dcf.cymru stimulus sheet · MFL · Year 9
Text A is correct French. Text B is the English a free online translator produced from it. Text B contains eight errors. Your job is to find them.
Salut Megan !
Je m'appelle Élise et j'habite à Rennes, en Bretagne. La semaine dernière, ma classe est allée au pays de Galles pour un échange scolaire. Nous avons visité le château de Caerphilly et nous avons mangé des gâteaux gallois au marché couvert de Cardiff.
Le lundi matin, j'étais un peu déçue parce qu'il pleuvait sans arrêt. L'après-midi, heureusement, il a fait beau et nous avons pu marcher le long de la baie. Mes correspondants sont très sympathiques et ils m'ont appris quelques mots en gallois.
Actuellement, je prépare un exposé sur le pays de Galles pour mon professeur d'anglais. Je dois le rendre avant vendredi, alors je travaille d'arrache-pied.
Écris-moi vite !
Élise
(1) Greetings Megan!
My name is Élise and I live in Rennes, in Brittany. Last week, (2) my class is gone to (3) the country of Galles for a school exchange. We visited Caerphilly castle and we ate Welsh cakes at the covered market in Cardiff.
(4) The Monday morning, I was a bit (5) deceived because it was raining non-stop. In the afternoon, luckily, the weather was nice and we were able to walk along the bay. (6) My exchange partners are very (7) sympathetic and they taught me a few words in Welsh.
(8) Actually, I am preparing an exposé on the country of Galles for my English teacher. I have to hand it in before Friday, so (9) I am working of tear-up-foot.
Write to me quickly!
Élise
Nine passages are numbered. Eight of them are genuine errors; one of the numbered passages is actually fine. Deciding which one is fine is part of the task. Two further mistakes are not numbered at all — finding those is the extension.
| French | Notes |
|---|---|
| salut | informal greeting between friends — "hi", not "greetings" |
| aller (elle est allée) | verb of movement, forms the perfect tense with être; in English it is simply "went" |
| le pays de Galles | the country's name: Wales |
| le lundi | with the article it means "on Mondays"; here, "on the Monday morning" |
| déçu / déçue | disappointed (décevoir = to disappoint, never "to deceive") |
| un correspondant | a penfriend or exchange partner |
| sympathique | friendly, nice, likeable |
| actuellement | at the moment, currently (en fait = actually) |
| un exposé | a presentation or talk given in class |
| travailler d'arrache-pied | idiom: to work flat out, to work very hard |