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← Unit 5: Langue et société: Registers, Media and Literature

FSF4U · Unit 5 test review

Langue et société: Registers, Media and Literature: Test Review

Everything for the Unit 5 test on one page: the key facts from all 5 lessons, the mistakes that cost the most marks, and a practice test that points you back to the lessons you need.

Key facts

Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu

  • Register shows in vocabulary (bagnole, voiture, automobile) and in grammar: dropped ne, on for nous, question form, ça or cela, y'a or il y a.
  • Questions climb the scale: Tu viens? → Est-ce que tu viens? → Venez-vous? Familiar Québec speech adds the particle -tu: Tu viens-tu?
  • Dropping ne is normal in conversation; keep ne in writing unless you are reproducing speech.
  • The ne explétif (avant qu'il ne parte, je crains qu'il ne pleuve) is optional, formal, and not a negation.
  • Formal greetings agree: enchanté(e), soyez le bienvenu / la bienvenue / les bienvenus.
  • Choose one register for the audience and hold it to the end; mixing registers is the commonest error.

Spoken French, Slang and Idioms

  • Liaison carries a silent final consonant onto the next vowel: s, x → z, d → t, f → v (mainly in neuf‿ans, neuf‿heures).
  • Obligatory: determiner + noun, pronoun + verb, adjective + noun. Forbidden: after et, after a singular noun, before an aspirated h (les / héros).
  • Spoken contractions: t'es (tu es), chuis (je suis), p'tit (petit), y'a (il y a), faut (il faut), z'êtes (vous êtes).
  • Verlan swaps syllables (France): meuf (femme), relou (lourd), chelou (louche), laisse béton (laisse tomber).
  • Québec familiar: char, blonde, chum, jaser, niaiser, pantoute, c'est le fun. Avoid calques such as appliquer sur un poste in formal writing: say postuler à un poste.
  • Chercher des poux à quelqu'un (not puces) = to pick a fight over nothing.

Media, Bias and Point of View

  • Parts of a news page: la une (front page), surtitre, titre, chapeau (lede paragraph), attaque (first sentence), intertitre, légende (caption).
  • Journalistic conditionnel = unconfirmed: present for now or later (il songerait à…), conditionnel passé for the past (il aurait démissionné).
  • Attribution verbs carry judgment: dire, déclarer (neutral), affirmer (confident), prétendre (doubt), reconnaître, admettre (concession).
  • Read for what is missing: who is quoted, what numbers are compared to, which photo was chosen, what the headline leaves out.
  • les Autochtones (noun, capital) / autochtone (adjective, lower case); Premières Nations excludes Inuit and Métis; use a nation's own name when you know it.

Francophone Literatures and Cultures

  • Négritude (1930s, Paris): Aimé Césaire (Martinique), Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal), Léon-Gontran Damas (French Guiana); Césaire coined the word.
  • Senghor: first president of Senegal (1960–1980) and in 1983 the first African elected to the Académie française. Laferrière (Haiti, Montréal): Académie française, 2013.
  • Mariama Bâ, Une si longue lettre (1979), a novel in letters. Kourouma, Les Soleils des indépendances (1968), first published in Montréal, French shaped by Malinké.
  • Gabrielle Roy, Bonheur d'occasion (1945, Prix Femina 1947); Antonine Maillet, Pélagie-la-Charrette (Goncourt 1979); Michel Tremblay, Les Belles-sœurs (1968, in joual); Kim Thúy, Ru (2009).
  • Analyse a text in the présent (le roman raconte); tell the author's life in past tenses (elle est née, elle a publié).

Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports

  • Application formulas: Je me permets de vous écrire afin de…, Je vous saurais gré de bien vouloir…, Veuillez trouver ci-joint…, Je reste à votre disposition….
  • Veuillez + infinitive = the polite impératif of vouloir (please). Repeat the salutation in the closing: Veuillez agréer, Madame la Directrice, l'expression de mes sentiments distingués.
  • Dans l'attente de votre réponse, je vous prie d'agréer…, not …, veuillez agréer…: the opening phrase needs je as subject.
  • Review: plot summary and analysis in the présent; no spoilers (divulgâcheur); integrated, exact quotations.
  • Report: method and conclusions in the passé composé, data in the présent, recommendations with recommander que + subjonctif, the futur or the conditionnel. Write 62 %, 12,5 %, 1 250.

