Festivals and Traditions: Exam Skills (AQA GCSE French): Revision Note

Write down what you hear in French.

1.     ...................................................

2.     ...................................................

3.     ...................................................

4.     ...................................................

5.     ...................................................

Answers:

This is what you heard:

1. On peut voir un défilé militaire.

2. Les familles viennent ensemble pour danser.

3. Le quatorze juillet, c’est une date importante.

4. J’ai regardé un feu d’artifice le soir.

5. La fête était une expérience incroyable.

• You should have included the accents on é and ê

• You should have spotted the words with [ill] and [ille] sounds

• The unknown words were militaire (military) and incroyable (incredible) - check your spelling carefully 

Prepare the following role-play.

1. Say which festival you want to take part in. (Give one detail.)

2. Give an opinion of the festival.  (Give one detail.)

3. Say one thing which you are going to do at the festival. (Give one detail.)

4. Say one thing you normally do to prepare for a festival. (Give one detail.)

5. ? Ask your friend a question about celebrations or traditions.

Answer:

Here are some example responses.

1. Je voudrais participer à la Fête Nationale en France.

2. C’est une fête amusante. 

3. Je vais regarder le feu d’artifice.

4. J'achète des nouveaux vêtements.

5. Tu aimes célébrer quelle fête ?

Read the article about a famous festival and answer the questions in English.

Rock en Seine est un festival de musique qui a lieu chaque année près de Paris. C’est une occasion de découvrir de nouveaux groupes. Pendant le festival, les touristes viennent pour voir des concerts, et ils dépensent* beaucoup d’argent, ce qui bénéficie à la ville. Cependant, la musique est très forte, ce qui peut causer beaucoup de bruit pour les habitants de la ville et des alentours.

*dépenser - to spend

1. How often does the festival take place?

2. What do people have the opportunity to do?

3. What is an advantage of the festival for the town?

4. What is a disadvantage of the festival for the locals?

5. Read the last sentence again. What is alentours?

   1. a type of music

   2. a person

   3. a place

Answers:

Here are the correct answers:

1. once a year / every year

2. discover new groups

3. tourists spend money in the city

4. it’s noisy / there is a lot of noise

5. C - a place (it means ‘area’)

Use context clues to help you - look at the meaning of the surrounding words. We can work out the meaning of alentours by looking at the words habitants (residents) and ville (city). The phrases de la and des also give a grammatical clue, as they mean ‘of the’ - we can work out that the phrase before means ‘for residents of the city and of the …’.

What is in this photo? Write five sentences in French.

Answers:

Here are some example responses.

• C’est un festival de musique. 

• Il y a beaucoup de gens.

• On chante.

• On danse.

• Il y a un groupe de musique.

• Il y a des chanteurs. 

• Il y a des instruments de musique.

• Il fait beau.

• It is a music festival.

• There are lots of people.

• People are singing.

• People are dancing.

• There is a music band.

• There are singers.

• There are musical instruments.

• The weather is nice.

Translate these sentences into French.

1. The parade is interesting. I am enjoying it.

2. Public holidays? There are lots of them.

3. I like the traditions in French-speaking countries.

4. They burnt a fire to celebrate the public holiday.

5. The king will take part in the event.

Answers:

1. Le défilé est intéressant. J'en profite.

2. Les jours fériés ? Il y en a beaucoup.

   Questions 1 and 2 use the adverbial pronoun en.

3. J'aime les traditions dans les pays francophones.

4. On a/ils ont/elles ont brûlé le feu pour célébrer le jour ferié.

5. Le roi participera/va participer à l'événement.