The official website and your best resource for MTG duel Commander games. Rules, French banlists, news, blog posts and announcements from the committee. Pierre de Fermat (French: pjɛːʁ də fɛʁma; between 31 October and 6 December 1607 – 12 January 1665) was a French lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France, and a mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality.In particular, he is recognized for his discovery of an original method of finding the. How To Write A Polite Formula in French Posted by John Bauer on Jul 29, 2015 in Culture In France the art of the handwritten letter has not been lost. I was surprised when I read the requirements for a school application or contacting a bank and saw une lettre manuscrite (a handwritten letter). Growing up in Boston, Matt didn't take his first overseas trip until he was 23, but he is certainly making up for it now. As a New York Times best-selling author of How to Travel the World on $50 a Day and founder of one of the biggest travel blogs online, Nomadic Matt has helped millions of people to travel more with his useful tips and advice.
In France the art of the handwritten letter has not been lost. I was surprised when I read the requirements for a school application or contacting a bank and saw une lettre manuscrite (a handwritten letter).
I hadn't written une lettre manuscrite since third grade! I couldn't believe that I would have to handwrite a letter to anyone!
I wrote my letter in ma mauvaise écriture (my bad handwriting) and was met with another surprise when I asked un ami (a friend) to check my grammar. In France, handwritten is synonymous with cursive. My print was acceptable, but not quite normal.
The last big surprise came from how to end a letter. You need to add une formule de politesse (formal salutation) in a French letter. It's une phrase (a sentence) that has no meaning but is customary in order to correctly write une lettre formelle (a formal letter).
Even in emails, if it's formal enough, you need to add une formule de politesse! Most people memorize une formule de politesse and use it in their lettres formelles. Cependant (however), you can fine tune your formule de politesse to fit what you're asking or the content of la lettre. The problem for an English speaker is that they sound incredibly bombastic and unnecessary. Les formules de politesse often don't translate well, and knowing what they mean doesn't help understand their importance.
In English, the end of a letter would not have an equivalent formule de politesse, and any translation just doesn't really work. they are all the equivalent of Sincerely yours in an English letter. Ceci dit (that said), I've added translations to help understand the language used in the French formules de politesse.
There are a few parts to making une formulle de politesse, normally you start with une phrase that doesn't translate into English very well:
En vous remerciant de votre obligeance,
Dans l'attente de vous rencontrer,
Dans l'attente de vous recevoir,
I would like to thank you for your courtesy,
I look forward to meeting you,
I look forward to your reply,
Then you work your way into the more polite part of la formule de politesse:
Veuillez agréer l'expression de mes sentiments distingués.
Je vous prie d'agréer mes meilleures salutations.
Veuillez recevoir mes salutations distinguées.
Veuillez agréer l'expression de ma sincère reconnaissance.
Je vous prie d'agréer l'expression de mes sentiments très respectueux.
Je vous prie d'agréer l'expression de ma haute considération.
Please accept the expression of my distinguished sentiments.
Please accept my best salutations.
Please accept my distinguished salutations.
Please accept the expression of my sincerest appreciation.
Please accept the expression of my very respectful sentiments.
Please accept the expression of my highest consideration.
Finalement (finally), after you've written all that, you add a final farewell:
Toby fox youtube. Cordialement,
Bien cordialement,
Sincèrement,
Cordially,
Very cordially,
Sincerely,
Ib French Blog Format
The end of la lettre ends up looking like this:
Dans l'attente de vous recevoir, veuillez agréer l'expression de mes sentiments distingués.
Cordialement,
John BAUER
Of course in less formal situations you can drop la formule de politesse and just add a cordialement to the end of your letter, and between friends a simple bises (take care, literally: kisses) will do.
A translation of les formules de politesse does not help much in understanding the language. La formule de politesse, being related to courtesy and politeness, has more to do with culture than language. Similarly, writing a handwritten letter seemed unnecessarily archaic to me, but understanding how to write a formal French letter requires accepting these things, even if they seem unnecessary.
Here are tips to help you write a great French essay with exam requirements in mind. Once you're done, I strongly suggest you proofread your text using my checklist. War headquarters wow.
Note: if you're preparing for the French VCE, there is an updated version of these exam tips in my guide 'How to Prepare for the French VCE & Reach your Maximum Score'.
Exam Tips
While supervising exams or tutoring for exam preparation, I've seen too many students writing straight away on their exam copies. Stop! Resist the urge to jump on your pen and take a step back to make sure that you will be addressing all the exam requirements or you may be shooting yourself in the foot and lose precious points.
I recommend that you train with exam sample questions so that you set up good working habits and respect the required length of the essay, as well as the timing (allow at least 10 minutes for proofreading).
Crafting your French Essay
1. Identify the situation: preparation work
- Read the topic carefully, slowly and at least twice to absorb every information/detail.
- Underline/highlight/jot down any piece of information that you are expected to reuse:
- What type of text do you need to write? (a journal entry? A formal letter? A speech? Etc).
Note to VCE French exam students: refer to page 13 of the VCE French Study Design for more information about the different types of texts. - Who are you in the situation? (yourself? A journalist? etc)
- Who are you addressing? (a friend? A large audience? Etc) à adjust the degree of formality to the situation (for example by using the 'tu'/'vous' form, a casual or formal tone/register, etc)
- What are the characteristic features of the type of text you need to write? (eg a journal entry will have the date, a formal letter will start and end with a formal greeting, etc)
- What is your goal ? What are you expected to talk about / present / defend / convey?
- What are the length requirements for your French essay? Respect the word count (there's usually a 5% or so tolerance. Check the requirements specific to your exam)
Tip: when you practice at home, count how many words in average you fit on a line. This will give you a good indication of how many lines your text should be.
