Fax-Email-Notes

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Guidelines for both eails/faxes and notes:

• Make sure you deal with every task and slightly develop them
• Use Cher / Chère (feminine) if you are writing to a friend + “tu” (ton, ta, tes, te…)
• Use Madame / Monsieur if you are writing to an adult (your penpal’s parents, neighbours, teacher, principal, a hotel manager…) + “vous” (votre, vos, vous…)
• Write the time in the right hand corner and use the 24 hour clock (17h00, 16h30, 21h45…).
• The date is not always necessary.

 

Email/Fax

Emails, faxes or notes appear almost every year in the written examination, so make sure you know how to deal with them. The message may be formal or informal. If it is being left for a friend, then you should use “tu”, whereas if it is a business matter (e.g., to an employer), an elder person or a group of people, then you should use “vous”. However, as you will see from the exercises below, all emails/faxes or notes that students have had to deal with over the last few years are formal.

Also know how to ask questions in French as one of the tasks usually requires you to do so. (You can check our grammar section on Questions)

When dealing with a fax, it is becoming the practice to indicate to whom you’re sending the fax, who the fax is from and what the fax is about. Also indicate the date. The layout should be as follows:

Fax à: L’école Jean Zay

Fax de: Olivier Dupuis, secrétaire

Date: le 10 mars

Objet du fax: voyage scolaire en France

Past exam papers

2009

You wish to attend the Festival Interceltique in Lorient, Brittany, in August 2009. Write an email to the organisers in which you make the following points:

- Introduce yourself and say you heard about the festival from your French teacher;

- Your teacher attended the festival in 2008 and said it was very enjoyable;

- You are interested in traditional music and dance and you play the violin;

- You speak good French and would like to help at this year's festival;

- You hope they will reply to you soon.

(About 75 words)

 

2006

Students from lycée Jean Monnet in Toulouse have written to your school. They want to hear about Irish students’ experience of learning French. You e-mail them back, making the following points:

• Say that your teacher has asked you to reply to their enquiry, and that you’re delighted to do so.
• Say how long you’ve been learning French, and the standard you’ve reached.
• Say what you like and dislike about learning French.
• Describe how French has been useful to you outside the classroom.
• Ask them to e-mail you, telling you about their experience of learning English in the classroom.

(About 75 words)

 

2004

You are helping to organize a sponsored cycle through France in April 2005 and want to book one night’s accommodation for the cyclists in the Hotel L’Océanide in La Rochelle, France. Write a fax or an e-mail to the hotel in which you:

• Say there will be approximately 80 cyclists;
• Say you want to book 40 twin-bedded or double rooms for the night on Tuesday, 12th April 2005 only;
• Ask if the hotel serves an evening meal and, if not, can the hotel recommend a suitable restaurant nearby;
• Say you will need a garage or large room for the bicycles and equipment;
• Ask the hotel to confirm the booking and to send a price list.

(About 75 words)

 

2002

Your local primary school is going to organise an exchange with a school in Paris and has asked you to send a fax or an e-mail to a French principal whose name is Madame Toulon.

Your message should give the following information:

• A primary school in Dundalk is looking for a school in Paris to do an exchange with.
• About twenty twelve-year old boys and girls and three teachers would participate.
• The Irish group would like to spend a week visiting places of interest in Paris, returning each evening to the French families.
• The Irish school could arrange activities such as horse riding and swimming for the French group.

(About 75 words)

 

2001

Your name is James/Janice McDonnell. Your neighbours, the O’Rourkes, will be shortly hosting a 12 year old boy, Laurent Picard. They have asked you to send his family a fax or an e-mail to let them know the following points and to check up on some details.

• Mr. O’Rourke will meet Laurent in the Teacht/Arrivals area of Cork airport.
• He is easily recognisable, a tall red-haired man and he will be holding up a piece of paper with Laurent’s name.