KCSE French: Describe People, Places and Events

French: describe people, places and events from an original scene

A connected description helps a reader picture a scene. Establish the setting, locate the people and objects, then link their visible actions. A list of colours alone does not explain an activity. Equally, an attractive story about what happened yesterday may abandon a task that asks what the illustration shows now.

These two illustrations were drawn specifically for this activity. They are fictional teaching scenes, not photographs or records of real events. The supplied character names and pronouns are part of the prompt: Aïcha and Léa use elle; Marc and Sami use il. All four are fictional adults. Do not infer age, identity, personality or relationships from appearance. This is KCSE-oriented French practice, subject to current-syllabus and fluent-teacher review.

Illustration A: a drawing workshop

Prepared original illustration A: Drawing workshop. The separate offline preview displays the image; this publication fragment retains the complete text alternative until verified media placement.

Complete text alternative: A room has a window at the back left. Three yellow sheets displaying geometric drawings hang on the rear wall. A sign reads “ATELIER DE DESSIN”. Aïcha sits to the left of a foreground table, wearing a green top. She holds a pencil over white paper with drawn lines. Marc stands to the right of the table, wearing a blue top and holding a red folder in front of him. Names appear beneath both figures. The scene supplies no date, nationality, family relationship or outcome.

A1. Décrivez le lieu, les deux personnes et l’activité représentée. Organisez votre texte et utilisez le présent. Appuyez-vous sur l’illustration ou sur sa description accessible. N’inventez pas un événement antérieur.

Plan before writing

Use three groups of details: room and activity; Aïcha and the drawing action; Marc and his position. Decide whether “left” means the viewer’s left or a character’s own left. Here it always means the viewer’s left. Name the reference object in a relative location: à droite de la table is more precise than a floating à droite.

A connected model

L’illustration représente un atelier de dessin dans une salle. Au fond, à gauche, il y a une fenêtre. Trois feuilles jaunes sont accrochées au mur. Elles portent des dessins géométriques. Une pancarte annonce « ATELIER DE DESSIN ».

Au premier plan, Aïcha est assise à gauche d’une table. Elle porte un haut vert et dessine sur une feuille blanche avec un crayon. À droite de la table, Marc est debout. Il porte un haut bleu et tient une chemise rouge devant lui. Les deux personnes se trouvent près de la même table, mais seule Aïcha est représentée en train de dessiner.

Vocabulary note: Une chemise can mean a shirt or a folder for papers. In tient une chemise rouge, the visible red folder and the verb “holds” establish the stationery meaning. Un dossier rouge is a possible alternative here if used to refer to the folder, not to an imagined file of private information. For clothing, the model uses un haut, a general word that avoids claiming a particular garment construction.

Grammar and spatial annotations

  • Present viewpoint: représente, porte, dessine, tient describe the depicted scene. This chosen task does not require a past account. A picture alone does not establish what happened before or afterwards.
  • Number: Trois feuilles… sont is plural; une fenêtre is singular. The existence expression il y a stays unchanged before either singular or plural: il y a trois feuilles.
  • Adjectives: feuilles jaunes is feminine plural; feuille blanche is feminine singular; haut vert and haut bleu are masculine singular. Agreement follows the noun described, not the wearer’s gender.
  • Posture: Aïcha est assise uses the supplied feminine reference. Debout does not gain a plural ending: ils sont debout.
  • Reference: Elles in the first paragraph refers to the three sheets. Starting the next paragraph with Aïcha’s name prevents an unclear switch from objects to a person.
  • Connections: Au fond and au premier plan organise space; mais introduces the supported difference in activity. No connector invents a cause.

Revise language and evidence together

Draft with deliberate errors: « Dans le photo, il y a trois feuille jaune. Aïcha et Marc dessine. Elle porte un haut verte. Marc a terminé son dessin hier et il est très gentil. »

A2. Rewrite the whole draft using only the prompt. Repair grammar, identify Aïcha clearly and remove claims the picture does not establish.

Révision : L’illustration montre trois feuilles jaunes au mur. Aïcha dessine à la table. Elle porte un haut vert. Marc est debout à droite de la table et tient une chemise rouge.

Reasons: It is an illustration, so the revision avoids calling it a photograph; if referring to a real photograph, the noun would be la photo. The plural requires feuilles jaunes. Merely changing dessine to dessinent would fix agreement but leave the unsupported claim that both people are drawing. Replacing the pair with Aïcha fixes the observation too. Haut requires vert. Neither yesterday’s completed drawing nor Marc’s kindness is established.

Illustration B: independent description

Prepared original illustration B: Book exchange in a courtyard. The separate offline preview displays the image; the complete text alternative remains available here.

Complete text alternative: An outdoor courtyard has a tree at the back left and a building with an open doorway at the back right. A sign reads “ÉCHANGE DE LIVRES”. In the foreground, a table holds three stacked blue books. Léa stands to the left in a red jacket, holding an open book towards Sami. Sami stands to the right, wearing a yellow top and facing the book. No money or completed transfer is shown. No weather, prices or duration is stated.

  1. B1. Rédigez une description suivie du lieu, des personnes et de l’activité. Donnez au moins deux repères spatiaux et gardez le présent. N’affirmez pas qu’un livre a déjà changé de propriétaire.
  2. B2. Explain why « Sami vient d’acheter trois livres » goes beyond the picture. Replace it with an observation.
  3. B3. Corrigez sans changer les faits : « Les livre bleu est sur la table. Léa et Sami se trouve dans une cour. »

Independent model and alternatives

La scène se déroule dans une cour où une pancarte annonce un échange de livres. À l’arrière-plan, un arbre se trouve à gauche et un bâtiment à droite. La porte du bâtiment est ouverte. Au premier plan, trois livres bleus sont empilés sur une table.

Léa se tient à gauche de la table. Elle porte un haut rouge et montre un livre ouvert à Sami. Celui-ci est debout à droite de la table, dans un haut jaune. Le livre ouvert se trouve entre les deux personnes. L’image montre une présentation de livre, mais elle ne permet pas de savoir si les deux personnes ont déjà effectué un échange.

Why it works: The first paragraph moves from the courtyard to its background and foreground. The second locates both people and describes the action connecting them. The final sentence distinguishes the named event from an exchange actually completed. It does not invent a conversation, enjoyment, ownership or a price.

Acceptable alternatives: Derrière les personnages can locate the background; Il y a trois livres bleus sur la table accurately replaces the stack sentence but gives less detail. Léa tient un livre ouvert is a cautious observation. Sami écoute Léa is less secure because a still image supplies no speech or hearing. Fluent wording is welcome when it preserves the depicted relationships.

B2: The picture does not establish buying, a completed event or ownership. Write « Trois livres bleus sont posés sur la table ». The exchange sign does not turn the scene into evidence of a sale.

B3 : Les livres bleus sont sur la table. Léa et Sami se trouvent dans une cour.

B3 explanation: Livres and bleus take plural endings, with sont for the plural subject. Two distinct people joined by et require the plural se trouvent in this sentence. Keep the article une with the feminine noun cour.

Review criteria

Check coverage of people, place and activity; accuracy against the image or accessible prompt; connected spatial organisation; and French tense, agreement and vocabulary. Give a concrete correction for each difficulty. Accept different supported descriptions rather than demanding the model’s exact words. These are practice criteria, not official examination marks. A fluent French teacher should review idiom, register and acceptable alternatives before publication.

Language checks: OQLF on the present indicative, OQLF on present-tense endings and the Canadian Translation Bureau on colour-adjective agreement. The images, French models, flawed draft and exercises are original.