre-vingt-trois (four-twenty-three)
(etc.)
90 : quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenty-ten)
91 : quatre-vingt-onze (four-twenty-eleven)
92 : quatre-vingt-douze (four-twenty-twelve)
(etc.)   
100 : cent
NB : not un cent
101 : cent un
NB : no « et »
(etc.)
200 : deux cents

However, it is « cent » and not « cents » if something follows it –

e.g.
300 : trois cents
but
320 : trois cent vingt   
1000 : mille

2000 : deux mille (mille never has « s » on the end)

When used in a date, « mille » becomes « mil » –

e.g.
1998 things : mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-huit
but
1998 as in the year : mil neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-huit
1,000,000 : un million (NB : unlike « cent » and « mille », there IS an « un »)


Other notes :
Decimal point : is a comma, called a « virgule »

Pronunciation :
When a number is followed by something, the last letter is not pronounced,
e.g.
cinq – pronounced « sank »
cinq mille – pronounced « san-mill »


If you would like that in Word:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ozowzgkuywo

EDIT: why oh why does my awesome word formatting not show up

[ninwa]

12 hour time - up to half past
Il est ____ heures ...

• et quart ( ___ : 15)
• et demie ( ___ : 30)

NB: only quarter past and half past use "et".
NB: feminine form, "demie", is used as l'heure is a feminine noun.

Il est ____ heures ...

• vingt ( ___ : 20)
• treize ( ___ : 13)

etc.

e.g. It is 3:15 - "Il est trois heures et quart."
e.g. It is 3:08 - "Il est trois heures huit."

12 hour time - half past onwards
Il est ___ heures ...

• moins le quart ( ___ : 45)
• moins cinq ( ___ : 55)

(moins means minus)
etc.

e.g. It is 2:47 - "Il est trois heures moins treize."

• midi = midday
• minuit = midnight
• midi et demi = half past midday
• minuit et demi = half past midnight

NB: masculine form, "demi", is used as midi/minuit are masculine nouns.

To differentiate, can add the following to the time:

• <time> du matin (morning)
• <time> de l'après-midi (afternoon)
• <time> du soir (night)

e.g. It is 3:10am - "Il est trois heures dix du matin."
e.g. It is 3:10pm - "Il est trois heures dix de l'après midi."
e.g. It is 9:10pm - "Il est neuf heures dix du soir."


24 hour time
___ heures ___
e.g.
2245 = vingt-deux heures quarante-cinq

[ninwa]

anything else you want, just shout (cbs scanning everything atm, it takes sooo long to upload )

[kendraaaaa]

Thank you so much

[jejak]

Thanks so much, ninwa. Those notes are awesome, particularly the numbers ones, and the c'est/il est ones. And don't worry, the photos are perfectly legible!

Just one thing, though - and this is not to be an asshole, but also for other people's benefit:

e.g. It is 3:47 - "Il est trois heures moins treize."

Should that be:
It is 2:47 - "Il est trois heures moins treize."

If so dw, typos happen.

Anyway I really can't thank you enough!! French class is going to be so awesome!!

(cbs scanning everything atm, it takes sooo long to upload)

I'll try not to hound you too much.

[ninwa]

LOL oops. I fail at maths fix'd

Don't worry about hounding, this is all useful revision to me anyways