This exam tips covers Exam Tips & Common Errors within Foundation dictation practice passages for GCSE French. Revise Foundation dictation practice passages in Dictation Technique for GCSE French with 10 exam-style questions and 10 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 5 of 5 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
💡 Exam Tips & Common Errors
- Do not stop writing during listen 1 — mark gaps with // and keep moving. You will fill them on listen 2.
- After the third listen, scan your answer systematically: (1) every verb after avoir — is it -é? (2) every être verb — does the past participle agree? (3) every ils/elles verb — does it end in -ent? (4) every feminine adjective — does it end in -e?
- Write accents clearly — an ambiguous mark between é and e could cost you a Grid B mark. Practise making accents sharp and consistent by hand.
- If you miss a word entirely, leave a blank rather than inventing a word. An invented wrong word cannot earn marks and wastes your mental energy on listen 2.
- Practise with real GCSE Foundation dictation texts — 2–3 sentences per day in the weeks before the exam. The vocabulary clusters you hear in practice will appear in the real exam.
❌ Common error: Mes amis sont allé au cinéma hier.
✓ Correct: Mes amis sont allés au cinéma hier.
Why it costs marks: When aller is used in the perfect tense with être, the past participle allé must agree with the subject. Mes amis is plural masculine → add -s: allés. The -s is completely silent in speech, which is why students omit it. But Grid B specifically tests this agreement. Every time the subject is plural, check the past participle for -s.
❌ Common error: Elle aime jouer au tennis le weekend. (written as: elle aime jouée au tennis)
✓ Correct: Elle aime jouer au tennis le weekend.
Why it costs marks: After aimer and other opinion verbs, the following verb is always the infinitive (-er, -ir, -re): jouer. Never use the past participle (-é) here. The pattern 'verb of liking + infinitive' is fixed: j'aime manger, je préfère sortir, je voudrais aller. Only use -é when there is an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) before it.
Practice questions for Foundation dictation practice passages
Listen to the passage three times, then write exactly what you hear in French.
Listen to the passage three times, then write exactly what you hear in French.