Translation Tips

Translation Tips: English to French and French to English

Translation is tested in both directions at GCSE and is worth a significant number of marks. It requires accuracy, not creativity.

English → French Translation

This is the harder direction and carries 12 marks at Higher.

Step-by-Step Approach

1. Read the whole passage first — understand the context before translating.

2. Identify the tense of each sentence — is it past, present, future, conditional?

3. Translate phrase by phrase, not word by word — French and English word order differs.

4. Check agreements — adjective-noun, subject-verb, past participle (être verbs).

5. Check accents — missing accents count as spelling errors.

Common Translation Traps (EN → FR)

English	Wrong	Correct
I am 15 years old	Je suis 15 ans	J'ai quinze ans
I am hungry	Je suis faim	J'ai faim
I play football	Je joue football	Je joue au football
I go to France	Je vais au France	Je vais en France
I have been learning French for 3 years	J'ai appris	J'apprends le français depuis trois ans (present in French!)
I am playing	Je suis jouant	Je joue (no continuous form in French)
There are lots of things	Il y a lots de choses	Il y a beaucoup de choses
It is necessary to	C'est nécessaire de	Il faut (+ infinitive)
I like it	J'aime il	Je l'aime or Ça me plaît

Key Structural Differences

English structure	French structure
I have been doing X for Y	Present tense + depuis + Y
I am doing	Present tense (no -ing form)
Some bread	du pain (partitive article)
My own room	Ma propre chambre
At the weekend	Le weekend
On Saturdays	Le samedi

French → English Translation

Usually easier, but precision still matters.

Step-by-Step Approach

1. Read the whole passage to grasp the topic.

2. Identify known words and cognates — build meaning from these.

3. Use context to guess unknown words — don't leave blanks.

4. Write natural English — don't produce stilted word-for-word translations.

5. Check your English makes sense — re-read your translation.

Common Traps (FR → EN)

French	Common mistake	Correct translation
Il fait beau	"He does beautiful"	The weather is nice
J'ai quinze ans	"I have fifteen years"	I am fifteen
On s'amuse bien	"One amuses oneself"	We have a good time
Il y avait	"There is had"	There was / There were
Ça me plaît	"That me pleases"	I like it
Tous les jours	"All the days"	Every day

Dealing with Unknown Words

• Break the word down: malheureusement → mal (bad) + heureux (happy) + -ment (-ly) = unfortunately
• Look for the root: travailleur → travailler (to work) + -eur = worker/hardworking
• Use the sentence context: even if you don't know a word, the surrounding sentence often makes the meaning clear.
• Cognates: many French words look like English ones — gouvernement, éducation, information, important, différent.

Practice Technique

For both directions:

1. Translate the passage

2. Check against the mark scheme (past papers)

3. Note every error in a personal error log

4. Focus revision on your weakest patterns

Scoring Guide

Marks	What the examiner expects
Full marks	Every element accurately translated, correct tenses, agreements, natural target language
Most marks	Minor errors that don't affect meaning
Half marks	Main messages conveyed but several grammatical errors
Few marks	Significant errors, meaning unclear

Exam Tips

• Translation is the one task where accuracy beats ambition — don't try fancy alternatives if a simple correct version works.
• Always write something — even a partial translation earns marks for the elements you get right.
• depuis + present tense is almost guaranteed to appear somewhere in the exam — learn it cold.
• Practise with past paper translations — AQA recycles similar structures year on year.
• In EN→FR, write out numbers as words (douze, not 12) — it avoids ambiguity and shows you know the French.
• Partitive articles (du, de la, de l', des) are frequently needed: "I eat cheese" = Je mange du fromage, not "Je mange fromage".