Home DELF/DALF DELF A2 DELF A2 production orale: How to describe someone in French

DELF A2 production orale: How to describe someone in French

0
DELF A2 production orale: How to describe someone in French

How do you talk about the person you admire most in french? a celebrity or friend? What about their appearance and personality? Well, in this tutorial, we will look at how you should approach this topic by providing the necessary vocabulary and french phrases to get you going. In addition, you will find sample French A2 questions and cue cards, to practice. And finally authentic sample monologues.

French A2 Cue card Examples “Describe a person you admire”:

Cue Card 1

Parlez d’une personne célèbre que vous admirez (écrivain, sportif, acteur, chanteur, personnage de la vie politique…) : nom, âge, nationalité, activité… Décrivez-le/la physiquement. Dites pourquoi vous l’admirez.

Cue Card 2

Décrivez votre professeur préféré. Pourquoi l’aimez-vous ? Racontez un souvenir avec ce professeur.

TIP

Remember cue cards or questions are not limited to those listed above. Cue cards for describing someone can come in the form of talking about the person you admire most, appreciate, describing someone you know, such as their personality or appearance or both. The good news is these question types sometimes require the same basic vocabulary and response pattern.

How to talk about the person you admire in French

Since you will be given 2 cue cards to choose from, the first thing you should do is to introduce the topic you will be talking about. The following french expressions will come in handy.

Aujourd’hui, je vais parler de mon amour

Je vous présente mon idole/modèle/héro/héroïne

Je partage avec vous celui / celle que j’aime

En ce moment, on va parler de la personne que j’admire

You can continue by stating their profession.

Cette personne est …

Il / Elle est …

C’est un / une …

Celle / Celui dont je parle c’est …

 

List of professions in french you may find useful

Professeur – teacher              directeur(euse) – director                  artiste – artist

Médecin – doctor                   infirmier(ière) – nurse                                    dentiste – dentist

Sportif(ve) – athlete                chanteur(euse) – singer                      avocat(e) – lawyer

Soldat – soldier                       scientifique – scientist                        écrivain – writer

Pompier(ière) – firefighter     peintre – painter                                 acteur(trice) – actor

Homme/femme politique – politician    musicien(ne) – musician     étudiant(e) – student

*Remember the professions must agree in gender. Once you speak about a profession, the article is omitted unless you use c’est or an adjective to describe the profession.

You may give additional information about the person

 State the person’s name

  • Il/Elle s’appelle …
  • Son nom est …
  • Le nom de mon amour/mon admirateur(trice) est …
  • Le nom de celle/celui dont je parle est …

 

Give the person’s age

Il/Elle a … ans

Sylvie a … ans

Il /Elle a environ … ans (if you don’t know the exact age of the person)

 

You may also state the nationality of the person

Il / Elle est …

Jamaïquain/e – Jamaican                   Français/e – French                Canadien/ne – Canadian

Belge – Belgian                                   Americain/e – American        Anglais/e – English

Chinois/e – Chinese                            Africain/e – African                Algérien/ne – Algerian

Italien/ne – Italian                              Mexicain/e – Mexican                        Marocain/e – Moroccan

Espagnol/e – Spanish                          Suisse – Swiss                          Russe – Russian

Polonais/e – Polish                              Portugais/e – Portuguese       Japonais/e – Japanese

Adjectives to describe someone  physically in french

For size and appearance

Il/Elle est …

Grand/e – tall                         petit/e – short                                     gros/se – fat

Mince – slim                           beau – handsome                               belle – beautiful

 

For skin colour

Il / Elle a la peau foncée (dark-skinned)                    Il / elle est blanc/blanche (white)

Il / Elle a la peau claire (fair/light-skinned)               Il / elle est noir/noire (black)

 

For eye colour

Il / Elle a les yeux …

bleues (blue), verts (green), noisettes (hazel), bruns (brown)

For hair

Il / Elle a les cheveux …

Noirs (black), châtains/bruns (brown), blonds (blond), roux (red), gris (grey)

longs (long), mi-longs (medium length), courts (short),

bouclés (curly), ondulés (wavy), raides (straight), épais (course/thick)

Others

Il a une barbe – he has a beard

Il a une moustache – he has a moustache

Il / elle porte des lunettes – he/she wears glasses

Il / elle a des taches de rousseur – he/she has freckles

Il / elle a des fossettes – he/she has dimples

Add reasons why you admire such person in french

Je l’admire parce que …

J’admire Sylvie parce que …

Je le/la trouve admirable parce que …

A mon avis, il/elle est admirable parce que …

Selon moi, il/elle est une personne …

List of adjectives to describe someone’s personality in french

Charismatique – charismatic                         courageux/courageuse – courageous

Dynamique – dynamic                                    créatif/créative – creative

Energique – energetic                                                débrouillard/débrouillarde – resourceful

Fidèle – faithful                                               travailleur/travailleuse – hardworking

Honnête – honset                                            extraverti/extravertie – extrovert

Optimiste – optimistic                                    ingénieux/ingénieuse – ingenious

State why you admire him/her

Je l’admire parce qu’il/elle…

  • m’encourage – encourages me
  • me motive – motivates me
  • me pousse de faire de mon mieux – pushes me to do my best
  • m’aide à attendre mes buts – helps me to attain my goals
  • m’aide à comprendre les leçons – helps me to understand the lessons
  • me traite comme un fils/une fille – treats me like a son/daughter

*You may also use adjectives above as reasons.

Example french monologue: “The Person I admire”

Below you will find some examples of people talking about someone that they admire. Lesson to the monologue and see if you can reuse some of the vocabulary to describe the person you admire in french.

The first person, Lucas, speaks about his favourite DJ David Guetta and the second, David, speaks about his favourite handball player, Thierry Omeyer.

Lucas : David Guetta

Lucas nous présente son DJ préféré: David Guetta.

David : le sportif Thierry Omeyer

David vous présente son joueur de handball préféré : Thierry Omeyer.

Example: Describing your favourite teacher in French

Introduction of topic

Je vais vous parler de mon prof préféré/favori

Je vous parler de …

Begin by giving a physical description

Il / Elle est …

Grand/e – tall                         petit/e – short                                     gros/se – fat

Mince – slim                           beau – handsome                               belle – beautiful

Il / Elle a les yeux …

Il / Elle a les cheveux …

Il / Elle a la peau …

Add additional features such as:

Il / elle porte – He / She wears …

lunettes – glasses                   appareil dentaire – braces                 bague – ring

montre – watch                      boucle d’oreille – earring                   bijoux – jewellery

Il / Elle a – He/She has …

Barbe – beard                         moustache – moustache         Taches de rousseur – freckles

Fossettes – dimples                 tatouage – tattoo                    grain de beauté – mole

You may then describe his/her character traits

Il / Elle est …

Drôle – funny                          amical/e – friendly                             gentil/le – kind

Sympa – nice                           taquin/e – playful                               sérieux/se – serious

Intelligent/e – intelligent        ouvert d’esprit – open-minded           patient/e – patient

Franc/he – frank                     impartial – fair

State why you admire him/her

Je l’admire parce qu’il/elle…

  • m’encourage – encourages me
  • me motive – motivates me
  • me pousse de faire de mon mieux – pushes me to do my best
  • m’aide à attendre mes buts – helps me to attain my goals
  • m’aide à comprendre les leçons – helps me to understand the lessons
  • me traite comme un fils/une fille – treats me like a son/daughter

*You may also use adjectives above as reasons.

You may also tell of an experience you had 

*This will require you to use the past tense (perfect and the imperfect tense).

Perfect tense

Formed with the auxillary verb avoir or être and is used when there’s a complete action: