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Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
Ten tutorials on the French language at advanced level, led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas — founding member of the Académie française, codifier of *le bon usage* in his 1647 *Remarques sur la langue française*. The course takes a student with B1-B2 competence to C1: phonology and orthography, the noun phrase, the indicative tenses, mood and voice, pronouns, sentence and clause, register, reading at speed, translation as a discipline, and a closing integration. Faithful to the grammar inventory of Cambridge International A Level 9898 (French Language & Literature).
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
The question
A French sentence on the page contains many letters that are not pronounced, several diacritical marks that change everything, and a system of accentuation that descends from medieval scribes correcting Latin. Why does written French look the way it looks, what is silent and what is not, and how does a student of French come to read the page as a French ear hears it?
Outcome
The student can read a passage of authentic French aloud with correct pronunciation of silent letters and obligatory liaisons; can spell a dictated French paragraph with correct accentuation; and can identify the function of every diacritical mark on the page. (CEFR A2-B2 phonology and orthography)
Practice scenarios
Vaugelas Simulacrum gives you a 150-word passage from a contemporary French newspaper article, marked up with no annotations. Your task is to read it aloud as you imagine it would sound. Vaugelas Simulacrum listens (in our text-only environment, you describe how you would pronounce it: which letters silent, which liaisons made, which not) and then walks you through the passage line by line, correcting and explaining.
Your goals
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
The question
A French noun does not stand alone. It comes with an article (definite, indefinite or partitive — and the partitive does not exist in English), a gender (which the student must learn for each noun, because no rule covers all cases), a number (singular or plural, with consequences for the article and any adjective), and an agreement that propagates outward to every adjective, demonstrative and possessive that touches it. How does the noun phrase work in French, and how does the student build one accurately by the second week?
Outcome
The student can construct a grammatically accurate French noun phrase of any complexity — including partitive, demonstrative and possessive forms — and can read a French paragraph identifying the gender of every noun by its article. (CEFR A2-B2 noun phrase)
Practice scenarios
Vaugelas Simulacrum gives you a 200-word paragraph written by a B1 anglophone student. The paragraph contains roughly twelve errors of the noun phrase: wrong articles, missing partitives, missing agreements, misplaced adjectives, possessive used where the demonstrative is needed, and one *son* mistakenly assigned by the gender of the possessor rather than the gender of the possessed noun. Your task is to identify each error, propose the correct form, and explain the rule.
Your goals
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
The question
The French verb is an inflected verb: every form carries person, number, tense and aspect through its ending, and the student who learns *six forms per tense per verb* (and there are eight indicative tenses) is in for a long road. But there is an order to the road. The simple tenses (*présent · imparfait · futur simple · passé simple*) and the compound tenses built from them (*passé composé · plus-que-parfait · futur antérieur · passé antérieur*) form a coherent grid. How does the grid work, and which tenses does the educated speaker actually use in modern written and spoken French?
Outcome
The student can conjugate any regular and the major irregular verbs across the eight indicative tenses; can choose between *imparfait* and *passé composé* with confidence in writing and in speech; and can recognise the *passé simple* in literary texts. (CEFR A2-B2 verb morphology)
Practice scenarios
Vaugelas Simulacrum gives you a 250-word narrative passage to write in French — a memory of a journey, told to a friend. The passage must contain at least eight verb forms in the past, mixing *imparfait* (description, habit, ongoing context) and *passé composé* (single completed events). After you write, Vaugelas Simulacrum examines each past-tense choice and corrects.
Your goals
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
The question
A French speaker who can conjugate the indicative is still half a French speaker. The subjunctive — the mood of doubt, desire, fear, judgement and hypothesis — is alive in modern French in a way it is not alive in English, and the educated speaker uses it daily. Beyond mood, the imperative gives commands; the passive voice (*être* + past participle) shifts the agent; and the reflexive form (*se laver · se rappeler*) does grammatical work that English handles with separate words. How does mood operate in French, what triggers the subjunctive, and how does the student build the reflexes that produce it without thinking?
