The Narrative Question or Récit Leaving Cert French
The Narrative Question or Récit Leaving Cert French
In order to do well in this type of writing, students need to have a very clear understanding of the use of
“Past” tenses such as the passé composé, the Imparfait and the plus-que-parfait.
Narrative or Récit Question…
Firsrly, according to the 2016 Chief Examiner’s report, the narrative or récit question is generally not a popular choice. The Linguistic Skills needed were those from I.6 (Giving an account or description of an event in the past and sequencing events), requiring the use of Passé Composé, imperfect and pluperfect tenses. The récit format should have been familiar to all candidates, as this type of question occurs in either part (a) or part (b) of Q.1 in most years.
Students…
- Many candidates, who choose to do this question, put together interesting, and imaginative stories, which are relevant to the question being asked and clearly expressed.
- Students who do not do well in the récit question usually attempt to tell a story which lacks coherence and the different elements do not hold together well.
- In addition, a lot of candidates struggle with the format of the various past tenses, or have difficulty distinguishing between the use of the Passé Composé and the imperfect tenses.
Let’s Take A Look At One Of The Q’s From The Leaving Cert Papers….
Describe a humorous incident which happened in your school one day.
- Décrivez un incident amusant qui s’est passé dans votre école un jour. (Votre récit peut être réel ou imaginaire.)
Describe a humorous incident which happened in your school one day. (Your story can be real or imagined).
Answering The Narrative or Récit Question…
In order to answer this question, I usually ask my students to include the following 5 elements.
In doing this, they then have a complete structure, and waffling is avoided….
- Set the scene. Tell the reader where you were, and depending on the type of story, what the weather was like. (The imperfect tense is generally used to set the scene in the past tense. It is also used to express weather and feelings in the past tense).
- Who was there? Were you alone? Were others there or nearby?
- What happened (the substantial part of the récit). You would use a mixture of passé composé, imparfait and plus-que-parfait here.
- What was the result or consequence. The tense used here would be dependent on what you want to say.
- Your feelings about what happened. (Remember that you may have different feelings throughout the récit. In this particular récit, you may have started off feeling bored at school, but through the incident, you change your feelings accordingly.
Using Proverbs & French Sayings…
A lot of students wonder about correctly using proverbs and French sayings in their writing.
My own advice would be to use proverbs and colloquial expressions only where they really fit, and avoid using too many of them….
- C’était un matin ordinaire
It was a typical morning
- Ce jeudi matin avait commencé comme tous les autres
That Thursday morning had started like any other
- Ce jour-là – On that particular day
- J’avais honte – I was ashamed
- J’avais peur – I was afraid
- J’étais aux anges – I was excited
- J’avais cru que – I had believed that
- Il vous est sûrement déjà arrivé d’avoir eu très peur. Dans quelles circonstances? Comment avez-vous réagi ?
You have obviously had a time when you were very frightened. What were the circumstances and how did you react?
- “Je me souviendrai toujours les événements qui ont précédé Noël 2014. C’était un matin très froid au mois de décembre. Je venais tout juste de commencer mes vacances de Noël et donc j’étais encore au lit…..
“I will always remember the events leading up to Christmas, 2014. It was a very cold morning in the month of December. I had just started my Christmas holidays, and so I was still in bed”……
Words & Phrases To Help You… For Example…
- Les événements qui ont précédé
The events leading up to
- Noël
Christmas
- Mes parents étaient partis
My parents had gone
- Quelques choses de dernière minute
Last minute things
You will find More Topics on….
French Notes Leaving Cert Shop