Ex: You write an average of 15 words per line. If you are required to write a 300-word French essay, you should aim for:
300 words / 15 words per line = 20 lines total.
2. Draft the outline of your essay
Format Of A Blog Post
- An essay typically has an introduction, a body with 2 or 3 distinct parts and a conclusion. (See if that outline is relevant to the type of text you are expected to write and adjust accordingly.)
- Use bullet points to organize your ideas.
- Don't remain too general. A good rule is to use one main idea for each part and to back it up/reinforce in/illustrate it with one concrete example (eg. data).
- Brainstorming about things to say will also help you use a wider range of vocabulary, which will get noticed by the examiner. Are there some interesting/specific words or expressions that you can think of using in your text (example: if you are writing about global warming, brainstorm the vocab related to this topic. Brainstorm expressions to convince or disagree with something, etc)?
- Make sure you have reused every point identified in part 1.
3. Write your essay
- It's better if you have time to write or at least draft a few sentences on your draft paper rather than writing directly because:
- You want to meet the word count requirements
- You don't want multiple words to be barredcross crossed-out and your page looking messy and great anything but neat!
BUT
- you don't want to have to rush so much that your handwriting is really unpleasant to read (or worse, impossible to read…)
- So… monitor your time carefully!
Blog Format Sample
Structuring your text
- Visually, the eye should instantly be able to see the structure of your French essay: make paragraph and skip lines so that it doesn't look like an unappealing large block of text.
- Use connectors/link words to structure your text and make good transitions.
Best Blog Format
4. Proofread, proofread, proofread!
Blog Entry Format
- It's important that you allow at least 10 minutes for proofreading because there most likely are a few mistakes that you can fix very easily. It would therefore be a shame not to give yourself your best chances of success!
Check out my Proofreading Checklist.
Bonne chance!
Of course in less formal situations you can drop la formule de politesse and just add a cordialement to the end of your letter, and between friends a simple bises (take care, literally: kisses) will do.
A translation of les formules de politesse does not help much in understanding the language. La formule de politesse, being related to courtesy and politeness, has more to do with culture than language. Similarly, writing a handwritten letter seemed unnecessarily archaic to me, but understanding how to write a formal French letter requires accepting these things, even if they seem unnecessary.
Here are tips to help you write a great French essay with exam requirements in mind. Once you're done, I strongly suggest you proofread your text using my checklist. War headquarters wow.
Note: if you're preparing for the French VCE, there is an updated version of these exam tips in my guide 'How to Prepare for the French VCE & Reach your Maximum Score'.
Exam Tips
While supervising exams or tutoring for exam preparation, I've seen too many students writing straight away on their exam copies. Stop! Resist the urge to jump on your pen and take a step back to make sure that you will be addressing all the exam requirements or you may be shooting yourself in the foot and lose precious points.
I recommend that you train with exam sample questions so that you set up good working habits and respect the required length of the essay, as well as the timing (allow at least 10 minutes for proofreading).
Crafting your French Essay
1. Identify the situation: preparation work
- Read the topic carefully, slowly and at least twice to absorb every information/detail.
- Underline/highlight/jot down any piece of information that you are expected to reuse:
- What type of text do you need to write? (a journal entry? A formal letter? A speech? Etc).
Note to VCE French exam students: refer to page 13 of the VCE French Study Design for more information about the different types of texts. - Who are you in the situation? (yourself? A journalist? etc)
- Who are you addressing? (a friend? A large audience? Etc) à adjust the degree of formality to the situation (for example by using the 'tu'/'vous' form, a casual or formal tone/register, etc)
- What are the characteristic features of the type of text you need to write? (eg a journal entry will have the date, a formal letter will start and end with a formal greeting, etc)
- What is your goal ? What are you expected to talk about / present / defend / convey?
- What are the length requirements for your French essay? Respect the word count (there's usually a 5% or so tolerance. Check the requirements specific to your exam)
Tip: when you practice at home, count how many words in average you fit on a line. This will give you a good indication of how many lines your text should be.
Ex: You write an average of 15 words per line. If you are required to write a 300-word French essay, you should aim for:
300 words / 15 words per line = 20 lines total.
2. Draft the outline of your essay
Format Of A Blog Post
- An essay typically has an introduction, a body with 2 or 3 distinct parts and a conclusion. (See if that outline is relevant to the type of text you are expected to write and adjust accordingly.)
- Use bullet points to organize your ideas.
- Don't remain too general. A good rule is to use one main idea for each part and to back it up/reinforce in/illustrate it with one concrete example (eg. data).
- Brainstorming about things to say will also help you use a wider range of vocabulary, which will get noticed by the examiner. Are there some interesting/specific words or expressions that you can think of using in your text (example: if you are writing about global warming, brainstorm the vocab related to this topic. Brainstorm expressions to convince or disagree with something, etc)?
- Make sure you have reused every point identified in part 1.
3. Write your essay
- It's better if you have time to write or at least draft a few sentences on your draft paper rather than writing directly because:
- You want to meet the word count requirements
- You don't want multiple words to be barredcross crossed-out and your page looking messy and great anything but neat!
BUT
- you don't want to have to rush so much that your handwriting is really unpleasant to read (or worse, impossible to read…)
- So… monitor your time carefully!
Blog Format Sample
Structuring your text
- Visually, the eye should instantly be able to see the structure of your French essay: make paragraph and skip lines so that it doesn't look like an unappealing large block of text.
- Use connectors/link words to structure your text and make good transitions.
Best Blog Format
4. Proofread, proofread, proofread!
Blog Entry Format
- It's important that you allow at least 10 minutes for proofreading because there most likely are a few mistakes that you can fix very easily. It would therefore be a shame not to give yourself your best chances of success!
Check out my Proofreading Checklist.
Bonne chance!
If you need any help with your essay, you can submit it to me there.
