Free-Time Activities: Vocabulary and Talking About Habits

Where the frequency word goes

This topic is about what you do in your free time, so almost every sentence you write will say how often you do it. That makes one small rule worth more than a page of extra vocabulary. In English the frequency word comes before the verb: I often read. In French it comes after it. Je lis souvent, not je souvent lis. English speakers get this wrong so reliably that putting it right is one of the quickest ways to make a sentence read as French rather than as English with French words in it.

Free-time words in French

Six words from the vocabulary list this specification uses for free time.

Match the free-time word

Which word means lyrics

Which French word means the lyrics of a song?

• les paroles
• le groupe
• la partie
• les journaux

English order, French order

Read across the two columns rather than down them. The vocabulary is not the difficulty here; the position is.

Build the sentence

Build the French for I often read the newspapers. Remember that je lis souvent les journaux puts the frequency word after the verb, not before it.

Which two are right

Select the TWO sentences that put the frequency word in the French position.

• Je lis souvent les journaux
• Je fais toujours les courses
• Je souvent lis les journaux
• Je toujours fais les courses

Four more words

Playing a sport, playing an instrument

One verb, two patterns, and French keeps them apart where English does not. For a sport or a game you use jouer followed by a form of a, so playing football is je joue au football. For a musical instrument you use jouer followed by a form of de, so playing the piano is je joue du piano. English uses play for both and so gives you no warning. The quickest way to keep it is that a goes with the things you play AT and de with the things you play ON, and if you can hold that you have a mark most candidates lose.

At or of?

You want to say that you play the guitar. Which pattern does French use, and why?

• Jouer followed by a form of de, because a guitar is a musical instrument
• Jouer followed by a form of a, because that is the usual pattern after jouer
• Either, because both are understood and the meaning is the same
• Neither, because jouer is not used for musical instruments in French

Habits in a paragraph

To say that you often read the newspapers you write je lis _____ les journaux, with the frequency word after the verb rather than before it. The French for newspapers is les _____ and the French for the words of a song is les _____. To say you play a sport you use jouer followed by a form of _____, and to say you play an instrument you use jouer followed by a form of _____.

Order the longer sentence

Put these four pieces in the order that makes correct French for I always do the food shopping.

• Je
• fais
• toujours
• les courses

A short answer, marked

Question: write two or three sentences in French about what you do in your free time. Model answer: Je lis souvent les journaux. Je fais toujours les courses le samedi. Je joue au football avec un groupe. Look at what earns the marks. The frequency word follows the verb every time, which is the rule this topic is built on. Three different verbs are used rather than one repeated, so the range is visible. And the last sentence uses jouer with a form of a because football is a sport. Three short accurate sentences beat two long ones with the word order wrong, because the word order is what is being assessed here.

Spot the misplaced adverb

Three of these sentences put the frequency word where French puts it. Select the ONE that does not.

• Je lis souvent les journaux.
• Je toujours fais les courses.
• Je joue souvent au football.
• Je fais rarement les courses.

Saying it correctly

You are writing a few sentences in French about your free time. Work through the choices.

• You want to say that you often read. Where does the frequency word go?
• You now want to say that you play a sport. Which pattern after jouer?
• You then want to say that you play an instrument. What changes?
• You have time for one more sentence. What would add most to your marks?