French argumentative writing and speaking run on a small, reusable toolkit: state your position clearly, then connect each point to the next. This lesson gives you both halves of that toolkit — formulas for stating and holding an opinion, and connectors organized by the job each one does in an argument.
You will use this constantly across both exams. The TEF Expression Écrite letter to a newspaper (Lesson 15) is built from a stated opinion plus a chain of connected points. The TCF Expression Écrite synthesis (Tâche 3, Lesson 20) asks you to summarize two viewpoints and then argue your own — these opinion formulas are exactly how you pivot from reporting others' views to asserting yours. The TCF Expression Orale monologue on giving and defending an opinion (Lesson 21) uses the same formulas out loud, and the TEF persuasion speaking task (Lesson 17) leans on them too.
| For my part, I think that... | Pour ma part, je pense que... |
Learn the connectors by function, not as a random list. Sequencing words (tout d'abord, ensuite, enfin) order your points. Addition words (en outre, de plus, par ailleurs) stack more evidence onto a point you've already made. Explanation words (en effet, par exemple, notamment) back a claim up. Contrast words (cependant, toutefois, néanmoins, en revanche) pivot to a different angle — they run from everyday (cependant) to formal written register (néanmoins). Consequence words (par conséquent, ainsi) draw out what follows. Conclusion words (en conclusion, en somme) close the whole piece. Car, puisque and étant donné que give a reason.
Deploy one connector per point, not one per sentence — a paragraph stuffed with connectors reads as mechanical rather than fluent. And keep enfin, which just ends a LIST of points, separate in your head from en conclusion or en somme, which end the whole ARGUMENT.
