UTME Syllabus – French

– topics of general and emergent interest e.g. love, life, death, politics, marriage, HIV/AIDS,
communication, child trafficking, cultism, travel, corruption, money- laundering, etc.

I. Identification of basic form classes:
(a) Nouns: simple/compound, Singular/plural, masculine/feminine.
(b) Pronouns: personal, impersonal, demonstrative, possessive and relative.
(c) Verbs: reflexive and non-reflexive, their moods and tenses.
(d) Adjectives: qualifying, possessive, interrogative,
demonstrative, indefinite (e.g. nul), numeral (e.g. dix) and ordinal (e.g. dixième.)
(e) Adverbs:
– common forms
i) with-ment (e.g. lentement)
ii) with préposition + noun (e.g. par avion, à cheval, en voiture, par bateau.)
– special forms (e.g. bien, vite, mal, mieux, le mieux, pire, le pis, ne…que.)
– types
– manner (e.g. debout, facilement.)
– purpose (e.g. pour + Infinitive, afin de + infinitive.)
– cause and consequence (e.g. pour+ infinitive perfect, à cause de + noun.)
– concession (e.g. malgré +noun.)
– place (e.g. y, en, ici, là, là-haut, partout.)
– time (e.g. hier, aujourd’hui, avant-hier, après, demain, la veille, le matin, dans un mois.)
(f) Prépositions:
– simple (e.g. à, de, avec, avant, sur, dans.)
– compound (e.g. à côté de, au milieu de.)
(g) Conjunctions:
– of co-ordination (e.g. mais, ou, et, donc, car, cependant, ne…ni.)
-of subordination (e.g. afin que, quoique, à condition que, pour que, parce que.)
(h) Articles:
– definite, indefinite and partitive.

II. Assessment of vocabulary span:
(words in contemporary contexts
– meaning, use, opposites, Synonyms)

III. Importance of word order in:

(a) affirmative sentences
(b) interrogative sentences
(c) imperative sentences
(d) passive voice formation

IV. Identification and application of basic processes in language structure, e.g.

(a) conjugation – in all tenses except l’imparfait du
subjonctif, le passé composé du subjonctif, et…le plus-que-parfait dusubjonctif.
(b) negation (e.g. ne…pas, ne…plus, ne…rien, nul ne, ne…ni..ni, ne…personne, personne…ne, aucun….ne,
rien ne….etc.)
(c) agreement (e.g. les beaux arts, il les a vues les photos.)
(d) pluralisation (e.g. as in cheval/chevaux, beau/beaux.)
(e) derivation:
-from adj, to adv –
e.g. lent-lentement,
-from adj. to adj. e.g. un – premier,
-from adj. to noun – e.g. bon-bonté,
riche-richesse etc
-from one degree of comparison to another (using plus…que, moins….que, aussi….que e.g. plus grand que.)
NB –special forms-
(e.g. bon, meilleur, le meilleur, la meilleure, mauvais,
pire, le pire.)

V. Use of French in set expressions such as in proverbs, idioms and conventional structures as provided for in common speech acts:

(a) proverbs (e.g. tel père tel fils, petit à petit l’oiseau fait son nid.)
(b) idioms (e.g. avoir une faim de loup, crier sur le toit, mourir de peur.)
(c) conventional stretches (e.g. enchanté, c’est dommage, c’est formidable, stationnement interdit, etc.)
(d) speech acts (e.g. proposer, conseiller, regretter, admirer, espérer, interroger,
reprocher, s’accorder, etc.)

(a) sound discrimination (e.g. tout/tu), (fais/fée.)
(b) letter-sound correspondence (e.g. ai-/e/, eau/o/.)
(c) syllabification (e.g. con/tente/ment.)
(d) liaison (e.g. trois animaux, des enfants.)
(e) sense groups in reading
e.g. J’ai mal à la tête. J’ai mal/pas à la tête / mais au dos/.
Comment vas-tu, Carol?// Comment vas- tu demain?
(f) faux amis(e.g.librairie/library, rester/to rest, blesser/to bless.)
(g) identification of sounds to determine similarity (e.g. maison/saison, dents/don,fond/ fonde.)

Characteristics , (aspects, similarities and differences) of the educational system,
socio-economic life, political organization and cultural life of Francophone Africa and France, with reference (where possible) to home country i.e. Nigeria.