In TEF Expression orale Section A, you are given a document — a classified ad, a job posting, an apartment listing, a service flyer — and you telephone the advertiser to get as much information as you can. You have about five minutes, and you are expected to ask around ten questions. The person on the other end is a stranger to you, a professional you have never met, so the whole call stays in vouvoiement (vous) from your first word to your last. Slipping into tu, even once, costs points — there is no casual register in this task.
The technique examiners look for is called l'entonnoir, the funnel: you open broad and narrow down. Start with the general question — is this still available, is the position still open — then work through the standard practical questions (schedule, location, transit, cost), and finish on the most specific detail you still need.
| Hello, I'm calling about... (phone opening) | Bonjour, je vous appelle pour... |
A broad opener like that earns you room to narrow. Compare a late-call, specific question:
| The fees are...? | Les frais sont de... ? |
A call that jumps straight to "how much is the deposit" without first establishing the basics reads as disorganized; a call that never gets past "tell me about it" reads as thin.
Structure carries the whole call: open by stating why you're calling, apologize briefly if the interruption feels abrupt, work through your questions broad-to-specific, use verification formulas ("so it's... correct?", "if I sum up...") to check what you heard, ask for repetition when you miss something instead of guessing, and close with thanks. This lesson gives you the formulas for every stage — openings, the request/question patterns that carry the funnel, and the closings — all in the vous register you'll use throughout the call.