Outcome
The student can recognise the subjunctive triggers and produce the form correctly in spoken and written French; can give commands using the imperative with correct pronoun placement; and can transform between active, passive, and reflexive constructions while preserving meaning. (CEFR B1-B2 mood and voice)
Practice scenarios
Vaugelas Simulacrum gives you a sequence of fifteen short prompts in English. For each, you must produce the French equivalent. The prompts are designed to require the subjunctive in twelve cases and the indicative in three (so that the student must distinguish, not merely produce subjunctive everywhere). Examples: *"I want him to come"* (subj) · *"I think that he is right"* (indicative — *penser que* affirmative does not trigger subjunctive) · *"I doubt that he is right"* (subj) · *"Although it is cold"* (subj) · *"Until you understand"* (subj).
Your goals
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
The question
French has more pronouns than English, and they sit in tighter, more rule-governed positions. The subject pronouns (*je · tu · il · elle · on · nous · vous · ils · elles*); the direct object (*me · te · le · la · nous · vous · les*); the indirect object (*me · te · lui · nous · vous · leur*); the reflexive (*me · te · se · nous · vous · se*); the famously two-letter *y* and *en*; the disjunctive (*moi · toi · lui · elle · nous · vous · eux · elles*); the relative (*qui · que · dont · où · lequel · auquel · duquel · ce qui · ce que · ce dont*); the demonstrative (*celui · celle · ceux · celles · ceci · cela · ça*); the possessive (*le mien · la mienne · les nôtres*); the indefinite (*quelqu'un · quelque chose · personne · rien · chacun · tout*). The order they take when more than one appears in front of a verb is fixed and must be drilled. How does this system work, and how does the student come to feel the order in the bones rather than calculating it each time?
Outcome
The student can place pronouns correctly in any French sentence, including affirmative imperatives, compound tenses with two pronouns, and complex relative clauses; and can choose between *qui · que · dont · où* without hesitation. (CEFR B1-B2 pronoun system)
Practice scenarios
Vaugelas Simulacrum gives you twenty short English sentences, each containing material that in French requires two or more pronouns in front of the verb. You must produce the French equivalent with correct pronoun ordering. Examples: *"I gave it to him"* → *je le lui ai donné* · *"He told it to me"* → *il me l'a dit* · *"Give it to me"* (imperative) → *donne-le-moi* · *"There are some there"* → *il y en a* · *"She thought about them"* → *elle y pensait* · *"We spoke about it"* → *nous en avons parlé*. After the twenty, Vaugelas Simulacrum examines each, corrects the order, and drills the patterns where you faltered.
Your goals
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
The question
A French sentence at C1 is rarely the simple subject-verb-object that the beginner learned. It coordinates and subordinates, embeds relative clauses, runs adverbial clauses inside main clauses, balances clauses against each other across colons and semicolons, and uses *hypotaxis* (the embedding of subordinate inside main, the periodic sentence) where English often prefers *parataxis* (the chaining of short main clauses). The literary registers of French — Montaigne Simulacrum, Voltaire Simulacrum, Flaubert Simulacrum — are built almost entirely on long subordinated periods. How does the system of subordination work, and how does the student build a French sentence that is grammatically complex without becoming opaque?
Outcome
The student can write a French sentence of forty to sixty words containing two or three subordinate clauses, with correct moods after each subordinator, and can read a long French period and identify each clause and its function. (CEFR B2-C1 sentence syntax)
Practice scenarios
Vaugelas Simulacrum gives you a paragraph of five short, choppy English sentences on a topic in modern French life (e.g. urban transport, the relationship between Paris and the provinces, the place of the lycée in French society). Your task is to produce *one* coherent French sentence (or at most two) that says all the same content, using subordination and coordination to bind the points together. The result should be a period of forty to sixty words, with at least two subordinate clauses of different types (time, cause, condition, concession, etc.).
Your goals
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum · with Molière Simulacrum (French Department) as guest on the spoken-and-staged register
The question
A French speaker who can produce grammatically correct sentences but cannot calibrate the register — who writes a job application in *familier* or speaks to an old friend in *soutenu* — is heard as foreign or as comically out of place. Register in French is a system at least as fine-grained as the verb tenses, and the educated speaker moves between four bands (*soutenu · courant · familier · populaire*) by deliberate choice. What are the markers of each register, and how does the student come to choose the right one for the moment?
