GCSE French WOW Phrases

I've created a similar thread to this before, but I thought I would make it a little concise - although you can check my other threads to find a larger compilation of vocabulary.

This is from a tsr user, and I will be sure to edit it, so feel free to add recommendations to help out others taking their GCSEs.

Introduction
Tout d’abord – First of all
Premièrement – Firstly
Pour commencer – To start off with

Personal opinions
À mon avis / Selon moi – In my opinion
Pour ma part / En ce qui me concerne – As far as I’m concerned
À mon sens – As I see it
Il me semble que – It seems to me that
J’estime que – I consider that
Je soutiens que – I maintain that
Je suis d’avis que – I am of the opinion that
Je suis persuadé que – I am convinced that
Je pense / crois que – I think / believe that
Je dirais que – I would say that
J'imagine que – I imagine that
Ce que je dis, en fait, c'est que- What I am saying, in fact, is that
Ce qui me frappe le plus, c’est que – What strikes me the most is that

Impersonal expressions
Force est de constater que – One cannot help stating that
On pourrait aller même jusqu'à dire que – One could go so far as to say that
On ne peut pas s'empêcher de penser que – One cannot help thinking that
Il est impossible d’ouvrir un journal sans lire que – It is impossible to open a newspaper without reading that
Il faut néanmoins nuancer cette affirmation en disant que – This claim should nevertheless be qualified by saying that
Il faut reconnaître que – One must recognise that
Qu'on ne s'y trompe pas en pensant que - Let's not trick ourselves into thinking that
Ce serait une erreur de croire que - It would be a mistake to believe that
Il serait vain de nier que – It would be pointless to deny that
Il faut bien souligner / préciser que – It must be emphasised that
Il faut donc rappeler que - It is therefore necessary to remember that
Il paraît donc évident que - It appears therefore clear that
Il ne faut pas oublier que - You must not forget that
Il faut avouer que – It must be admitted that
Qui peut s'opposer à ce point de vue? – Who might object to this view?

Sentence starters
Franchement – Frankly
Personnellement – Personally
En fait – In fact
À vrai dire – To tell the truth
Certes – Admittedly / Certainly / Indeed
Vraisemblablement – In all likelihood / In all probability
Heureusement – Fortunately
Malheureusement – Unfortunately
Par conséquent – Consequently / As a result
Tout simplement – Quite simply

Connectives
En outre / En plus de… / De plus / De surcroît (very formal) – Furthermore
Donc – Therefore
Cela expliquerait pourquoi - That would explain why
Cela revient à dire que – This boils down to saying that
Il va de soi que - It goes without saying that
C’est-à-dire – That is to say
Ceci dit – That having been said
Pour cette raison – For this reason
En d’autre termes / Autrement dit – In other words
D’une part / D’autre part – On the one hand / On the other hand
D'un côté / D’autre côté – On the one hand / On the other hand

Contrast
Le revers de la médaille, c’est que – The other side of the coin is that
Par contre / Au contraire – On the contrary
En revanche – On the other hand
Tandis que - Whereas
Cependant / Toutefois – However
Néanmoins – Nevertheless / Nonetheless
À l’inverse – Conversely / Alternatively / Instead
Pourtant – Yet

Synonyms to ‘parce que / car’ (because)
Puisque – Since / As
En raison de / Á cause de – Due to
Vu que – Seeing that / Seeing as
Étant donné que / Compte tenu du fait que – Given that
Grâce à – Thanks to

With regards to the situation / problem…
Vis-à-vis de ce problème – As for this problem / Face to face with this problem
La contrepartie des avantages considérables présentées est que – The downside to the considerable advantages offered is that
Bien qu’il faille reconnaître qu’il y a des avantages de (voyager, par exemple), on doit auissi reconnaître qu’il y a des inconvénients - Although one must recognise that there are advantages of (travelling, for example), one must also recognise that there are disadvantages
Malgré tous ces problèmes, le catastrophisme n'est pas de mise – Despite all these problems, it is not all gloom-and-doom
Sans vouloir critiquer cette façon de procéder, on peut constater que – Without wishing to criticise this course of action, it can be said that

Describing the situation / problem
Un véritable casse-tête - A real headache
Une question épineuse – A thorny question
Une situation inquiétante - A worrying situation
Un obstacle insurmontable - An unsurmountable obstacle
Une tâche quasiment impossible - A virtually impossible task

Short, snappy, idiomatic phrases
Quoi qu'il en soit – Whatever the case (I would like to go to university…)
Quoi qu’on fasse, on doit – Whatever you do, you must (help people…)
Quel que soit le prix – Whatever the price (I will go to France this year…)
Qu’on le veuille ou non – Whether you like it or not
Quel dommage! – What a pity!
Quelle surprise! – What a surprise!
Sans doute – Without a doubt
Vouloir, c’est pouvoir – Where there’s a will, there’s a way
Seul l’avenir nous le dira – Only time will tell us
Tout est bien qui finit bien – All's well that ends well

Subjunctive triggers
Bien que – Although / Even though
Il faut que – It is necessary that
Il est important que – It is important that
Il est nécessaire que – It is necessary that
Il est dommage que – It is a pity/shame that
Il semble que – It seems that
… avant que – before (the situation worsens, for example)
… pour que / afin que – so that (I can go to France, for example)
… à condition que – provided that (I get into university, for example)
Je ne pense / crois pas que – I do not think / believe that
Je n'imagine pas que – I do not imagine that
Je veux que – I want that
Je n’espère pas que – I do not hope that
Je suis surprise que – I am surprised that

Note: When the subjunctive trigger is used, change the ‘subject’. Don’t say: I don’t think that I can study French. Instead, say, I don’t think that he can / it is possible. If you want to say I don’t think that I…, then use ‘Je ne pense pas + infinitive’. So, ‘Je ne pense pas pouvoir étudier le français’ means I don’t think that I can study French.

Conclusive phrases
En guise de conclusion – By way of conclusion
En conclusion / Pour conclure – In conclusion / To conclude
Dans l’ensemble - Overall
En fin de compte – At the end of the day / When all is said and done
Tout bien réfléchi / considéré - All things considered
Toutes choses considérées, on peut déduire que – All things considered, we can deduce that
À tout prendre j'en viens à conclure que – Taking everything into account I come to the conclusion that
Tout semble indiquer que – Everything seems to indicate that

Reply 1

artem1s

this is AMAZING! thank you so much for sharing - absolute life saver!

Reply 2

Evil Homer

TSR Community Staff

Original post by artem1s

this is AMAZING! thank you so much for sharing - absolute life saver!

Were they useful for your exam yesterday?

Reply 3

artem1s

Original post by Evil Homer

Were they useful for your exam yesterday?

i've only just seen this now but so glad its before the french writing! i'm a grade 9 french student and trying to further develop my writing to include these complex phrases and structures

Reply 4

Evil Homer

TSR Community Staff

Original post by artem1s

i've only just seen this now but so glad its before the french writing! i'm a grade 9 french student and trying to further develop my writing to include these complex phrases and structures