Spot the mistake
French B1 task corrections: keep the writer and recipient distinct
Correct six French task-response role errors by keeping the writer’s details separate from the recipient’s, with explicit context for each intended meaning.
- B1
- 6 sentences
- Tap the wrong word
- Learn this in the B1 notebook →
In short
Map the writer to je / mon and the recipient to vous / votre before correcting the sentence. Many role errors produce grammatical French with the wrong meaning. Use the stated situation to decide whose help, availability, form or address is intended.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
Use these contexts in order: 1. Your colleague helped you. 2. You ask whether your colleague is available. 3. Each person completes a personal form, and you promise to send yours. 4. You need your colleague’s address for a parcel. 5. You offer a meeting in your own office. 6. You confirm that you will attend tomorrow. The English line under each item gives the intended meaning.
Tap the word that's wrong in each sentence.
I thank you for your help.
The context specifies that the colleague helped the writer; the help belongs to the recipient.
Could you confirm your availability to me?
The writer asks the colleague to confirm the colleague’s own availability, not the writer’s.
I will send you my completed form.
In this situation each person completes a personal form, and the writer promises to send the writer’s own.
Please let me have your address.
The writer needs the recipient’s address to send a parcel.
I can welcome you in my office.
The writer offers to host the colleague in the writer’s office.
I confirm to you that I will come tomorrow.
The writer confirms the writer’s own attendance; viendrai is first-person singular.
Grammatical can still mean the wrong thing
Pouvez-vous me confirmer ma disponibilité ? is not automatically an ungrammatical sentence. Someone managing your diary might be able to confirm your availability. It fails the supplied context because you need to know whether your colleague can attend. The correction to votre is about the intended referent.
Je vous envoie mon adresse et j’attends la vôtre.
I am sending you my address and waiting for yours.
The same message can move between the two people several times. Mon stays linked to je, while votre and la vôtre refer to the recipient addressed as vous. La vôtre replaces votre adresse; it does not change whose address is meant.
Use the verb to confirm the subject
In the last repair, viendrai identifies a first-person singular future. The intended writer is je. Vous viendrez would be a grammatical sentence about the recipient, but would not fulfil the supplied intention that the writer confirms their own attendance. Follow meaning and agreement together.
Before sending a task response, label each person in your plan and decide what each will do. Then track every possessive and pronoun back to that person. This helps preserve the requested roles even when both people exchange similar documents or information.