TCF Canada Writing: 8 Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Each task has a minimum and a maximum: 60–120 words for task 1, 120–150 for task 2 and 120–180 for task 3. Candidates miss the range in both directions. A rushed task 3 ends at 90 words. An over-eager task 1 runs to 160 and wastes minutes you need later.

France Éducation international counts a word as any group of characters between two spaces, so « c'est-à-dire » is one word. Count your words in practice with that rule, and learn how long your handwriting or typing takes to fill the range.

• Aim for the middle of the range, not the edge. A target of about 100 words for task 1, 135 for task 2 and 150 for task 3 leaves room on both sides.
• If you are too short, add a concrete detail (a time, a place, a reason), not filler.
• If you are too long, cut repeated ideas, not your conclusion.

Mistake 2: answering only half of the prompt. Task prompts usually ask for two things, such as « décrire votre logement et inviter un(e) ami(e) ». Underline each verb in the instruction before you write, and tick them off when you finish.

Mistake 3: the wrong register. A message to a friend uses *tu* and a relaxed tone. A message to a landlord, a manager or a newspaper uses *vous* and polite formulas. Mixing the two inside one text is one of the quickest ways to look careless.

In task 3 you read two documents with two points of view, present them, and then give your own opinion. The usual mistakes are copying whole phrases from the documents, treating one document as if it were the only view, and writing a conclusion that never says what *you* think.

The 60 minutes cover all three tasks together, and nobody stops you from spending 30 of them on task 1. Candidates who polish the easy task and rush the hardest one are common. A suggested split (not an official rule) is about 10 minutes for task 1, 20 for task 2 and 30 for task 3, including a short reread.

• Always finish all three tasks. An empty task 3 is worse than an imperfect one.
• Spend two minutes planning task 3 (view 1, view 2, your opinion, two reasons) before you write the first sentence.
• Keep the last three to five minutes for a reread. Look only for accents, verb endings and agreement.

Mistake 6: English structures and false friends. Some words look like English but mean something else in French. These are the ones that appear most in learners' texts.

Mistake 7: agreement errors. Four checks catch most of them: the verb agrees with its subject, adjectives agree with their noun, a past participle with *être* agrees with the subject (« elle est arrivée »), and a participle with *avoir* agrees with a direct object placed before it (« les fleurs que nous avons plantées »).

Mistake 8: no structure. A text with no paragraphs and the same word (« et », « aussi ») in every sentence is hard to follow. Use two or three paragraphs in tasks 2 and 3, and vary your connectors: *d'abord, ensuite, en revanche, cependant, c'est pourquoi, en conclusion*. Do not memorise a whole template that does not fit the topic. The reader can tell.

1. 1Length: is each task inside its word range?
2. 2Prompt: did you do every verb in the instruction?
3. 3Register: *tu* or *vous*, and not both?
4. 4Task 3: both views in your own words, then your own opinion?
5. 5Endings: subjects and verbs, nouns and adjectives, past participles.
6. 6Accents and apostrophes: é, è, à, ç, l', d', qu'.

Writing is reported out of 20 and IRCC converts it to an NCLC level, so a few points can matter. See the TCF Canada scores to NCLC chart and the NCLC calculator for an estimate. Frenchly is an independent practice tool and does not guarantee any score or immigration result.