10 French Writing Mistakes That Cost Points on DELF, TCF and TEF

The 10 Mistakes Examiners See Every Single Exam Session

After reviewing hundreds of scored writing samples from DELF, TCF Canada, and TEF Canada candidates, the same errors appear again and again. None of them are vocabulary problems. All of them are fixable before your exam date. Here they are, in order of how often they appear and how many points they cost.

Mistake 1: Missing or Incorrect Accents

Writing etudiant instead of étudiant, or ou instead of où, is not a minor typo — it is a grammatical error. At B1 and above, examiners expect accurate written French, and missing accents on high-frequency words (être, très, après, déjà, même) accumulates into a pattern of carelessness that affects your lexical accuracy score.

Mistake 2: Starting Every Sentence with "Je"

A paragraph where every sentence begins with je reads as A2-level writing. At B1 and above, vary your subject position: use On peut affirmer que…, Il est évident que…, Force est de constater que…, Selon moi,… Examiners reward lexical and structural variety.

Mistake 3: No Logical Connectors Between Paragraphs

Jumping from one idea to the next with no transition is the fastest way to lose points on the coherence criterion. Every paragraph should open with a connector that signals its relationship to the previous one: De plus, Cependant, En revanche, Par conséquent, Néanmoins, C'est pourquoi.

Mistake 4: Using the Wrong Register

A formal essay that contains c'est super or genre, tu vois fails the register criterion instantly. Equally, a personal letter that reads like an academic thesis sounds unnatural. Match your vocabulary level to the task type: formal for essays and arguments, semi-formal for letters and emails.

Mistake 5: Not Completing the Word Count

The TCF Canada Task 2 requires approximately 120 words. DELF B2 requires 250–300. Going significantly under the target is penalised under task completion — it signals that you could not sustain the language production required at that level. Always count words before finishing.

Mistake 6: Using "Mais" and "Et" as Your Only Connectors

At B1 level, relying on mais and et for every connection is acceptable. At B2 and above, it marks your writing as under-level. Replace with: cependant, toutefois, en outre, par ailleurs, néanmoins, de surcroît.

Mistake 7: Agreement Errors (Gender and Number)

French agreement rules — adjectives matching nouns in gender and number, past participles agreeing with preceding direct objects — are tested explicitly in the grammatical accuracy score. The most common error: forgetting the agreement of adjectives in written essays when the noun appears two sentences earlier.

Mistake 8: Confusing the Infinitive and Past Participle

Writing j'ai mangé correctly but then writing je vais mangé (should be je vais manger) is extremely common. The rule: after aller (futur proche), modal verbs (pouvoir, vouloir, devoir), and prepositions, use the infinitive, not the past participle.

Mistake 9: No Introduction and No Conclusion

Some candidates dive straight into arguments with no introduction, or end mid-argument with no conclusion. Every written task at B1 and above should have a clear opening that contextualises the topic and a closing that summarises and opens onto a broader perspective.

Mistake 10: Translating Directly from English

The most subtle mistake — and the hardest to fix. French is not word-for-word English. I am interested in → je m'intéresse à (not je suis intéressé dans). I agree → je suis d'accord (not j'agree). The fix: learn verbs and expressions as collocations, not word-by-word translations.

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