Task 1, the common mistakes

Task 1 is a message of 60 to 120 words to one or more people whose status the consigne gives. Its mistakes are not those of tasks 2 and 3. Candidates rarely get the grammar of the message badly wrong. They miss what the message has to do. A forgotten point, a register that shifts halfway, a badly built request or vague details cost marks on a text that is otherwise correct.

Each mistake carries a label. “Named by FEI” means the candidate handbook names it. “Our reading” means it is our interpretation of FEI’s criteria, since FEI publishes no detailed scale and no annotated scripts. Mistakes shared by all three tasks, such as agreement, are on the writing mistakes page.

Mistake	Status
A point of the consigne left out	Our reading. FEI assesses giving the information requested
Fewer than 60 words or more than 120	Named by FEI for a task without the required number of words
Tu and vous mixed	Our reading of the sociolinguistic criterion
Vague practical details	Our reading. FEI assesses describing and explaining
A badly built question	Our reading of the linguistic criterion
The conditional after “si”	Our reading of the linguistic criterion
A formal letter closing in a message to a friend	Our reading of the sociolinguistic criterion
A ready-made message that would fit any topic	Named by FEI for a text learned by heart

A point of the consigne left out

The consigne often asks for three things. Take “Écrivez à votre collègue pour lui dire que vous partez en vacances, lui expliquer quels dossiers sont en cours et lui demander de vous remplacer à une réunion” (tell your colleague you are going on holiday, explain which files are open and ask them to stand in for you at a meeting). The weak message announces the holiday, details the files over six lines and forgets the meeting.

Before writing, put the verbs of the consigne on your draft sheet, one word each (partir, dossiers, réunion). Tick each one once its sentence is written. One clear sentence per point beats three sentences on one point.

Too short or too long

A 45-word message usually misses a point. A 150-word one comes from a good intention, showing off vocabulary. FEI asks you to respect the minimum and the maximum for each task, and a task without the required number of words is one of the cases that could lead to “A1 non atteint”. FEI publishes no specific penalty for going over, but nothing suggests you gain anything.

Aim for 80 to 110 words. If you run long, cut repetitions and apologies first, never the points of the consigne.

Tu and vous mixed

Bonjour Madame Leblanc, je vous écris pour vous dire que ton colis est arrivé chez moi. Passe le chercher quand tu veux.

The message starts with vous and ends with tu. Corrected, it stays with vous.

Bonjour Madame Leblanc, je vous écris pour vous dire que votre colis est arrivé chez moi. Passez le chercher quand vous voulez.

Register lives in the pronouns, but also in the possessives (ton, votre) and the imperative (passe, passez). Check those three last. It is quick.

Vague practical details

“On se voit bientôt au restaurant” says neither when nor where. A task 1 that invites, informs or proposes should let the reader act without asking anything. Compare with “On se retrouve vendredi à 19 h au restaurant Chez Lucie, rue Sparks. J’ai réservé au nom de Diallo.”

Give at least the day, time and place when the consigne is about meeting up. For an explanation, give the cause and one concrete consequence.

A badly built question

In speech, “Tu peux venir quand ?” is fine. In writing, especially with vous, use a full question.

Wrong or too spoken	Corrected
Vous pouvez m’aider quand ?	Quand pourriez-vous m’aider ?
Est-ce que vous savez où est-ce que je peux me garer ?	Savez-vous où je peux me garer ?
Tu veux qu’on se voit samedi ?	Veux-tu qu’on se voie samedi ?

The last line also hides a subjunctive. After “vouloir que”, write “se voie”, not “se voit”.

The conditional after “si”

Task 1 often proposes something, and proposals naturally go in the conditional. The mistake comes in the sentence with “si”.

Wrong	Corrected
Si tu serais libre, on pourrait aller au cinéma.	Si tu étais libre, on pourrait aller au cinéma.
Je serais content si tu viendrais.	Je serais content si tu venais.
Si vous aurez le temps, appelez-moi.	Si vous avez le temps, appelez-moi.

In a condition with “si”, never a conditional or a future. Use the imparfait if the other verb is conditional, the present otherwise.

A formal letter closing in a message to a friend

Salut Hugo, … Je vous prie d’agréer, cher Hugo, l’expression de mes sentiments distingués.

The formula is correct, just not for a friend. The opposite mistake exists too, “Bisous” at the end of a message to a landlady. Choose the closing from the reader’s status, such as “À bientôt” or “Je t’embrasse” for someone close, and “Cordialement” or “Je vous remercie de votre réponse” for someone you call vous.

A ready-made message

Some candidates learn an all-purpose message. “Je vous écris ce message pour vous informer d’une nouvelle importante concernant notre situation actuelle.” The sentence says nothing about the topic and could open any text. FEI lists a text learned by heart among the cases that could lead to “A1 non atteint”.

Learn short building blocks, like “Je t’écris pour te dire que” or “Je vous écris au sujet de”, and fill them straight away with the content of the consigne.

Check a task 1 in two minutes

1. Every point of the consigne is there, one by one.
2. Pronouns, possessives and imperatives all follow the same register.
3. The word count is between 60 and 120, ideally 80 to 110.
4. Sentences with “si” have no conditional and no future.
5. The greeting and closing suit the reader.

To see these mistakes in a real text, compare the two versions of the annotated model answer. To check your own, write a message with the task 1 timer and have it corrected.