This exam tips covers Exam Tips & Common Errors within The false friends bank for GCSE French. Revise The false friends bank in Reading and Translation into English for GCSE French with 10 exam-style questions and 20 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 4 of 4 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
💡 Exam Tips & Common Errors
- False friends appear in AQA passages where the surrounding context makes the wrong meaning plausible — read the full sentence.
- The most tested false friends at GCSE are: actuellement, sensible, sympathique, rester, stage, librairie, déception.
- When translating (Paper 3 translation task), a false friend in your answer often costs 1 mark — and often tips the whole sentence into inaccuracy.
- Word families can help: sensibilité (sensitivity), sensiblement (noticeably) — all point to the "sensitive" meaning, not "sensible".
- In multiple-choice questions, examiners put the false friend translation as a distractor option — always verify against context.
❌ Common error: Reading Il reste à la maison and translating it as "He rests at home."
✓ Correct: Rester = to stay/remain. The correct translation is "He stays at home." To say "he rests", you need Il se repose à la maison.
Why it costs marks: This error changes the meaning of the sentence entirely. On a short-answer or translation question, writing "rests" when the text means "stays" is an inaccuracy that loses the mark for that segment.
Practice questions for The false friends bank
What does the French word 'actuellement' mean in English?
A student translates 'la librairie' as 'the library'. What is the correct translation?