💬 GCSE Modern Foreign Languages

Exam Overview & Strategy

GCSE MFL is assessed in four skills: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking — each worth 25% of your final grade.

• Foundation tier: grades 1–5; questions mainly in English
• Higher tier: grades 4–9; more target language questions and complex tasks
• Both tiers use a dictionary in the writing paper (AQA)

Listening Skills

• Read the questions carefully before the recording starts
• Note key vocabulary in the question — anticipate related words you might hear
• Be careful of distractors — speakers often mention one thing then correct themselves
• Don't leave blanks — make an educated guess
• For Foundation: answers are often direct matches; for Higher: more inference required
• Numbers, times, dates, and prices are common — practise these until automatic

Reading Skills

• Use context clues — even if you don't know a word, surrounding words often reveal the meaning
• Look for cognates (words similar to English): information, université, musique
• Be careful of false friends: actuellement (Fr) = currently, NOT actually
• For translation questions: always translate every word — don't paraphrase or skip details
• Verb tenses affect the meaning drastically — check whether events are past, present, or future
• For Higher: texts are longer and include idiomatic expressions — use context for unknown vocabulary

Writing Skills

Mark Scheme Priorities (AQA)

• Communication: is your meaning clear? Have you addressed all bullet points?
• Range of vocabulary: avoid repeating the same words; use synonyms
• Range of grammatical structures: use different tenses and sentence types
• Accuracy: correct gender, agreement, verb endings, accents

Strategies for Higher Writing

• Use all three tenses: past, present, future — this is essential for top marks
• Include opinions with justification: "Je pense que… parce que…"
• Use connectives to extend sentences: cependant, bien que, à moins que, malgré
• Include a conditional or subjunctive for the very top grades
• Check accents — missing or wrong accents cost accuracy marks
• Use the dictionary wisely — check gender and check for false friends

Speaking Skills

The speaking exam has two parts: a photo card discussion and a conversation on your chosen theme.

Photo Card Tips

• Describe what you see in detail first
• Speculate: "Je pense que cette photo montre…", "On dirait que…", "Peut-être que…"
• Answer all prepared questions (you see them in advance) and unexpected follow-up questions

Conversation Tips

• Use the preparation time to recall key vocabulary and structures for your chosen themes
• Speak in full sentences — don't just give one-word answers
• Use a range of tenses naturally — weave in past experiences and future plans
• Recover from mistakes by rephrasing: "Pardon, je voulais dire…"
• Filler phrases buy you thinking time: "C'est une bonne question…", "Eh bien…"

Essential Grammar – Tenses

French Tense Summary

• Present (présent): je mange, tu manges, il mange — regular -ER verb
• Perfect (passé composé): j'ai mangé / je suis allé(e) — avoir or être + past participle
• Imperfect (imparfait): je mangeais — describes habitual/ongoing past actions
• Future (futur simple): je mangerai — add endings to infinitive
• Conditional: je mangerais (I would eat) — imperfect endings on future stem

Spanish Tense Summary

• Present: hablo, hablas, habla (regular -AR verb)
• Preterite (past): hablé, hablaste, habló — for completed actions
• Imperfect: hablaba — habitual or background past
• Future: hablaré — add endings to infinitive (or use ir + a + infinitive)
• Conditional: hablaría (I would speak)

German Tense Summary

• Present: ich spiele, du spielst, er spielt
• Perfect (Perfekt): ich habe gespielt / ich bin gegangen — most common past in speech
• Imperfect (Imperfekt): ich spielte — used for sein, haben, modal verbs in text
• Future: ich werde spielen — werden + infinitive (sent to end)
• Word order: verb always 2nd element; past participle/infinitive to end; subordinate clauses send verb to end

Gender & Agreement

French

• All nouns are masculine (le/un) or feminine (la/une)
• Adjectives must agree: grand / grande / grands / grandes
• Most adjectives follow the noun: un livre intéressant
• BAGS adjectives precede the noun: Beauty, Age, Goodness, Size — beau, vieux, bon, grand
• Plural nouns take les/des; plural adjectives add -s (unless ending already in -s or -x)

Spanish

• Nouns mostly -o (masc) / -a (fem); adjectives agree: bueno/buena, buenos/buenas
• Adjectives follow noun: una casa grande
• Shortened adjectives: buen, gran, primer before masculine singular nouns

German

• Three genders: der (masc), die (fem), das (neut); all plural = die
• Cases affect articles: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive — learn the table
• Adjective endings change with case, gender, and whether preceded by definite/indefinite article

Negatives & Expressing Opinions

Negatives

• French: ne…pas (not), ne…jamais (never), ne…rien (nothing), ne…plus (no longer)
• Spanish: no + verb; nunca (never), nada (nothing), nadie (nobody)
• German: nicht (not), kein/keine (no/not a); nicht goes before adjectives/adverbs; kein replaces ein

Opinion Phrases

• French: Je pense que… / Je trouve que… / À mon avis… / Je crois que…
• Spanish: Creo que… / Pienso que… / En mi opinión… / Me parece que…
• German: Ich denke, dass… / Ich finde, dass… / Meiner Meinung nach… / Ich glaube, dass…
• Always give a reason: "…parce que / porque / weil…" (note: weil sends verb to end in German)

Subjunctive & Conditional (Higher)

French Subjunctive

• Used after: il faut que, bien que, pour que, à moins que, vouloir que
• e.g. Il faut que je fasse mes devoirs (I must do my homework)
• Key irregular subjunctive forms: aller → j'aille; être → je sois; avoir → j'aie; faire → je fasse

Spanish Subjunctive

• Used after: querer que, esperar que, cuando (future), aunque, para que
• e.g. Espero que vengas (I hope you come)

Conditional (all languages)

• Use to express what you would do: "If I had more money, I would travel…"
• French: Si j'avais plus d'argent, je voyagerais… (imperfect + conditional)
• Spanish: Si tuviera más dinero, viajaría… (imperfect subjunctive + conditional)
• German: Wenn ich mehr Geld hätte, würde ich reisen… (Konjunktiv II)

Theme: Identity & Culture

Key vocabulary areas: family, relationships, hobbies, technology, food, festivals, customs.

• Describe yourself and others — physical appearance and personality
• Talk about your relationship with family/friends — use reflexive verbs (s'entendre, se disputer)
• Discuss advantages and disadvantages of social media and technology
• Describe celebrations: Christmas, Ramadan, Diwali, national festivals

Theme: Local, National & Global

Key vocabulary areas: environment, poverty, homelessness, crime, travel, tourism, global issues.

• Describe your local area — shops, transport, things to do
• Discuss environmental problems and solutions — recycling, climate change, pollution
• Global issues: world poverty, refugees, fair trade
• Tourism: popular phrases for hotels, transport, booking, directions

Theme: Education & Employment

Key vocabulary areas: school subjects, school rules, future plans, jobs, work experience.

• Describe your school, subjects you like/dislike and why
• Discuss school uniform, rules, advantages and disadvantages of your school
• Future plans: university, apprenticeships, gap year — use future tense
• Discuss jobs and qualities needed — use conditional: "Je voudrais être…"
• Work experience: use the past tense to describe what you did