For the B2 French Writing Challenge: I might be wrong, but I think "weekend" in French is usually spelled "week-end", not "weekend". Aside from that, I enjoyed taking the test despite my numerous errors!
This is our second set of weekend writing challenges, and we’ve already made two improvements: your scores are totalled at the end and there’s a C1 challenge!
Note: the actual challenges are sent by email as Kwiziq System Communications. (If you don’t have a Kwiziq account, register now to receive the next set of exercises. Premium accounts receive a new set every week, free accounts once a month.)
These are self-marked tests, so you’ll be shown the correct answers as you go and asked to score yourself against them. Once you’ve completed the exercise, you can come back to this post and take a look at the list of grammar topics tested. If you have questions please post them under the most suitable grammar topic (if it’s related to a specific point), or here or on the QandA forum for general questions. Don’t forget you can add any of the lessons below to your notebook(s) if you made mistakes in these areas during the exercises and then kwiz against them to strengthen the areas where you discovered you were weak.
A1 French Writing Challenge
NB: Click the test link sent to you by email to do this challenge!
Translate: “I adore my family! I live with my parents, my sister Alice, and my brother Thomas. I get along very well with my mother, Louise: she is attentive, quiet, and she listens to me. She’s also very beautiful: she has blue eyes, and her hair is blond, long and curly. My sister Alice is annoying: she always wants to wear my clothes! But she’s also very curious and very funny; we laugh a lot together!”
Grammar lessons included in A1 exercise
A2 French Writing Challenge
NB: Click the test link sent to you by email to do this challenge!
Translate: “Dear Mom, dear Dad, I’m having a great vacation with my cousins! We’re doing lots of fun things: yesterday, we went to the beach. The weather was very nice and we played badminton, then we went swimming. I swam out to the buoy and back: it was tiring! Yesterday evening, we played a game of Monopoly and I almost won, but Hugo beat me. We had a lot of fun! I miss you. I’m sending you big kisses. See you soon!”
Grammar lessons included in A2 exercise
B1 French Writing Challenge
NB: Click the test link sent to you by email to do this challenge!
Translate: “Dear Sir or Madame, I’m writing to you because I saw your (small) ad in the newspaper, which said that you were looking for a renter for an apartment in central Montpellier. I’m looking for lodging in the area and I’d like to arrange a viewing if possible. I don’t smoke, I don’t have any pets, and I’m coming to live in the area because I found a full-time job here. I’ll give you my contact information, and I am at your disposition if you have any other questions. Thank you very much and I hope to talk to you soon.”
Grammar lessons included in B1 exercise
B2 French Writing Challenge
NB: Click the test link sent to you by email to do this challenge!
Translate: “This weekend is going to be very busy! It starts Friday evening: I have to go pick up my parents at the train station, where they will arrive at about 9pm. Then I’ll drop them off at their hotel, while my partner finishes making dinner for the two of us. The next morning, I’ll have to get up very early as I’ll have to clean the whole house. Then, at 10am, I’ll go to the florist, with whom I have to decide how to place the bouquets on the tables. Once I’ve finished with him, I’ll have to talk to the caterer who’s going to take care of dinner. I don’t think there will be a problem, but I really want everything to be perfect for the wedding!”
Grammar lessons included in B2 exercise
C1 French Writing Challenge
NB: Click the test link sent to you by email to do this challenge!
Translate: “Several shots were fired in front of the Urville bakery / Dispute at the bakery
An altercation followed by several gunshots took place Wednesday night in front of the Urville bakery, declared police. The dispute apparently began inside the business, located on rue de la République. The suspect lost his temper when the baker told him there weren’t any more baguettes. He then left the bakery before pulling a gun from his pocket and firing several times. Four shots were fired, according to witnesses. Bullet holes were found on a mailbox, a storefront, and inside a chocolate croissant. Police say that no one was hurt. The shooter was able to be apprehended at his home later in the evening, sobbing on a slice of [sliced] sandwich bread.”
Grammar lessons included in C1 exercise
Author info
Aurélie is our resident French Expert. She has created most of the wonderful content you see on the site and is usually the person answering your tricky help questions. She comes from a small village near Chartres in Central France, country of cereal fields and not much else. She left (in a hurry) to study English at the world-famous Sorbonne in Paris, before leaving France in 2007 to experience the “London lifestyle” - and never looked back! She's worked as a professional French teacher, translator and linguist in the UK since. She loves to share her love of languages and is a self-professed cinema and literature geek!
Laura is a French expert and Kwiziq's Head of Quality Control. Online educator since '99, Laura is passionate about language, travel, and cooking. She's American by birth and a permanent ex-pat by choice - freelancing made it possible for her to travel extensively and live in several countries before settling permanently in Guadeloupe. Laura is the author of Lawless French, Lawless Spanish, and other websites and books on French, Spanish, Italian, English, and vegetarianism. She spends most of her spare time reading, playing with food, and enjoying water sports.
Comments: 21
Bonjour Joseph!
Both spellings, weekend and week-end, are accepted in French. I'll add the second spelling to the correct answers!
Merci et à bientôt !
These B1 writing challenges are excellent. It's now part of my regular study. I am very impressed overall with kwiziq - it's accelertaing my progress. Thanks Laura, Auréllie and your team.
I have the same complement. My progress/retention has improved more from this method than any of the others. Finally after 2 years of weekly lessons on Skype, I actually look forward to them to impress my teacher. I have the confidence now to speak spontaneously. I'm not always correct but I am communicating effectively, besides we learn more from our mistakes à mon avis. You all need to form a little circle and pat yourselves on the back!
This is SO wonderful to hear! Thank you. As Aurélie says, it makes our day when people tell us we're helping them so much. We have so many amazing new features coming that you will love even more, we hope.
I have a doubt...in your A2 challenge, one of the answers for "yesterday, we went to the beach", is given as "hier, on est allés à la plage". Shouldn't it be "hier, on est allé à la plage"?
I was only joking. What I meant was your quizzes and translations are excellent but they make work hard just like all my favorite teachers and professors did in school.
Laura,
I am signed up and using Kwiziq, but have not received emails and links for the writing challenges. Can you assist, please?
Hi Bill - have you checked your spam folder? They did go out to you, according our records. I'll send again now for you but do check your spam just in case. Merci!
Can you you also put up complete French translation paragraph somewhere so we have a note of any new vocabulary plus easier to review our mistakes
Hi Bob, we're implementing a completely new way of doing these as the current method was experimental and to help us learn what the issues are so we'll take this feedback into account. Thanks!
For the sentence "It was tiring" you say that the correct answer is "C'était fatiguant". I had fatigant and on checking my dictionaries they both have fatigant also. Is there a U or not
Bonjour Mark,
Both spellings exist, with different uses.
Fatigant is the adjective "tiring" and is what should be used here, so I'll fix that right away.
Fatiguant is the present participle of the verb fatiguer - to tire.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, bonne continuation !
Hey team, love your work, keep it up. I use your site regularly to revise and practice and also as a reference (the subjunctivisor).
In the B2 challenge this week I found the suggested translation for "once Im finished with him.." to be surprising. Can I really translate Once as 'Une fois' ? I had used 'quand' and would like to know if the literal option actually works?
Thanks again
Will
Bonjour Will !
Yes, you can perfectly use the expression "une fois que + clause" to express "once + clause", or even use "une fois" to say "once", as in:
"Une fois, j'ai mangé des escargots." (Once, I ate snails.)
Merci pour ton feedback et à bientôt !
In the B1 writing challenge. The translation of "Thank you and hope to speak to you soon" doesn't seem right. "je l'espere a bientot" where is the "to speak soon" in this