Free taster
5 of 6 sections open
Les quatre piliers — The Four Pillars of French
🏛️ Les quatre piliers — The Four Pillars of French
If the 25 core verbs are the skeleton of French, these four are the spine. Être, avoir, aller, faire — to be, to have, to go, to do — crop up in virtually every sentence a student writes or reads. They are all irregular (you cannot guess their forms from a pattern), which means you simply have to know them. Invest time here and every AQA task becomes easier.
Les conjugaisons des quatre piliers
One of the most important structures at Foundation: aller + infinitive = going to do something
Earn the mark scheme marks
💡 Exam Tips & Common Errors
- In the writing exam, using aller + infinitif to talk about your plans (je vais visiter Paris) is the safest and most reliable way to earn marks for a future time frame at Foundation tier.
- The four verbs être, avoir, aller, and faire appear in the AQA vocabulary list and will always be included in reading and listening tasks — knowing them cold is non-negotiable.
- In speaking, use il fait beau / mauvais when describing where you live or talking about holidays — weather details are explicitly listed in AQA topic areas.
❌ Common error: Je suis froid. / Je suis quinze ans.
✓ Correct: J'ai froid. / J'ai quinze ans.
Why it costs marks: Physical sensations and age in French both require avoir, not être. Je suis froid actually means "I am a cold (unfriendly) person" — a completely different meaning. Je suis quinze ans is not standard French at all. These errors flag a fundamental misunderstanding of two core verbs and affect AO3 (grammar) marks in both writing and speaking.