JAMB Syllabus for French 2025/2026

– topics of general and emergent
interest e.g. love, life, death, politics,
marriage, health, communication, child trafficking, cultism, travel, corruption, money-laundering, etc.

(i) deduce answers to questions on the content, intent and style of proposed texts,

(ii) apply reasoning skills.

I. Identification of basic form classes:

(a) Nouns: simple/compound, Singular/plural, masculine/feminine.

(b) Pronouns: personal, impersonal,
demonstrative, possessive and relative.

(c) Verbs: reflexive and non-reflexive, their moods and tenses.

(d) Adjectives: qualifying, possessive,
interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite (e.g. nul), numeral (e.g. dix) and ordinal (e.g. dixième.)

(e) Adverbs:
– common forms
i) with-ment (e.g. lentement)
ii) with préposition + noun (e.g. par avion, à cheval, en voiture, par bateau.)
– special forms (e.g. bien, vite, mal, mieux, le mieux, pire, le pis, ne…que.)
– types
– manner (e.g. debout, facilement.)
– purpose (e.g. pour + infinitive, afin de + infinitive.)
– cause and consequence (e.g. pour+
infinitive perfect, à cause de + noun.)
– concession (e.g. malgré +noun.)
– place (e.g. y, en, ici, là, là-haut, partout.)
– time (e.g. hier, aujourd’hui, avant-hier, après, demain, la veille, le matin, dans un mois.)

(f) Prépositions:
– simple (e.g. à, de, avec, avant, sur, dans.)
– compound (e.g. à côté de, au milieu de.)

(g) Conjunctions:
– of co-ordination (e.g. mais, ou, et, donc, car, cependant, ne…ni.)
– of subordination (e.g. afin que, quoique, à condition que, pour que, parce que.)

(h) Articles:
– definite, indefinite and partitive.
(i) contraction e.g. à+le = au, à+les= aux
etc.

II. Assessment of vocabulary span:
words in contemporary contexts meaning, use, opposites, synonyms

III. Importance of word order in:
(a) affirmative sentences
(b) interrogative sentences
(c) imperative sentences
(d) passive voice formation

IV. Identification and application of basic processes in language structure, e.g.

(a) conjugation – in all tenses
except l’imparfait du subjonctif, le passé composé du subjonctif, et…le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif.

(b) negation (e.g. ne…pas, ne…plus, ne rien, nul ne, ne…ni..ni, ne…personne, personne…ne, aucun….ne, rien ne….etc.)

(c) agreement (e.g. les beaux arts, il
les a vues, les photos.)

(d) pluralisation (e.g. cheval/chevaux, beau/beaux, belle/belles.)

(e) derivation:
-from adj, to adv – e.g. lent-lentement, -from adj. to adj. e.g. un – premier, -from adj. to noun – e.g. bon-bonté, riche richesse, etc -from one degree of comparison to another (using plus…que,
moins….que, aussi….que e.g. plus grand que.)

NB –special forms- (e.g. bon, meilleur, le meilleur, la meilleure, mauvais, pire, le pire.)

V. Use of French in set
expressions such as in proverbs, idioms and conventional structures as provided for in common speech acts:

(a) proverbs (e.g. tel père tel fils, petit à petit l’oiseau fait son nid.)

(b) idioms (e.g. avoir une faim de loup, crier sur le toit, mourir de peur.)

(c) conventional stretches (e.g. enchanté, c’est dommage, c’est formidable, stationnement interdit, etc.)

(d) Common figures of speech eg
métaphore, simile, hyperbole.
Métaphore – Mon père est un
lion.
Simile – Elle est maigre comme
un clou.
Hyberbole – Il avait tellement faim qu’il a mangé toute une Vache.

(e) speech acts (e.g. proposer, conseiller,
regretter, admirer, espérer, interroger,
reprocher, s’accorder, etc.)

i. identify what constitutes the basic structures of written French,

ii. use the principles governing the structure of written French to determine acceptability, e.g. to transform one form; one class into another,

iii. apply the structure to convey diverse messages

Candidates should be able to;

i. identify meaning of words

ii. identify meaningful constructed sentences.

(a) sound discrimination
(e.g. tout/tu), (fais/fée.)

(b) letter-sound correspondence (e.g. ai-/e/, eau/o/.)

(c) syllabification (e.g. con/tente/ment.)

(d) liaison (e.g. trois animaux, des enfants.)

(e) sense groups in reading e.g. J’ai mal à la tête. J’ai mal/pas à la tête / mais au dos/.
Comment vas-tu, Carol?// Comment vas-
tu demain?

(f) faux amis (e.g.librairie/library, rester/to
rest, blesser/to bless.)

(g) identification of sounds to determine similarity (e.g. maison/saison, dents/don,fond/ fonde.)

(i) discriminate between French sounds,

(ii) deduce meanings out of sound
combinations,

(iii) use the above to enhance effective
communication,

(iv) assess sound groupings in terms of
how they are affected by such
features as syllabification, liaison,
e-caduc; pause, intonation, etc.