Where marks get lost

  • Reading the ne explétif as a negation: avant qu'il ne parte means before he leaves, not before he doesn't leave. (Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu)
  • Mixing registers in one text: Madame, je suis super motivé et j'ai fait plein de trucs. Formal: Madame, je suis très motivé et j'ai acquis une expérience variée. (Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu)
  • Dropping ne in formal writing because you hear it dropped all the time: in an essay or letter write ce n'est pas, not c'est pas. (Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu)
  • Using an administrative word in conversation: Mon époux et moi sommes domiciliés à Sudbury sounds like a form. With friends, say Mon mari et moi, on habite à Sudbury. (Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu)
  • Forgetting agreement in fixed formal phrases: a woman writes enchantée; a woman is welcomed with soyez la bienvenue. (Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu)
  • Making a forbidden liaison after et: et‿un ("é-tun"). The t of et is never pronounced. (Spoken French, Slang and Idioms)
  • Making a liaison before an aspirated h: les‿héros sounds like les zéros (the zeros). Say les / héros. (Spoken French, Slang and Idioms)
  • Writing spoken contractions in an essay: chuis, y'a, t'es belong only in reproduced speech. (Spoken French, Slang and Idioms)
  • Using appliquer for a job: j'ai appliqué pour le poste is a calque. Write j'ai postulé or j'ai posé ma candidature. (Spoken French, Slang and Idioms)
  • Saying chercher des puces à quelqu'un. The idiom is chercher des poux à quelqu'un. (Spoken French, Slang and Idioms)
  • Reading the journalistic conditionnel as would: Le maire aurait démissionné does not mean the mayor would have resigned; it means the mayor reportedly resigned. (Media, Bias and Point of View)
  • Using the conditionnel présent for a past rumour: Le ministre démissionnerait hier. For a past event use the conditionnel passé: Le ministre aurait démissionné hier. (Media, Bias and Point of View)
  • Treating every attribution verb as neutral: prétendre signals doubt, and avouer suggests guilt. (Media, Bias and Point of View)
  • Writing les autochtones with a lower case as a noun, or les peuples Autochtones with a capital as an adjective. Noun: les Autochtones; adjective: autochtone. (Media, Bias and Point of View)
  • Using Premières Nations to mean all Indigenous peoples. It excludes Inuit and Métis; the collective term is les Autochtones (or les Premières Nations, les Inuits et les Métis). (Media, Bias and Point of View)
  • Writing literary analysis in the past: Le roman racontait l'histoire de…. Analyse in the présent: Le roman raconte l'histoire de…. (Francophone Literatures and Cultures)
  • Confusing the author with the narrator: in Allah n'est pas obligé, the narrator is the boy Birahima, not Kourouma. (Francophone Literatures and Cultures)
  • Treating Négritude as a single French movement: its founders came from Martinique, Senegal and French Guiana, and wrote against French colonial culture. (Francophone Literatures and Cultures)
  • Calling regional or familiar French in a novel a mistake. In Tremblay, Maillet or Kourouma, joual, Acadian French and Malinké-influenced French are deliberate artistic choices. (Francophone Literatures and Cultures)
  • Mixing up roman (novel) and nouvelle (short story), or un recueil (a collection) and un récit (a narrative). (Francophone Literatures and Cultures)
  • Ending with Dans l'attente de votre réponse, veuillez agréer…. The opening phrase refers to the writer, so write je vous prie d'agréer…. (Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports)
  • Forgetting to repeat the salutation in the closing formula, or repeating a different one: a letter that opens Madame la Directrice, closes with Veuillez agréer, Madame la Directrice, …. (Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports)
  • Using the indicatif after recommander que: Nous recommandons que l'école offre… (subjonctif; for -er verbs and verbs like offrir it looks the same with il/elle), but que l'école fasse, not fait. (Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports)
  • Writing English number formats in French: 62% or 12.5%. French: 62 %, 12,5 %, 1 250. (Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports)
  • Telling the ending in a review summary, or summarising in the passé composé. Summarise in the présent and stop before the dénouement. (Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports)

Practice test

25 questions from across the unit. Each one shows the lesson it comes from.

