A2 French oral exam-useful sentences

Hey,

Just wondering if anybody knew any good sentences to say in my oral exam, just general, impressive ones to lead me into a topic and sound quite 'French' :s-smilie:

Also does anyone have any tips on how to get an A in the french oral for a2?-Its taken me 2 years to do my AS exam im that rubbish at them lol :rolleyes:

Thanks in advance!

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Reply 1

generalebriety

Bah... the only sort of advice I can give you here is different filler words: ben, euh, en fait, enfin, voyons, disons, considérons; opinion words: je pense que, je crois que, à mon avis and so on; disagreeing phrases: je crois que là vous vous êtes trompé(e), non je ne suis pas d'accord, en revanche, etc.

Advanced French Vocabulary (Horsfall) has a list of loads of longer phrases, but they do tend to sound clumsy when overused, very easy to do.

Reply 2

kellywood_5

Filler words are great for buying some time, and I don't know if you've noticed, but French people use them a lot even in their own language, so they're quite 'French' as well. I tended to use bof, ben, alors, enfin, en fait or just euh. You definitely need opinion phrases, and obviously the most common are ones like je pense, je crois, je trouve, a mon avis and selon moi. To agree, je suis d'accord or je partage votre avis. To disagree, je ne suis pas (tout a fait) d'accord or au contraire, je pense que... I used Advanced French Vocabulary as well and it's definitely very useful for things like this, but the longer phrases should be reserved for essays.

Reply 3

arabellaweir

In the examiner's report from last year for Edexcel it suggests you should miss out the french equivalent to umms and arrrhs because it's just a filler and doesnt make a difference to your argument. It also said that some students replied with inappropriate vocab like "Are you mad?!" Which I thought was quite amusing.. Anyways, here's something I copied from the examiners report.. Hope it helps.

Candidates are familiar with 'Je pense que... je considère que... il me semble
que... je ne suis pas d'accord' but could widen their bank of expressions to support
and develop their arguments with expressions such as:
• Je vous concède que...
• je suis convaincu que...
• on va trop loin en disant que...
• par ailleurs...
• il n'a pas été démontré que...
• on exagère quand on affirme que...
• on a tort de croire que...
• incontestablement...
• jusqu'à preuve du contraire...
• il est inexact de dire que...
• par contre ...
• j'estime que...
• il faut constater que...
• il faut aborder la question de...
• afin de changer cette situation, il faudrait ...
• tous ces facteurs semblent indiquer que...
• à titre d'exemple, je cite...
• il est manifeste que...
• il est nécessaire d'envisager une situation où...
• au niveau de...

Reply 4

felixlechat

My teacher gave us the CREAPS structure to think about -

Causes
Responsables
Effets
Avantages
Problèmes
Solutions

Obviously it's not realistic to try and get through all 6 pointers if they ask you one question, but say if "que-pensez vous de la question de logement en France aujourd'hui?" comes up, you can think of it this way -

C'est un problème fort difficile à résoudre; grace au flux migratoire en France (cause), le gouvernement (responsables) ne peut que fournir le logement pour une minorité des personnes dans le pays(effets)...

And so on. It works for some people, it gives others too much to think about. If you think it's suitable for you, you could always sit down and make a list of phrases which are appropriate for each factor, so you've got a handful of phrases ready to use on the day.

Best of luck.

Reply 5

generalebriety

kellywood_5

I've never found occasion to use bof. What on earth is it? :s-smilie:

My teacher once said it was "so-so", like an adjective, but it's clearly not... is it just a sort of "meh" word? What exactly does it describe?

Reply 6

Fred Basset

It's just like "errrrr" in English

Reply 7

generalebriety

bunced

It's just like "errrrr" in English

It really doesn't sound like it to me. It's not used nearly as much, and it's certainly not equivalent to "euh".

Reply 8

kellywood_5

'Meh' word is a good way to describe it actually! I'm not entirely sure what it means, but I'd heard it used quite a bit as a 'filler' when people were answering questions.

Reply 9

felixlechat

I think the literal translation is "whatever", I've been told it's a tad inappropriate for orals!

Reply 10

Simon-J

My Larousse says it describes:
a) lack of enthusiasm,
b) lack of interest.

Hmmm....

Reply 11

deutschsweetie

lol that ben word.. haha so reminds me of this listening we did it in class a few months back and us 3 were like WTF??? what the hell is bennnn ..lol:P then we kept using it !! i thought it was the name of the person he was speakin to!!!

Reply 12

**kaye**

Thanks everyone! :biggrin:

Reply 13

arabellaweir

bof is probs one of the best words in the french language, meh is probs a good translation (not err though, err implies you dont really know to me but bof means "*shrugs* whatever not too arsed really" sort of thing) maybe a little less passive :biggrin:

I'm not sure you should use it in your oral though... I can think of more appropriate words.

Reply 14

pRiiYa..x

arabellaweir

With J'estime que do u have to use the subjunctive after it?

Reply 15

Muppety_Kid

pRiiYa..x

With J'estime que do u have to use the subjunctive after it?

I think so - the subjunctive is generally used in expressions where there's some doubt or uncertainty. For example, in English we might say "it is necessary that he be here"...although whether he comes is another matter! Similarly, in French it becomes "il faut qu'il soit ici".

Applying this to "j'estime que", it's what you think will happen, but you've got no way of knowing. Be careful though - sometimes making a phrase that takes the subjunctive into a negative means it no longer takes the subjunctive - that applies to "il ne faut pas que", but I'm not sure how to tell for other expressions. :smile:

Reply 16

jasro1304

just try and use lots of subjunctives and "si" clauses, just play the exam board game.
bien que je sache que...... although that i know that
pour que je puisse........... so that i can
il est necessaire que nous voyions....... it is necessary that we see

si "clauses": "si" + proposal "then" + conditional
if "something happened" then i would "be a better place"
it
they etc
hope it helps :smile: