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PROCESS.

• Read the instructions. Don’t change them. Don’t generalise them.
• Hit the deadline
• Deliver in prescribed form
• Proofing (relecture) – read aloud
• Use spellcheck and Grammarly and Word Reference by all means – they are considered as legitimateassistance in the finessing of your work (but you must not use Google Translate et al. for two good reasons:
  • using such a translator means that you have not done any of the work yourself (that is plagiarism!).  You are also breaking the ‘contract’ between us that says that when you hand in your work it IS your work and that we can attribute the mark to you as the author. In such a case there is ZERO LEARNING.
  • the level of development of translation technologies is such that they are not very good and make characteristic errors which we teachers can pick up.

CONVENTIONS / STYLE

• Prénoms : first, N de Famille : last
• Capital first letters for main words in the title
• Full title then abbreviated form
• Don’t start sentences with ‘and’ or ‘but’ – they are conjunctions!
• The personal pronoun is always ‘I’, never ‘i’
• Don’t make adjectives feminine or plural
• Avoid conversational American : ‘gunna’ = going to  and ‘wanna’ = want to
• If you start with a verb ending in the ‘ing’ form, keep with it for the other verbs !
• Avoid starting all sentences with ‘I’ ! (Boring and repetitive)
• Paragraphs have a beginning, middle & end/ transition
• Use space to accentuate paragraphs
• Mr. Not ‘Mister’.
• Caps for :
  • Days of the week
  • Months of the year
  • Countries
  • Nationalities
  • Languages
  • Departments
  • Academic subjects

• Not ‘in a first time’ : rather – firstly, secondly, thirdly …
• ‘Who’ = for people / ‘Which’ = for things

EDUCATIONAL DIPLOMAS ETC

• Give French in full then translation
• ‘Mention’ doesn’t translate. In English it is as follows:
  • Degree : 1st, 2i, 2ii, 3rd
  • Masters : Pass, Merit, Distinction

FAUX AMIS

• Formation = education & training
• Structure = building construction  (NB the French ‘structure’ = organisation.)
• Passer un examen = to sit an exam. In English : ‘pass an exam’ = réussite)
• ‘Serious’ = severe and unsmiling
• ‘I am curious’ = people think I’m strange !
• Actualité doesn’t mean ‘actually’ (in fact actually means ‘en fait’.) – you mean ‘currently’
• Primordiale = essential, vital – unless speaking of geological age eg ‘the primordial forest’
• Notorious = famous, BUT only for doing BAD things
• Attire as a noun doesn’t mean attract – it means what you are dressed in !
• Un support = material (to support presentation … Powerpoint, Prezi, a handout etc)

INVARIABLES (S & Pl)

• Information
• Software
• Research
• Apparel
• Teamwork
• Experience (v rare use of ‘s’)
• Advice (v rare use of ‘s’)
• People  (v rare use of ‘s’)
• Clothes (never ‘clotheses’ … the singular would be an article / item of clothing.)

TRANSLATION & CHOICES

• Faire :
  • To make –  if constructing something physically or mentally
  • To do – if not constructing
• Permettre :
  • Neg : to permit or allow
  • Pos : to enable or facilitate or make possible
• Stage : internship, placement or supervised work experience
• Alternance : ‘sandwich’ course
• Your birth : I WAS born, not I AM born (because to the Anglo mind it happened in the past)
• You ‘are’,  not ‘have’ your age (I am 60)
• Poyvalent = multi-skilled (unless in Maths, then it could mean ‘multiple values’)
• ‘Pack Office’ = Office Suite
• CDI = ‘Computer Driving License’.
• BAFA = Youth Leadership Certificate
• Not ‘médias’, but ‘medium’ (s) or ‘media’ (pl)  – never takes an S
• Not ‘I am an Alsatian’ – means I am a German Shepherd Dog! (Prefer: I am from Alsace)
• Cocher = to ‘tick’ a box (we don’t put a cross in it’!)
• ‘Look at ‘ = static – I might look at a view / ‘Watch’ = something moving – a film
• ‘As’ = in precisely the same role –  ‘Like’ = not quite in the same role

SOUNDS THE SAME (not spelled the same)

• Personnel – personal
• Professionnel – professional
• Littérature – literature
• Brit : Organisation / US Organization
• Brit : Recognise / US Recognize
• Brit : Theatre  / US Theater
• Brit : Centre / US Center

OTHER :

Repetition is considered very LAZY and suggests no proofing (relecture) has been done….

Please:

Make every effort to commit these things to memory (or on paper).  The best way is to use the form you now know is correct as soon as you can – once you have used it there is more than a good chance that the reinforcement will help you ‘own’ it and you’ll never make the error again and never have to try to remember the correct form: it will just be there.