Identity and relationships with others: Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension on identity and relationships with others covers texts about personality, blended and step-families, friendships, romantic relationships or engagement/marriage, and role models such as a parent or grandparent, reaching beyond the immediate family. Examiners are testing whether a student can track a relationship across two time periods (imperfect for how things used to be versus present or perfect for how they are now), follow reflexive verbs such as s'entendre, se disputer and se marier to their correct subject in a passage with several people, and read past a contrast connective such as mais, cependant or bien que to see how a positive statement is being qualified or reversed.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Read the introduction to establish how many voices appear - a single account, an interview, or several different speakers whose statements must be matched to their names.
- Underline every contrast connective (mais, cependant, par contre, alors que) and treat it as a warning that the sentence's tone or meaning is about to change from what came before.
- Identify whether each relationship verb is present or perfect: on s'entend bien (ongoing) versus on s'est disputé (a completed past argument) - true/false questions often swap these tenses.
- Note who a reflexive verb refers to by checking the subject pronoun immediately before it (je me, il se, ils se) - in a passage with several people, mismatching the subject is the commonest error.
- In matching tasks, match on the whole sentence's meaning, not a single shared word - texts often place the same adjective near two different people to trap students who match on vocabulary alone.
- For 'not mentioned' options, confirm the text is genuinely silent on that exact detail; do not choose it just because the wording differs from the question.
- Answer-in-English questions need every detail the mark scheme credits - a partial or vague translation loses marks even if the general idea is right.
Worked example
Lis la phrase et réponds. Marc dit : 'Je m'entendais très bien avec mon frère quand nous étions petits, mais depuis qu'il a déménagé, nous nous disputons souvent au téléphone.' Vrai, faux ou pas mentionné : Marc et son frère se disputent plus souvent maintenant qu'avant.
- Identify the two time periods in the sentence: quand nous étions petits (imperfect, past habitual) versus depuis qu'il a déménagé (present, ongoing situation now).
- In the past, the relationship was good: je m'entendais très bien.
- The connective mais signals a change, and the present tense nous nous disputons souvent shows this is happening now, not in the past.
- Comparing the two periods: they got on well before and argue often now, so the statement matches the text exactly.
- The answer is Vrai (true).
Practice questions
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Q1What does 'par contre' signal about the sentence that follows it?Show answer
Answer: A contrast or opposite point is coming, similar to 'on the other hand' or 'however'.
Q2Translate: 'Mes parents se sont séparés il y a deux ans.'Show answer
Answer: My parents separated two years ago.
Q3In 'Léo se dispute avec sa soeur, mais il s'entend bien avec son frère', who does Léo get on well with?Show answer
Answer: His brother, not his sister.
Q4True or false: 'il ne s'entend plus avec son beau-père' means the relationship is currently good.Show answer
Answer: False - ne...plus means 'no longer', so the relationship has stopped being good.
Q5Give the English meaning of 'un modèle à suivre'.Show answer
Answer: A role model (someone to look up to and follow as an example).
Q6Which tense is used in 'nous nous sommes rencontrés au collège', and what does it tell you?Show answer
Answer: The perfect tense (passé composé) - it shows the meeting was a single, completed event in the past.
Q7Translate: 'Elle s'est fiancée avec son petit ami l'été dernier.'Show answer
Answer: She got engaged to her boyfriend last summer.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE French exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Lis le texte et réponds aux questions. Je m'appelle Yasmine et j'aimerais parler de mon modèle : ma grand-mère. Elle a élevé quatre enfants toute seule après le décès de mon grand-père, et elle a toujours travaillé très dur. Aujourd'hui, à soixante-douze ans, elle continue à faire du bénévolat dans une association pour les personnes âgées. Beaucoup de gens pensent que les personnes âgées doivent se reposer, cependant, ma grand-mère n'est jamais d'accord avec cette idée. Elle dit toujours que rester actif et utile aux autres rend heureux. Je l'admire énormément et j'espère lui ressembler un jour. (a) Who is Yasmine's role model? (b) What happened after the death of Yasmine's grandfather, according to the text? (c) True, false or not mentioned: Yasmine's grandmother thinks elderly people should rest. (d) What does the grandmother volunteer for? (e) Why does the grandmother say staying active makes her happy? (f) Which French word in the text means 'volunteering'?
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Lis le texte et réponds aux questions. Mon frère aîné, Karim, va se marier le mois prochain avec sa fiancée, Doha. Bien que mes parents soient très heureux pour lui, ma mère trouve qu'il est encore un peu jeune pour se marier, car il n'a que vingt-deux ans. Karim, lui, pense que l'âge n'a pas d'importance quand on est vraiment amoureux. Toute la famille va se réunir pour le mariage, et mes grands-parents, qui vivent au Maroc, viendront spécialement pour l'occasion. Personnellement, je suis très content pour mon frère, même si je vais beaucoup lui manquer une fois qu'il aura déménagé. (a) What is Karim about to do? (b) According to the text, what does the writer's mother think about the marriage, despite being happy? (c) True, false or not mentioned: Karim agrees with his mother that he is too young. (d) Where do the grandparents live, and what will they do for the wedding? (e) What does 'bien que' introduce in this sentence, and what does it mean in English?
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Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
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See real GCSE French past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
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