This exam tips covers Exam Tips & Common Errors within Free-time activities for GCSE French. Revise Free-time activities in Theme 2: Popular Culture for GCSE French with 15 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. 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
- For the photo card (speaking), if you see an image of sport or leisure, immediately deploy: activity + frequency + opinion + reason. Four components = a full, mark-worthy response.
- Vary your connectives: use par contre, cependant, pourtant instead of always mais.
- In writing tasks, always try to include at least one activity you do NOT like — it forces you to use negative structures and shows range.
- Reading/listening: watch for depuis + present tense in French texts — students often miss that this means a continuing action, not a past one.
❌ Common error: Je fais des jeux vidéo tous les soirs.
✓ Correct: Je joue aux jeux vidéo tous les soirs.
Why it costs marks: Video games (and all games) use jouer à, not faire de. This is one of the most common free-time errors in AQA French. Faire du sport is correct for sport in general, but specific games always need jouer à: jouer aux jeux vidéo, jouer au tennis, jouer aux cartes.
Practice questions for Free-time activities
What does 'le football' mean in English?
What does 'la lecture' mean in French? Be careful — it is a false friend!