Sophisticate Your French Writing: 7 Upgrades to Take Your Essays from Good to Great
Updated: Oct 12
I've always been more of a literary student than a scientific one. I picked up as many languages as I could — English, Spanish, Latin, German — and did well in (almost) all of them.
English was one of my favourites, but essays were always a struggle. One exam in particular has stayed with me. During my Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Linguistics, I sat a brutally long “poem analysis” exam I'd prepared for over a long time and got a pretty average mark. When I asked my lecturer about it after class, she (very kindly) explained that my writing sometimes "just doesn't sound quite right". Then, in an attempt to help me, she pulled out the top student's essay to show me the gap… And it couldn’t have been less helpful. That student was clearly a natural writer, and there was nothing in his essay I could actually apply to my own. That level of analysis and writing was out of reach for me (he's now a university professor, so fair enough). But I think about that moment often, now that I'm on the other side of the desk.
Because as a teacher, I see the problem differently: "It doesn't sound right" tells you something is wrong, but not what to do about it. Sounding sophisticated and natural in a second language is genuinely hard. There are codes and patterns that native speakers pick up simply by being immersed in a language, not by learning a rule. Grammar, by comparison, is “easy”: a sentence is either right or wrong, and once you know the rule, you can apply it. Vocabulary doesn't work that way. "Sounding French" isn't about knowing a rule, it's about reaching for the word a native speaker would actually use. That's an ear, and it usually only comes after years of being surrounded by the language.
Over the years, I've thought a lot about what I can actually give my motivated students… practical steps for going from good to great, without needing six months immersed in France.
And before you discover the tips below, I do want to emphasise that these aren't AI-generated tips. They're the tools I've developed slowly, over years of tutoring, the ones I give my most ambitious students. I've genuinely hesitated to share them publicly. But if you're aiming for top marks and don't yet have the "ear" for what sounds good or bad in French, here is what you can do instead.
Sophisticate your French writing
Sophistication isn't always about rare, complicated words — it can also be about small, deliberate upgrades applied consistently. These seven tools go from easy to more advanced, and some of them can be combined.
Well-chosen adverbs
That’s what I like calling a “low effort, high reward” move :). Adverbs are, generally speaking, easy to form as you add the suffix -ment: vraiment, rapidement, particulièrement... The trick is choosing on purpose instead of reaching for beaucoup or très every time. Moreover, some adverbs naturally pair with certain verbs, so start building those connections where possible. Here are few examples:
- changer/évoluer → considérablement (la situation a considérablement changé...),
- marquer → profondément (ça m'a profondément marqué),
- critiquer → vivement (c’est une proposition qui est vivement critiquée)
Vary your adjectives
If you've ever worked with me, we've almost certainly brainstormed adjectives together at some point ;) You don't need complicated sentences to stand out, just an adjective bank that goes beyond the obvious. Words like sympa, intéressant, important and incroyable are (ironically) incredibly overused. Swapping them doesn't change your sentence structure or word order, so it's once again a low-effort, high-reward move. Stack it with an adverb (tip n.1) and you go from:
- il est gentil → il est profondément bienveillant.
- c’est un film intéressant → c’est un film particulièrement captivant
Match nouns with fitting adjectives
This goes one step further than swapping adjectives: it's knowing in advance which adjectives naturally pair with the nouns you'll use most. Some nouns, like un voyage, une expérience and un projet, are so versatile that they fit almost any theme, which is why they come up again and again in French exams. Having two or three strong adjectives ready for each means you're never caught reaching for something generic. For example:
- Une expérience intéressante → une expérience enrichissante (rewarding, enriching), formatrice (character-building, educational)…
Specific verbs
Markers read hundreds of essays built on the same handful of verbs: aller, avoir, faire, penser, aimer, adorer, parler… I always encourage my students to replace these overused verbs with more specific ones where they can. It depends on context, but it’s worth a try. Have a read below and see how much more natural the second (or third) version sounds, even in a simple sentence:
a. Je suis allé en France l’année dernière → Je me suis rendu en France l’année dernière → J’ai séjourné en France l’année dernière.
b. J’adore ma ville → Je suis profondément attaché à ma ville
c. Dans cet article, je vais parler de l’environnement → Dans cet article, je vais aborder la question de l’environnement → Dans cet article, je me pencherai sur la question de l’environnement.
Nominalisation
This is more advanced: turning a verb or adjective into a noun. Instead of building your sentence around an action, you build it around a “thing”, which moves your writing from description towards analysis. It’s harder because it’s not a simple swap. You need to know the noun form, and it isn’t always predictable: augmenter gives l’augmentation, but choisir gives le choix and réussir gives la réussite. You also need its gender, and you usually have to rebuild the whole sentence around it, often with a new verb to carry the action. It’s especially useful in formal, analytical writing.
- Ce paysage est beau → La beauté de ce paysage m’a frappé.
- Les habitants sont accueillants. → L’accueil des habitants m’a profondément touché.
Natural chunks / Collocations
Natural chunks are groups of words that often come together in a language - the kind of thing you just know if you've been around it long enough. In English, you "make a decision" (you don’t do one), you "pay attention to something", you "draw a conclusion". Nobody learns a rule for this, and “do a decision” doesn’t break any grammar rule. It just instantly sounds off. These pairings rarely translate word for word, which is exactly where English speakers trip up in French: it’s not faire une décision, it’s prendre une décision. But collocations aren’t just about avoiding mistakes. They’re also one of the most reliable ways to sound sophisticated. Many everyday phrases have a more refined equivalent that native speakers use in formal writing: you can "faire une erreur", but "commettre une erreur" sounds far more polished. Learn the elegant chunk instead of the basic one, and your writing instantly sounds less like a translation and more like French.
- aider quelqu’un → apporter son soutien à quelqu’un (to give your support)
- réussir ses objectifs → atteindre ses objectifs (to reach your goals)
- accepter un défi → relever un défi (to take up a challenge)
Idiomatic expressions
Idioms are fixed expressions whose meaning you can’t guess from the individual words. Faire l’autruche literally means “to do the ostrich”, but it means “to bury your head in the sand”. Because idioms are so deeply rooted in the language, using one naturally is a strong signal of genuine fluency. The key word is naturally: one idiom that genuinely fits your argument is worth far more than three squeezed in for show.
Want to go further?
If this article resonated with you and you’re keen to take these tools further, I’ll soon be releasing Sounding French: a booklet where I’ve done the hard work for you. It applies every technique from this article across six themes that come up again and again in French exams, with ready-to-use upgrades (the chunks, verbs and expressions I give my most ambitious students) organised so you can use them in your very next essay. Join the free monthly newsletter to be the first to know when it’s out (and get access to all my free resources while you wait).
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