Skip to main content

Enriching verbs for advanced level French



A challenge for students at A-level is to achieve an appropriate register when speaking and writing discursive paragraphs or essays. As we know, language can be made richer in style and therefore more persuasive if, in particular, a greater variety of verbs are used. The list below is from a worksheet on frenchteacher.net. You may find it a useful handout for students.

It is easy to use the list for oral and written exercises such as inventing sentences on a topic you are covering.

I would often tell classes to avoid the verbs être, avoir and causer in essays.
 
 
Causes et effets

In essays and discussion we often need to refer to causes and their effects. When doing so there are plenty of alternatives to the verb causer. Here are some possibilities with suggested translations in English. Try to work in a range of these to your essays and oral work.

provoquer        -           to cause
engendrer        -            to bring about, engender
déclencher      -            to trigger (off)
déchaîner        -            to unleash
produire           -           to produce, result in
créer                -           to create, produce
conduire à       -           to lead to
mener à           -           to lead to
amener            -           to bring about
entraîner          -           to involve, lead to
occasionner    -            to cause, bring about
aboutir à          -           to end up with, lead to

Avoiding être   
                                 
constituer                    Cela constitue une barrière importante
représente                  Cela représente un gain de 25% 
demeurer                    La situation demeure préoccupante

Avoiding avoir

disposer de                  Il dispose de plusieurs moyens pour lutter contre le chômage
posséder                     Elle possède trois voitures de luxe

Avoiding il y a

Il existe                        Il n'existe aucun moyen de transformer la situation

On trouve                    On trouve bon nombre de solutions possibles



 

Comments

  1. Caroline from FlashSticks18 November 2013 at 16:04

    Thank you for this article, it’s very helpful. It introduces new vocabulary and a good solution to avoid using the repetitions.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).
Post a Comment
Read more

The 2026 GCSE subject content is published!

Two DfE documents were published today. The first was the response to the consultation about the proposed new GCSE (originally due in October 2021) and the second is the subject content document which, ultimately, is of most interest to MFL teachers in England. Here is the link  to the document.  We are talking about an exam to be done from 2026 (current Y7s). There is always a tendency for sceptical teachers to think that consultations are a bit of a sham and that the DfE will just go ahead and do what they want when it comes to exam reform. In this case, the responses to the original proposals were mixed, and most certainly hostile as far as exam boards and professional associations representing the MFL community, universities, head teachers and awarding bodies are concerned. What has emerged does reveal some significant changes which take account of a number of criticisms levelled at the proposals. As I read it, the most important changes relate to vocabulary and the issue of topics
5 comments
Read more

La retraite à 60 ans

Suite à mon post récent sur les acquis sociaux..... L'âge légal de la retraite est une chose. Je voudrais bien savoir à quel âge les gens prennent leur retraite en pratique - l'âge réel de la retraite, si vous voulez. J'ai entendu prétendre qu'il y a peu de différence à cet égard entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Manifestation à Marseille en 2008 pour le maintien de la retraite à 60 ans © AFP/Michel Gangne Six Français sur dix sont d’accord avec le PS qui défend la retraite à 60 ans (BVA) Cécile Quéguiner Plus de la moitié des Français jugent que le gouvernement a " tort de vouloir aller vite dans la réforme " et estiment que le PS a " raison de défendre l’âge légal de départ en retraite à 60 ans ". Résultat d’un sondage BVA/Absoluce pour Les Échos et France Info , paru ce matin. Une majorité de Français (58%) estiment que la position du Parti socialiste , qui défend le maintien de l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 60 ans,
1 comment
Read more