Ab Initio How much of tenses/grammar stuff in French ab initio exams?

[meowchelle]

Hi guys,

So I'm taking French ab initio and it's been quite tough for me on the grammar part, especially the tenses. I'm okay with present and passe compose, but that's like really all that I'm sure about. The rest...are just a blur, not to mention irregular verbs! On top of that there are still stuff like adjectives, pronouns and so on so I'm super overwhelmed especially due to the masculine/feminine word differences.

What I would like to ask is if in the actual exams, do they ask a lot of tenses stuff and require us to learn all of the different ways of conjugations, and irregular verbs as well? Does anyone have a list of common verbs/vocab that will come out in exams so I can focus on them more? All the conjugations is driving me crazy, any advice or help?

Thank you!

[Geek^Grenade]

I think what you should do is remember that in tenses like le futur sample the end of the conjugated verb has avoir endings. like for je mangerai, the conjugation ends with ai like present tense j'ai.

Make a list of the tense rules for futur proche, passe recent . Then note down what the endings for imperfect tense are, like

je-ais

tu- ais, so on and so forth. so make lists for grammar like that . I'd say its good to revise grammar as it'll make writing and the iop easier.

[Charliepants]

There are no questions on the exams asking you to conjugate single verbs.

Paper 1 consists of a part with multiple choice questions and a part where you have to write a short text (an e-mail, a poster, etc.)

Paper 2 is text writing, where you can choose between a large variety of tasks, so there are certain verb tenses you can avoid if you're not quite sure about one of them.

You should, however, be able to use the most common verbs (être, aller, prendre, etc.) in present tense, passé composé, imparfait, futur proche and futur simple. You should at least be able to recognize them, since the texts you get multiple choice questions about often exchange between the tenses.

Hope this helped!

[YellowSpider]

Hi guys,

So I'm taking French ab initio and it's been quite tough for me on the grammar part, especially the tenses. I'm okay with present and passe compose, but that's like really all that I'm sure about. The rest...are just a blur, not to mention irregular verbs! On top of that there are still stuff like adjectives, pronouns and so on so I'm super overwhelmed especially due to the masculine/feminine word differences.

What I would like to ask is if in the actual exams, do they ask a lot of tenses stuff and require us to learn all of the different ways of conjugations, and irregular verbs as well? Does anyone have a list of common verbs/vocab that will come out in exams so I can focus on them more? All the conjugations is driving me crazy, any advice or help?

Thank you!

i don't really know much about ab initio, but i don't think they'd directly ask you to conjugate. either way, my friend told me there's a writing section as well, so although there isn't any specific amount of tenses you have to use, it would be better for you to use a few, at least.

you should practice writing. maybe maintain a weekly diary in french or something like that? eventually you'll be able to express yourself clearly (i don't know why i didn't think of doing this as well )

maybe every 3 days practice your tenses. write sentences using those tenses.

why don't you look for the basic verbs and tenses on the internet. i'm sure you'll find a lot.

[elaifyanre]

Paper 1=reading comprehension

Paper 2=written tasks

There are no specific questions on conjugation.

Probably you could still get away by guessing without knowing all the tenses, but knowing more is definitely better.