Inside the VCE French Reading Section: Vocabulary, Grammar & Patterns
- Liv
- Feb 4
- 5 min read
In my ongoing quest to understand what the VCE French reading section is testing, I decided to use AI to analyse every reading text & questions from past VCE French exams. The goal was simple: step back from individual exams and identify the recurring patterns (in vocabulary, grammar and question design) that students are expected to recognise year after year.
Before diving into the findings below, you can also download a free PDF in which I’ve compiled the 58 French connectors that appear in VCE reading texts and, crucially, explained how those connectors signal different types of exam questions and guide students towards the correct answers.
Overview of the findings:
Across years and topics, VCAA reading questions consistently test whether students can:
Identify information that is paraphrased, not copied word-for-word
Track causes, consequences, purposes, contrasts
Follow references (pronouns, demonstratives, implicit subjects)
Understand logical connectors (why / therefore / however / despite)
So the answers are usually found via a combination of:
Vocabulary recognition (theme-specific nouns & verbs)
Grammatical decoding (how ideas are linked)
Most common grammatical structures found in VCE French reading sections
In terms of grammar, here is an overview of the core grammatical structures that usually carry answer-bearing information.
Cause–consequence structures
Purpose structures (pour / afin de)
Contrast & comparison
Time & change markers
Relative clauses
Pronoun reference (especially ils / ce / y / en)
Impersonal & passive meaning
Enumeration markers
A. Cause → consequence structures (very frequent)
Typical forms
entraîner / provoquer / causer
rendre + adjectif
avoir pour conséquence / pour effet
ce qui / ce qui entraîne
de ce fait
ainsi / donc / par conséquent
📌 Example
Le surtourisme entraîne la détérioration…
→ cause = surtourisme
→ effects = list that follows
🎯 Question types:
What impact…?
Why is it necessary…?
What are the consequences…?
B. Purpose & intention (pour / afin de / dans le but de)
Typical forms
pour + infinitif
afin de + infinitif
dans le but de
avoir pour objectif de
servir à
📌 Example
des mesures pour rétablir l’équilibre
→ purpose = restoring balance
🎯 Question types:
Why was X introduced?
What is the aim of…?
What is being done to…?
C. Passive & impersonal structures
Typical forms
être + participe passé
on + verb
il est + adjectif + de
il faut / il est nécessaire de
il est possible de
📌 Example
il est impératif d’y avoir des mesures
→ obligation, not who decides
🎯 Question types:
What is necessary…?
What needs to be done…?
D. Comparison & contrast
Used heavily in:
past vs present
traditional vs modern
urban vs rural
differing opinions
Typical forms
alors que / tandis que
par contre / en revanche
mais
contrairement à
au lieu de
plus… que / moins… que
📌 Example
Dans le passé…, mais aujourd’hui…
🎯 Question types:
Compare…
How is X different from Y?
What has changed?
E. Time & evolution markers (structure expressing change over time)
Typical forms
dans le passé / aujourd’hui / de nos jours
depuis
il y a + durée
au fil du temps
désormais / maintenant
passé composé vs imparfait
📌 Example
Il y a vingt ans… mais de nos jours…
🎯 Question types:
Describe past habits
Explain how things have evolved
F. Relative clauses (qui / que / dont / où)
Typical forms
qui + verb
que + clause
dont (especially after nouns like besoin, effets, conséquences)
où (places, situations)
📌 Example
les villes qui ont introduit une taxe
→ identifies which cities
🎯 Question types:
Which…?
Who…?
What kind of…?
G. Pronouns
Common pronouns
ils / elles
ceux-ci / celles-ci
y / en
cela / ceci / ce
leur / leurs
📌 Example
ils peuvent être bruyants
→ who is ils?
🎯 Question types:
According to the article…
Who does X refer to? (implicitly)
H. Evaluation & stance markers (author’s opinion)
Typical forms
il est vrai que
il semblerait que
je pense que / je trouve que
selon
il est certain que
d’après
📌 Example
Il est vrai que le comportement…
→ concession + opinion
🎯 Question types:
Why does the author think…?
What is the author’s view?
I. Enumeration
Typical forms
ainsi que
comme
notamment
par exemple
dont
commas + noun stacking
📌 Example
la pollution du sol, de l’eau et de l’air
🎯 Question types:
List…
Give examples…
Most common themes & topics in VCE French reading texts
Society & lifestyle
Environment & sustainability
Tourism & mobility
Economy & resources
The reading sections often describe some kind of evolution where students are expected to differentiate the before and after. Expect evaluation and consequence language (more on this below).
1. Society, lifestyle & social change
Core vocabulary
mode de vie; habitudes / comportements; traditions / coutumes; évolution / changement; vie quotidienne; société moderne; individualisme; rythme de vie; qualité de vie
📌 Why it matters
Very often combined with time markers + comparison
→ before vs now questions
2. Environment, sustainability & geography
Core vocabulary
environnement / nature; ressources naturelles; pollution; biodiversité; patrimoine naturel / culturel; zones rurales / urbaines; développement durable; préserver / protéger; impact environnemental
📌 Why it matters
Usually linked to cause–consequence and solutions
3. Tourism, travel & mobility
Core vocabulary
tourisme / touristes / vacanciers; fréquentation; destination; séjour; hébergement; flux touristiques; déplacement / migration; mobilité; voyager / partir / quitter
📌 Why it matters
Often mixed with economic + environmental consequences
4. Economy, work & resources
Core vocabulary
coût de la vie; ressources; emplois; entreprises; revenus; financier / financement; bourse; compétitivité; prix; rentable / inabordable
📌 Why it matters
Used to justify decisions or explain barriers
5. Education, youth & opportunities
Core vocabulary
jeunes; étudiants / élèves; formation; enseignement; études; réussite; avenir; opportunité; compétences; valeur ajoutée
📌 Why it matters
Strong link with evaluation and opinion structures
6. Culture, arts & heritage
Core vocabulary
culture; patrimoine; œuvre; art / artistique; création; héritage; tradition; valeurs; identité culturelle
📌 Why it matters
Often used with abstract nouns + evaluation
7. Media, communication & technology
Core vocabulary
communication; réseaux sociaux; informations; données; technologies; messages; virtuel; médias
📌 Why it matters
Usually linked to impact and social change
8. Health, well-being & lifestyle balance
Core vocabulary
santé physique et mentale; bien-être; mode de vie sain; stress; équilibre; fatigue; qualité de l’air; vie plus calme
📌 Why it matters
Often appears in justification questions (“why is X beneficial?”)
9. Power, institutions & collective action
Common vocabulary
autorités; gouvernement; institutions; mesures; politiques; réglementation; protéger / encourager / limiter; organiser / mettre en place
📌 Why it matters
Closely linked to impersonal structures
(il faut / il est nécessaire / on décide de…)
Across ALL topics: evaluation & argumentation language
Common vocabulary
avantage / inconvénient; effets / conséquences; bénéfice; problème; défi; nécessaire / essentiel; suffisant / efficace; réussite / échec
What’s next?
If you’d like to turn this research into something concrete and actionable, make sure you download the PDF available, where I break down the most common connectors and show how they function in real exam questions.
These findings also sit at the core of my VCE French Program, where vocabulary and grammatical structures are not taught randomly, but are explicitly targeted based on what appears most frequently in VCE exams and reading texts.
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