Life at School: Grammar and Phonics (AQA GCSE French): Revision Note
Exam code: 8652
To talk about life at school , you can use comparatives to compare things, such as teachers, subjects, and facilities, and superlatives to talk about what is the most and least of something. Let's look at this grammar point in more detail.
Comparatives
Le français est plus intéressant que l'anglais, mais moins facile que les maths.
Use comparatives to compare two things, e.g. when talking about which school subjects you find more difficult, more interesting, easier …
The sentence above means 'French is more interesting than English but less easy than maths'
In English we often add -er to adjectives to form comparatives, e.g. ‘the sixth form is smaller than the high school’
In French there are three important comparative structures:
plus + adjective + que = more + adjective + than
moins + adjective + que = less + adjective + than
aussi + adjective + que = as + adjective + as
La science est plus intéressante que les maths.
Science is more interesting than maths.
La science est moins intéressante que les maths.
Science is less interesting than maths.
La science est aussi intéressante que les maths.
Science is as interesting as maths.
The adjective must agree with the first noun - in the examples above, the adjective is feminine as science is feminine
Like in English, the words for ‘better’ and ‘worse’ are irregular:
La science est meilleure que les maths.
Science is better than maths.
La science est pire que les maths.
Science is worse than maths.
Examiner Tips and Tricks
It is important to use and practise grammar in context - use the structures above to say some sentences comparing different aspects of school life, e.g. subjects and teachers. Write them down before reading aloud if you need more support.
Superlatives
Higher tier only
This grammar is only required for Higher tier.
Le français est la matière la plus amusante.
Use superlatives to say something is the biggest, the smallest, the best, etc. - it is the highest degree of something
In English we often use the words ‘most’ and ‘least’, e.g. ‘the most interesting’
The sentence above means 'French is the most fun subject'
In French there are two important superlative structures:
le / la / les + plus + adjective = the most + adjective
le / la / les + moins + adjective= the least + adjective
la matière la plus intéressante
the most interesting subject
la matière la moins intéressante
the least interesting subject
The adjective must agree with the noun - in the examples above, the adjective is feminine as matière is feminine
Like in English, the words for ‘the best’ and ‘the worst’ are irregular
They agree with the noun in number and gender and are placed before the noun:
les meilleures matières
the best subjects
les pires matières
the worst subjects
Life at school: phonics
The letter ‘c’ in the sounds [ce], [ci], [cy] and [ç] makes an ‘s’ sound
commencerfacile
recycler
leçon
The sound [th] is pronounced as a hard ‘t’, as ‘h’ is a silent letter in French
sympathique
théâtre
Examiner Tips and Tricks
It is important to know how to say and spell French words accurately. The sounds covered here can appear in any words throughout the course.
Unlock more, it's free!
Did this page help you?