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Start with what the learner can already understand and say, and what they need French for. A school pupil who knows vocabulary but cannot form a sentence needs different work from an adult preparing for travel or a student analysing a film. Use the learning goal to choose relevant teaching experience.

Here is a short practice example for a learner beginning past-tense work. Je joue au tennis can mean “I play tennis” or “I am playing tennis”, depending on the context.

Now the task is to describe a completed event yesterday using the passé composé, a French past tense. Adding hier (“yesterday”) alone leaves the verb in the present. The response for this task is Hier, j’ai joué au tennis: “Yesterday I played tennis.”

With jouer (“to play”), use ai, the “I” form of avoir, as the helping verb, followed by joué, the past participle. For a regular -er verb, that participle ends in -é. Both parts matter: j’ai joué, rather than je joué.

Try changing the person next: Hier, nous avons joué au tennis means “Yesterday we played tennis”. Nous means “we”, so the helping verb becomes avons; joué stays the same here. Explaining that change and using it without copying gives the tutor something specific to check.

Compare je joue (“I play”), tu joues (“you play”) and ils jouent (“they play”). The verb endings -e, -es and -ent are silent here: hearing the verb alone will not tell you which ending to write. The subject changes, so the whole phrases are different.

A useful practice task is to listen for who is doing the action, say the meaning, then write the matching verb form. Try the same pattern with parler, “to speak”: je parle (“I speak”), tu parles (“you speak”) and ils parlent (“they speak”). Keep the written forms visible first, then cover them and try again. This separates recognising the sound from choosing the spelling.

The school assessment examples here are for England and name AQA where its tasks are described. England’s revised French GCSE was first taught from September 2024 and first examined in summer 2026. Check the specification before reusing older practice material.

A useful conversation goal is to handle what the other person says next. Try this short practice exchange:

• Je voudrais un billet pour Lyon. — “I would like a ticket to Lyon.”
• Un aller simple ou un aller-retour ? — “Single or return?”
• Un aller-retour, s’il vous plaît. — “A return, please.”

A learner may know the opening sentence but get stuck at the choice. Un aller simple is a single ticket; un aller-retour is a return. Practise recognising those two meanings before answering. Then change the goal: Un aller simple, s’il vous plaît means “A single, please”. The response now follows the intended journey instead of repeating a memorised line.

For work or family conversation, choose an equally concrete situation and rehearse both sides. If you are returning to French, start with something you can already discuss, then identify the missing words or forms that stop you continuing.

Use the profile to check relevant teaching experience and qualifications, then discuss the learner’s actual work. Latimer tutors offer a free introductory meeting to talk about goals, approach and arrangements before paid lessons.

Agree a lesson rhythm around the learner’s goal, workload, budget and time to practise. There is no fixed number of lessons that can establish when an individual will become fluent or reach a grade.

Keep between-lesson work small enough to complete. For example, revisit a few previously learned verb forms on different days, use each in a sentence, and check the correction afterwards. For school language learning, Ofsted’s languages review supports spaced practice and recalling earlier learning. It does not prescribe a private-tuition schedule.

At an agreed review point, try a fresh task of similar difficulty: write about a different day, answer a new follow-up question or understand a short recording without its transcript. Compare what the learner can do independently and which prompts they still need. If too much new language is overwhelming, reduce it and practise one pattern before combining it with another.

Compare the practical arrangements alongside the teaching. A sustainable schedule and a clear focus help you decide what fits the learner’s time and budget.

For remote lessons, compare online French tutors and discuss speaking practice and feedback on written work.