TIPS FOR THE INFORMAL LETTER
• You are writing a letter to your pen pal so you will have to make sure that the format is correct. Otherwise you will lose marks. This will involve an address, a date, an opening greeting and a correct ending (when finishing the letter).
• Make sure to put the address and date on the top right
hand corner on the one line. E.g: Waterford, le onze juillet • Make sure that the opening format is correct, i.e. Cher
Paul, but Chère Marie.
• As you are writing to a friend and your letter is not a formal letter you will need to use the ‘tu’ form of the verb at all times.
• There are five tasks to be completed. Do not omit any
one of them or you will lose marks.
• You can elaborate on each task. Remember, you are being tested on everything you that have learned over three years and so you should use this chance to show off what you know. You should prepare the following topics for the
INFORMAL LETTER:
• Activities to do at the weekend (what you do every weekend as well as what you did last weekend and what you will do next weekend).
• Things to do on holidays (what you do every Summer as well as what you did last Summer and what you will do next Summer).
• Activities for celebrating birthdays (what you do to celebrate every birthday as well as what you did for your last birthday and what you will do for your next birthday. Also make sure that you can describe a friend’s or a sibling’s birthday in the past and future). • Describing people (in particular be able to describe someone else’s personality in the present tense and what someone was like).
• Describing towns (in the present tense and what
somewhere was like).
• The weather (past, present and future).
• Describing your school (make sure you can describe it in general as well as being able to describe something that happened in school, exams, a school trip that you did in past and one you are going to go on in the future).
• Inviting someone to stay and what you will do
together.
• Thanking someone for having you stay and describing
what you did when you stayed with them. Make sure that you have a good list of expressions for these. Some of them as you can see you will need to know in both in the past tense, e.g. what you did last weekend, and in the future tense, e.g. what you will do next weekend. When using the future tense, use both the ‘futur proche’ and the ‘futur simple’ if you can.