Healthy living and lifestyle: Vocabulary and grammar drill
A vocabulary and grammar drill on healthy living and lifestyle combines that vocabulary with the grammar structures most often used to talk about it: quantifiers before food nouns (trop de sucre, pas assez de fruits), the impersonal advice structure il faut/il ne faut pas plus infinitive, comparatives (plus sain que, moins gras que) and the imperative for giving direct advice (mange plus de légumes, ne fume pas). It also targets the false friend un médicament versus une drogue, since exam questions on health and drugs frequently confuse candidates who mix these two nouns up.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Revise the core healthy-living nouns and their gender before drilling grammar: la santé, une alimentation équilibrée, le sucre, les matières grasses (plural), le tabac.
- Drill quantifier plus noun structures, since this is where GCSE health answers most often lose marks: trop de sucre (too much sugar), pas assez de fruits (not enough fruit), beaucoup de matières grasses - note de alone, with no article, follows all of these.
- Drill the impersonal advice pair il faut/il ne faut pas plus infinitive across several verbs in one sitting: il faut manger équilibré, il ne faut pas fumer, il ne faut pas grignoter entre les repas.
- Drill comparative structures applied to food and lifestyle: plus sain que (healthier than), moins gras que (less fatty than), aussi bon pour la santé que (as good for your health as) - remember que, not de, introduces the second term of the comparison.
- Drill the imperative for direct advice, using tu-form for a friend and vous-form for a wider audience: mange plus de légumes/mangez plus de légumes; ne fume pas/ne fumez pas; bois de l'eau/buvez de l'eau.
- Learn the false friend distinction un médicament (a medicine, prescribed for illness) versus une drogue (an illegal/harmful drug) - mixing these two nouns changes a health sentence into a very different, and often alarming, one.
- Practise building a short block of advice that mixes all four structures (quantifier, il faut, comparative, imperative) in three or four sentences, since Higher Tier writing tasks reward this range within a single answer.
Worked example
Transform the basic sentence 'Le fast-food n'est pas bon pour la santé' into a fuller block of advice using a quantifier, a comparative and an imperative.
- Keep the base opinion sentence as the opening statement: le fast-food n'est pas bon pour la santé.
- Add a quantifier to make the claim specific rather than vague: il contient trop de matières grasses et de sucre.
- Add a comparative to strengthen the advice: les repas faits maison sont plus sains que le fast-food.
- Add an imperative giving direct advice, using the tu-form since the audience is a friend: mange plus de fruits et de légumes, et évite la malbouffe.
- Combine into one continuous block: 'Le fast-food n'est pas bon pour la santé, car il contient trop de matières grasses et de sucre. Les repas faits maison sont plus sains que le fast-food, donc mange plus de fruits et de légumes, et évite la malbouffe.'
Practice questions
Type your answer and press Check to be marked straight away, or reveal the answer and mark yourself.
Q1Fill the gap with the correct quantifier structure: 'Mon frère mange ___ sucre.' (too much)Show answer
Answer: trop de - Mon frère mange trop de sucre.
Q2Translate into French using il faut: 'You must not skip meals.'Show answer
Answer: Il ne faut pas sauter de repas.
Q3Give the comparative for 'healthier than.'Show answer
Answer: plus sain que
Q4Give the tu-form imperative of boire meaning 'drink water!'Show answer
Answer: Bois de l'eau!
Q5What is the difference between un médicament and une drogue?Show answer
Answer: Un médicament is a medicine prescribed to treat illness; une drogue is an illegal or harmful drug - the two must not be confused.
Q6Translate into French: 'Vegetables are less fatty than chips.'Show answer
Answer: Les légumes sont moins gras que les frites.
Q7Correct the error: 'Il faut ne pas fumer.'Show answer
Answer: Il ne faut pas fumer (ne pas surrounds the infinitive fumer; it does not follow faut directly).
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE French exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Lisez ce texte, puis répondez aux questions en anglais. 'Le médecin a dit à mon père qu'il fallait moins de sel et moins de matières grasses dans son alimentation. Depuis, il mange beaucoup plus de légumes, et il dit que les repas faits maison sont plus sains que ceux du fast-food. Il prend aussi un médicament tous les matins pour sa tension, mais il pense que changer son alimentation est plus important que le médicament seul.' (a) What did the doctor tell the writer's father to reduce? (2 marks) (b) What has the father done since then? (2 marks) (c) What does the father take every morning, and why? (2 marks) (d) What does the father believe is more important than the medicine alone? (1 mark)
Show mark scheme
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Écrivez environ 40 mots en français pour donner des conseils de santé à un(e) ami(e). Utilisez: une expression de quantité; il faut ou il ne faut pas; et une comparaison.
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 12 available
See real GCSE French past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the healthy living and lifestyle: vocabulary and grammar drill worksheet pack - 5 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
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