Épreuve
Compréhension de l'oral
Level
A2
Time
25 min
Marks
/25
Catch the signal: numbers, voices and clues
25 minutes, four exercises, every recording played twice. What to catch on the first play, and what to finish on the second.
By the end of this lesson
- Walk in knowing the shape of the paper: 25 minutes, 25 points, four exercises, every recording played twice.
- Catch the hard details on the first play: numbers, times, prices, letters and codes.
- Name the relationship between two speakers from the pronoun tu or vous, the greeting and the vocabulary.
- Identify a place, a radio segment and the reason for a phone call from two or three keywords.
The audio starts and you're still reading question 2. A price goes past, then a time, and you catch neither. That happens to nearly everyone at the start, and it isn't a vocabulary problem. You just didn't know what to listen for before the sound arrived.
This lesson gives you that list. First the shape of the paper, so nothing surprises you on the day. Then come three things you can catch without understanding every word. They are the hard details, the relationship between the speakers, and the type of document.
What the listening paper actually looks like
The paper runs about 25 minutes and is marked out of 25. It holds four exercises and the points climb: 6, then 6, then 6, then 7 for the last one. You never write a sentence in French. You tick a box under a written option or a picture, and in the last exercise you match items.
Here's the shape, exercise by exercise. Exercise 1 gives you six very short documents. Three of them are answered by choosing a picture and three by choosing a written option. Exercise 2 has three documents and six questions with three options each. Exercise 3 is one longer document with six questions. Exercise 4 plays four situations and asks you to attach each one to the right label.
Two habits are worth more than any vocabulary learned the night before. Every document is played twice, and you get a short pause before the first play plus time to answer afterwards. Use that first pause to read the questions, because they tell you the topic and the exact detail to listen for. Then read the printed consigne, the short instruction that says where you are and why you're listening. It isn't read out loud, so it's easy to skip.
Consigne type · Exercice 2CO · A2
Vous allez entendre trois documents. Pour chaque document, lisez d'abord les questions. Vous entendrez le document deux fois. Cochez la bonne réponse.
ENYou're going to hear three documents. For each one, read the questions first. You'll hear the document twice. Tick the right answer.
Nobody understands every word, and nobody's asked to. The examiner wants one thing from you: the piece of information the question points at. Losing a whole sentence costs you nothing if you caught the number inside it.
Point d'étape 1/4
0 / 4
Q1How many times is each recording played in the listening paper?
Q2How is the listening paper divided, and how do the 25 points fall?
Q3What do you actually write on the answer sheet in this paper?
Q4The pause before the first play has just started. What is the best use of it?
The details you either catch or lose
Some information in the audio needs no grammar at all. A price, a time, a platform letter, a flight number: you either hear it or you don't. Context won't rebuild it afterwards. These are the cheapest points on the paper, so give them the first play.
Write each detail in the margin as it goes past, even before you know which question wants it. Two digits on paper survive the second play. A number you only heard does not.
Then attach each number to its job, because that's where the traps live. A phone message can easily contain three times. The moment of the call, the meeting time, and the arrival of a train. One of them answers the question, and the other two are sitting in the wrong options. The same goes for a gate number that changes halfway through an airport announcement.
Letters count too. Platform and gate codes are read out letter by letter, and a surname is often spelled for you. If you can't picture the letters of the French alphabet at speed, that's twenty minutes of practice, once.
Three French number forms cost learners more points than anything else: soixante-dix, quatre-vingts and quatre-vingt-dix. Five minutes a day saying prices and times out loud fixes that, and it pays back on every exercise. Two facts also make phone numbers easier. They arrive in pairs of two digits, and a French mobile begins with zéro six or zéro sept.
Point d'étape 2/4
0 / 3
Q1What should you be writing down during the first play?
Q2A voicemail mentions three different times. What keeps you out of the trap?
Q3You have to catch a French mobile number. What helps you hear it?
Who's talking, and to whom
Several questions never ask what was said. They ask who these two people are to each other, and the first line usually answers that. Five labels cover almost everything you'll hear: familiale (family), amicale (friends), commerciale (a shop), professionnelle (a workplace) and administrative (an administration). The options you tick are printed in French, so learn these words in French.
