In Grade 11 you wrote a cover letter for a summer job. At this level the stakes go up: an application to a university program, a scholarship, a co-op placement or a bilingual position, where the reader expects the full formal register and judges you on it. Formal French writing leans heavily on fixed formulas: phrases that every reader recognises, that sound right precisely because they are always the same, and that you can learn by heart. This lesson collects the formulas for an application letter, then turns to two other genres you will meet in university and at work: the critique (a review that summarises, judges and quotes) and the rapport (a report that presents data and makes recommendations). Each genre has its own tense pattern, and getting the tenses right is half the work.
The formal letter of application
| Function | Formula | English |
|---|---|---|
| Salutation with a title | Madame la Directrice, / Monsieur le Maire, / Madame, Monsieur, | Dear Director / Mayor / Sir or Madam |
| Opening | Je me permets de vous écrire afin de solliciter… / J'ai l'honneur de poser ma candidature à… | I am writing to request… / I am pleased to apply for… |
| Polite request | Je vous saurais gré de bien vouloir m'indiquer… | I would be grateful if you would let me know… |
| Attachment | Veuillez trouver ci-joint mon curriculum vitæ et mon relevé de notes. | Please find attached my CV and transcript. |
| Availability | Je reste à votre disposition pour tout renseignement complémentaire. | I remain available should you need any further information. |
| Before the closing | Dans l'attente de votre réponse, je vous prie d'agréer… | Looking forward to your reply, I remain… |
| Closing (standard) | Veuillez agréer, Madame la Directrice, l'expression de mes sentiments distingués. | Yours sincerely |
| Closing (person in high office) | Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame la Ministre, l'assurance de ma considération distinguée. | Yours respectfully |
The impératif of politeness: veuillez
Veuillez is the vous form of the impératif of vouloir, and in formal French it means please: Veuillez trouver ci-joint… (Please find attached), Veuillez m'excuser (Please excuse me), Veuillez agréer…. It is followed by an infinitive. It is polite but still a request addressed to the reader, so formal letters often soften further with the conditionnel: Je vous saurais gré de… (I would be grateful to you for…), Pourriez-vous…? (Could you…?), Auriez-vous l'obligeance de…? (Would you be so kind as to…?). With ci-joint placed before the noun it refers to, leaving it invariable is always correct: Veuillez trouver ci-joint les documents demandés.
Dans l'attente… needs je, not veuillez
Dans l'attente de votre réponse describes you, the writer, waiting. The main clause must therefore have je as its subject: Dans l'attente de votre réponse, je vous prie d'agréer… Writing Dans l'attente de votre réponse, veuillez agréer… makes the reader the one waiting; Canadian and Québec language guides flag this as a construction error (an anacoluthe, a break in the sentence's logic). The same logic applies to any opening phrase: Espérant une réponse favorable, je vous prie…, never …, veuillez….
The film review (la critique)
| Part | Contents | Tense and tools |
|---|---|---|
| Titre and accroche | a headline with an angle and a first sentence that makes a claim | Un premier film qui vise juste (A first film that hits the mark) |
| Fiche technique | title, director, country, year, length, genre, main actors | réalisé par, d'une durée de 1 h 52, avec… |
| Résumé | the situation and the conflict, without the ending | présent: Maya, 17 ans, rentre à Hearst pour l'hiver…; warn with Attention, divulgâcheur! if you must reveal more |
| Analyse | acting, script, direction, music, images, with evidence | présent; short quotations from the film or from other critics |
| Verdict | your judgment and who should see it | À voir absolument (a must-see), à éviter, a rating (3 étoiles sur 5) |
| Review vocabulary | English |
|---|---|
| le jeu des acteurs, une interprétation juste | the acting, a convincing performance |
| la mise en scène, le réalisateur, la réalisatrice | the direction, the director |
| le scénario, les dialogues, le dénouement | the script, the dialogue, the ending |
| la trame sonore (Canada), la bande originale (France) | the soundtrack |
| un rythme lent, des longueurs | a slow pace, slow stretches |
| un navet (familiar) | a terrible film, a flop |
- Integrate the quotation into your sentence: Quand Maya lance à son père: « Tu n'as jamais quitté cette ville », le spectateur comprend enfin la source du conflit. → When Maya says to her father, "You've never left this town," the viewer finally understands the source of the conflict.
- Use a reporting verb that shows tone: murmure, lance, avoue, reproche, rather than repeating dit.
- Mark a cut with […]: « Je reste […] parce que personne d'autre ne le fera ».
- Quote a critic with attribution: Selon la critique du journal local, le film est « d'une grande justesse ». Quote only words you have actually read.
These quotations come from an invented film used as a model, Le Dernier Hiver. When you review a real film, take quotations from the film itself or from a review you have in front of you, and copy them exactly.
The report (le rapport)
| Section | What it does | Tense | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction | states the goal and the method | passé composé | Nous avons interrogé 240 élèves en septembre. (We surveyed 240 students in September.) |
| Résultats | presents the data, without opinion | présent or passé composé | 62 % des répondants utilisent l'autobus. (62% of respondents take the bus.) |
| Conclusion | says what the data showed | passé composé | L'enquête a révélé que l'horaire ne convient pas aux élèves du soir. (The survey showed that the schedule does not suit evening students.) |
| Recommandations | proposes action | futur, conditionnel, or recommander que + subjonctif | Nous recommandons que la Ville ajoute un départ à 18 h. (We recommend that the City add an 18:00 departure.) |
| Presenting data | English |
|---|---|
| 62 % des élèves (space before %); 12,5 % (decimal comma); 1 250 élèves (space for thousands) | 62% of students; 12.5%; 1,250 students |
| la moitié, le tiers, le quart des répondants | half, a third, a quarter of the respondents |
| près de, environ, plus de, moins de | nearly, about, more than, fewer than |
| Le taux est passé de 40 % à 55 %. | The rate went from 40% to 55%. |
| Les inscriptions ont augmenté de 15 %. / ont diminué de moitié. | Enrolment increased by 15%. / fell by half. |
| deux fois plus de / trois fois moins de | twice as many / a third as many |
A related text: a savings plan
A personal savings plan uses the same structure as a report: data, then decisions. Key words: un budget, les revenus (income), les dépenses (expenses), épargner or mettre de côté (to save), un compte d'épargne (a savings account), un CELI (compte d'épargne libre d'impôt, the TFSA), placer or investir (to invest), le taux d'intérêt and les intérêts composés (compound interest). Write the plan in the futur: Je mettrai de côté 40 $ par semaine; en un an, j'aurai économisé plus de 2 000 $.
- Plan: purpose, reader, register, and an outline with one idea per paragraph.
- Draft: write fast; mark doubtful words with a symbol and keep going.
- Revise for content: does each paragraph do one job? Ask a peer to say in one sentence what each paragraph says.
- Edit for language: register (no ça, on, super), agreement of adjectives and past participles, mood after triggers (recommander que + subjonctif), tense pattern of the genre, accents and ci-joint / percentage formatting.
- Final check: read it aloud. Anything you would not say to the reader in person, in this register, gets rewritten.