  1. Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu
    1
    Which sentence is in the soutenu register?
  2. Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu
    2
    Order from most familiar to most formal.
    1. 1Je sais pas.
    2. 2Je l'ignore.
    3. 3Je ne sais pas.
    4. 4J'sais pas.
  3. Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu
    3
    Complete the formal welcome to a mixed group of visitors (women and men): Soyez les ___!
  4. Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu
    4
    Which element does not belong in a formal letter?
  5. Registers: Familier, Courant, Soutenu
    5
    In familiar Québec French, what is the function of the second tu in Tu manges-tu avec nous?
  6. Spoken French, Slang and Idioms
    6
    In which phrase is the liaison forbidden?
  7. Spoken French, Slang and Idioms
    7
    Write the full standard form of the spoken contraction chuis (two words).
  8. Spoken French, Slang and Idioms
    8
    Which sentence is the best standard French for I applied for the camp counsellor position?
  9. Spoken French, Slang and Idioms
    9
    Your friend says Moi, j'ai jamais triché à un examen. You answer Mon œil! What do you mean?
  10. Spoken French, Slang and Idioms
    10
    Write the standard French equivalent of the calque ça fait du sens (four words, starting with ça).
  11. Media, Bias and Point of View
    11
    What does this headline tell you? Le chef de police aurait menti aux enquêteurs.
  12. Media, Bias and Point of View
    12
    Which verb casts doubt on what the speaker said?
  13. Media, Bias and Point of View
    13
    Put the parts of a typical news article in the order a reader meets them, from top to bottom.
    1. 1un intertitre
    2. 2l'attaque (first sentence of the body)
    3. 3le chapeau
    4. 4le surtitre
    5. 5le titre
  14. Media, Bias and Point of View
    14
    Which phrase is correct and respectful in French?
  15. Media, Bias and Point of View
    15
    A Gatineau newspaper headlines Les travailleurs gatinois paieront 8 $ par jour. What best explains this angle?
  16. Francophone Literatures and Cultures
    16
    Match each writer to a key work.
    Aimé Césaire
    Mariama Bâ
    Gabrielle Roy
    Michel Tremblay
    Kim Thúy
  17. Francophone Literatures and Cultures
    17
    In which city was Kourouma's Les Soleils des indépendances first published? (one word)
  18. Francophone Literatures and Cultures
    18
    Put these works in order of first publication or first performance, earliest first.
    1. 1Ru (Thúy)
    2. 2Une si longue lettre (Bâ)
    3. 3Les Belles-sœurs (Tremblay), first staged
    4. 4Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (Césaire)
    5. 5Bonheur d'occasion (Roy)
  19. Francophone Literatures and Cultures
    19
    Which sentence is written correctly for a literary analysis?
  20. Francophone Literatures and Cultures
    20
    Which statement about An Antane Kapesh's Je suis une maudite sauvagesse (1976) is accurate?
  21. Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports
    21
    What is veuillez grammatically?
  22. Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports
    22
    Which final sentence is correctly constructed?
  23. Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports
    23
    Give the subjonctif of faire: Le comité recommande que l'école ___ un sondage chaque année.
  24. Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports
    24
    Which is the correct French format for twelve and a half percent?
  25. Formal Writing: Applications, Reviews and Reports
    25
    Which sentence is best for the résumé section of a review?

Endless drill

Fresh numbers every time, for the calculation questions in this unit.

Endless drillnew numbers every time

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