Start with the pronoun, because it cuts those five in two. If the speakers say tu, you're with family or friends. If they say vous, you're in a shop, an office or an administration. One warning: vous is also the plural of tu. So check whether the speaker adds monsieur or madame before you commit.
Vocabulary then decides between the three formal cases. A shop talks about prices, sizes and paying. A workplace talks about meetings, colleagues and deadlines. An administration talks about a dossier (a file), a formulaire (a form) and proof of identity.
Modèle · cinq premières répliques
Salut, tu fais quoi samedi ? On va au cinéma avec Léa, tu viens ?
Amicale (friends). The pronoun tu, a first name and a weekend plan. Nothing here belongs to a family or an office, so amicale is the only label left.
Maman, tu as vu mon sac de sport ? Il n'est pas dans ma chambre.
Familiale (family). The pronoun tu again, but one word settles it. A kinship word such as maman, papa or tonton decides this label on its own.
Bonjour madame, vous réglez par carte ou en espèces ?
Commerciale (a shop). The pronoun vous, the title madame, and a choice about paying. You're at a till, and the money vocabulary is what gives it away.
Bonjour monsieur, il manque une pièce à votre dossier. Pouvez-vous apporter un justificatif de domicile ?
Administrative (an administration). The pronoun vous again, but the words have changed. Dossier and justificatif belong to an office that handles paperwork, not to a shop.
Salut Karim, la réunion de 14 heures est reportée à jeudi.
Professionnelle (a workplace). Here the greeting and the first name would send you to amicale, and that would be wrong. The word réunion and a moved meeting time come from work.
Colleagues who've known each other for ten years say tu and greet each other like friends. That's why vocabulary settles the case whenever those clues and the setting disagree.
Point d'étape 3/4
0 / 3
Q1What is the fastest clue to the relationship between two speakers?
Q2Both speakers use vous. Why isn't that proof on its own that the exchange is formal?
Q3A speaker says: Salut Karim, la réunion de 14 heures est reportée à jeudi. Which label fits?
Where you are, and what you're listening to
Two or three words are enough to place a recording. A station brings voie, quai and retard. An airport brings porte, embarquement and vol. A supermarket brings caisse, rayon and promotion. A museum brings exposition, salle and visite guidée. Background noise helps, but the words decide, so note the two that placed the document for you.
Radio clips get sorted the same way, from how the voices behave rather than from what they say.
| What you hear | What it is |
|---|---|
| Music, then one short line | An advert, or the opening of a programme |
| Town names and temperatures | The weather |
| Two voices taking turns on one subject | An interview |
| One voice, one subject, no questions | A report |
| One voice, several unrelated subjects | A news bulletin |
| A host, a player and a prize | A game show |
News items also get sorted by theme, and six labels cover the usual set: health, sport, technology, the economy, culture and politics. One keyword normally gives it away, so listen for the noun rather than the whole headline.
The last exercise often works on phone messages, where the question is what the caller wants. The first two sentences almost always say it. Someone invites you, asks for an appointment, confirms one, apologises, thanks you or congratulates you. Sort them into two groups first: the calls that expect something back from you, and the rest. That alone removes half the labels.
Exercice 4 · associerCO · A2
Vous allez entendre quatre situations. Reliez chaque situation à ce que veut la personne. a. remercier b. s'excuser c. inviter d. demander un rendez-vous
ENYou're going to hear four situations. Match each one to what the speaker wants. a. to thank b. to apologise c. to invite d. to ask for an appointment
Point d'étape 4/4
0 / 4
Q1You hear the words voie, quai and retard. Where are you?
Q2News items get sorted by theme. Which set of six labels covers almost all of them?
Q3A clip opens with music, then one short line. What does that normally signal?
Q4A caller finishes with: Dis-moi si tu es libre samedi. What is the message doing?
Key takeaways
- Four exercises worth 6, 6, 6 and 7 points. Nothing is written out. You tick a box under a text or a picture, and you match in the last exercise.
- Each document is played twice, with short pauses to read the questions and mark your answers.
- The first play is for the hard details. The second is for checking them and filling the gaps.
- The pronoun tu points to the familiale or amicale label. The pronoun vous points to commerciale, professionnelle or administrative.
- Two or three keywords name the place, the type of radio segment, or what a caller wants from you.