GCSE French Writing: The Word Counts, the Bullets and the Translation
Writing is the paper students most often revise by writing more, and least often revise by reading the mark scheme. That is the wrong way round, because the GCSE French writing paper is unusually explicit about what it wants, down to which tenses to use and roughly how many words to use them in.
This covers the AQA paper in detail, with notes on Edexcel and Eduqas. The complete guide has the qualification as a whole.
How the paper is built
On AQA it is Paper 4, worth 50 marks and 25% of the qualification. Responses are in French; instructions are in English. Edexcel’s writing paper runs 1 hour 15 at Foundation and 1 hour 20 at Higher for 50 marks; Eduqas runs 1 hour 10 and 1 hour 15 for the same.
The AQA paper is built from four kinds of task, which overlap between tiers:
- A grammar task: five short sentences with a missing word, chosen from three options
- A short structured task: approximately 50 words, five compulsory bullet points (Foundation)
- A translation from English into French
- Extended tasks: approximately 90 words and, at Higher, approximately 150
The 90-word task is the overlap question: identical at Foundation and Higher. If you are a Foundation student, the top of your paper is the same question a Higher student is answering.
The grammar task: the cheapest marks on the paper
Five sentences, one missing word each, three options to choose from. It tests the prescribed grammar directly: no composition, no ideas, no risk.
Because the grammar list is published, this task is entirely learnable. A student who works through the grammar list systematically should be losing nothing here, and there is no other part of the paper about which that can be said.
The 50-word task: cover every bullet
Five compulsory bullet points, approximately 50 words in total, marked 5 for content (AO2) and 5 for accuracy (AO3).
The mark bands are built on bullet coverage, and they descend in steps: all five bullets covered, then at least four, then at least three, then at least two. Each bullet you skip drops you a band, regardless of how good the French is in the bullets you did cover.
Ten words per bullet is enough. Students who write forty words on their favourite bullet and run out of room for the last two lose marks they had already earned the French to keep.
The 90-word task: three bullets, three time frames
This is the single most useful thing to know about the paper.
The three bullet points deliberately target the three time frames: one requires an activity in the present, one in the future, one in the past. That is not a pattern someone noticed; it is how the question is designed.
So the task tells you in advance which tenses to use, and where. A student who answers all three bullets in the present has not misread the question so much as declined the invitation, and tense range is exactly what the accuracy criteria reward.
Two versions are offered and you answer one. Choose on the basis of which topic you can write about accurately, not which sounds more interesting. There is no need to cover the bullets equally.
The 150-word task: two open bullets
Higher tier only, and the biggest single block of marks on the paper. Two compulsory bullet points, deliberately more open-ended than the 90-word task so that you can develop ideas at length.
Fewer bullets means more room, and more room means the accuracy criteria bite harder. This is where complex structures earn their keep: subordinate clauses, comparison, justified opinion, and tense range that goes beyond the minimum.
Worth knowing: equal credit is given for language beyond the defined content. The prescribed vocabulary list is a floor, not a ceiling. You are not penalised for ambition.
The translation into French
Worth 10 marks, assessed for AO3, and marked in a way that rewards attempting everything.
The passage is divided into 15 elements. A tick is awarded for each element communicated despite any minor inaccuracies, and the total gives a mark out of five. A second mark out of five is then awarded for accuracy, judged across all five sentences as a whole.
Read that again, because it changes how you should work: a wrong-but-recognisable rendering still scores on the first grid. A blank scores nothing on either. There is never a reason to leave a sentence out.
At Foundation the passage requires a minimum of 35 words. Translation here means an appropriate and sufficient rendering of the meaning, not a word-for-word substitution, which is usually what produces the errors.
What costs marks
- Skipping a bullet point. On the short task the bands are built on coverage, so one missed bullet costs a band.
- Writing everything in the present. On the 90-word task the bullets are asking for three tenses by design.
- Leaving a translation sentence blank. Partial credit is built in; a blank forfeits it.
- Massively overwriting. Word counts are approximate and over-length work is still marked, but time spent doubling one answer is time taken from another.
- Translating word by word. The mark scheme asks for the meaning rendered appropriately, not English reassembled in French order.
- Choosing the more interesting option. Pick the one you can write accurately.
How to practise
Learn what 50, 90 and 150 words feel like. Write three or four of each and count them. After a handful you will stop counting, which frees attention in the exam for the French.
Plan by bullet, not by paragraph. Write the bullets down the margin, allocate your words, and tick them off. Almost every avoidable loss on this paper is a bullet that went unanswered.
Drill the grammar list. It is finite and published, and it is the whole basis of the grammar task as well as the accuracy criteria everywhere else.
Translate in both directions. Take a French passage, translate it into English, put it away for a day, then translate your English back into French and compare. You will find your own systematic errors faster than any marker can point them out.
Build a bank of structures, not phrases. One reliable way of giving an opinion with justification, one comparison, one way of talking about the future. These transfer across every topic. Memorised paragraphs do not.
Practice materials
A free taster course is available, and the other free resources cover the remaining papers, including listening and speaking.
Working on this with me
Writing is the paper where a second pair of eyes helps most, because the errors that cost accuracy marks are usually consistent and invisible to the person making them. If you would like a look at your written work, book a free 15-minute call. Add it to your basket and check out. The total is £0, and you will receive an email with the link to book a time.
For sustained work, I teach 55-minute one-to-one GCSE French lessons.