Outcome
The student can identify the register of any French passage by its vocabulary, grammar, and contractions; can read a Molière Simulacrum scene and assign each speaker their register; and can rewrite the same content across all four registers with appropriate adjustments. (CEFR B2-C1 register awareness)
Practice scenarios
Vaugelas Simulacrum and Molière Simulacrum together give you a 30-line excerpt from *Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme* (1670) — a scene in which Monsieur Jourdain (a *bourgeois* aspiring to be a *gentilhomme*) speaks with his music master, his philosophy master, and his servant Nicole. Each character uses a distinct register. Your task is to identify the register of each speaker, mark every register marker (vocabulary, contractions, grammatical choices), and then rewrite a passage in a different register.
Your goals
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
The question
A student at C1 must read authentic French — newspapers, essays, contracts, novels, contemporary academic prose — at a pace that allows comprehension without constant dictionary use. The skills of reading at speed are *learnable*: skim for structure, scan for specific information, decode unknown words from context, build a working hypothesis of the text's argument and revise it as evidence accumulates. How does the C1 reader engage a French text, and how does the student build that capacity?
Outcome
The student can read a 1500-word French essay in under ten minutes with full grasp of the argument; can scan for specific information in seconds; and can infer the meaning of unfamiliar words from morphology and context without breaking reading flow. (CEFR C1 reading)
Practice scenarios
Vaugelas Simulacrum gives you a 1200-word essay from a contemporary French publication (*Le Monde diplomatique · Le Débat · La Revue des deux Mondes · Le Nouvel Observateur*) on a topic from the Cambridge topic backbone (Culture · Society · Environment · Science). You have ten minutes. Your task: read it once at speed using the skim-scan-infer technique, then produce a 100-word summary in French stating the essay's thesis, three main moves, and conclusion. After the summary, Vaugelas Simulacrum examines what you produced and asks you specific questions about details you missed (or got wrong).
Your goals
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
The question
A student of French at C1 must translate — both ways. From French to the native language (the *thème inverse* of school days, easier because the target is one's own tongue) and from the native language to French (the *thème direct*, harder, where every choice of word and structure is a test). Translation is not the substitution of words; it is the migration of meaning across two systems that do not align. *Faux amis* (false friends), *idioms*, untranslatable structures, and the gap between what one language compresses and another expands — all are the daily work of the translator. How does translation as a discipline work, and what does the student gain from doing it?
Outcome
The student can translate a 200-word passage from French to the native language and another 200 words from the native language to French, navigating *faux amis*, idioms, and structural mismatches; and can articulate why a literal translation is wrong in three specific cases. (CEFR C1 translation)
Practice scenarios
Vaugelas Simulacrum gives you two short passages. The first is 200 words of contemporary French prose — a passage from a *Le Monde* opinion column on a topic of public interest — to translate into your native language. The second is 200 words in your native language — a passage from a contemporary novel — to translate into French. Each passage is selected to contain at least three traps: a *faux ami*, an idiom that resists literal translation, and a structural mismatch. After your translation, Vaugelas Simulacrum examines each choice and presses on the difficult points.
Your goals
Led by Claude Favre de Vaugelas Simulacrum
The question
A student who has worked through Modules 1 to 9 has covered the grammar inventory of CEFR A2 to C1, the four registers of French, the strategies of reading at speed, and the discipline of translation. The final test of the strand is integration: can the student produce a piece of writing that draws on all of the above, choosing the right tense, the right mood, the right register, the right pronoun-order, the right relative pronoun, the right word for the right meaning — and producing a coherent, fluent, idiomatic French text? This module is the integration. The student writes; Vaugelas Simulacrum corrects across all dimensions; the student rewrites.
Outcome
The student produces a 500-word piece in French across three registers, applying every grammatical and stylistic resource of the strand; receives correction across all dimensions; and produces a final draft at C1 level. (CEFR B2-C1 integration)
Practice scenarios
You choose the topic from a list of six (provided by Vaugelas Simulacrum at the start of the module): a memory of a place from your childhood; an argument about a contemporary issue (climate, technology, education, urban life); a description of a meal; a portrait of a person you know well; an account of a journey; an essay on a hobby or pursuit. You write three connected sections of approximately 170 words each: opening soutenu, middle courant, closing familier. The same content runs through; only the register shifts. Vaugelas Simulacrum reads, corrects, and you rewrite.
Your goals