MSBSHSE Syllabus for Class 12 French (French 2020)

Syllabus Overview: What the Class 12 French 2020 Course Covers

The Class 12 French course is not a single list of chapters. It is built around four skill areas, listening, speaking, reading and writing, and grammar and vocabulary sit underneath all four as the base. Every question in the exam tests one or more of these skills, so your preparation has to cover all of them, not just the textbook lessons.

The syllabus groups the year's work into four broad components:

• Comprehension: an unseen French passage followed by questions that test whether you have understood it.
• Writing: a letter, a message or notice, and a short composition on a given topic.
• Grammar: tenses, moods and sentence structures, tested through direct exercises such as fill in the blanks, transformation and matching.
• Literature: the lessons and extracts in your prescribed textbook, tested through comprehension and short answer questions.

The 2020 syllabus is the same one used through the 2019-20 academic year. No separate reduced syllabus was announced for French that year [verify], so students preparing for the 2020 exam should work through the full course rather than a trimmed version.

The subject is marked out of 100: 80 marks for the theory paper and 20 marks for internal assessment, which includes the oral component [verify]. The question paper is set in French, and instructions are given in French with English support so that you are never guessing what a question is asking.

One practical point about the paper: it expects answers in French. If a comprehension question asks Pourquoi le narrateur est-il triste?, a correct English answer still loses marks because the examiner is checking your French production, not your translation. Plan from day one to write your practice answers in French, even rough notes.

Keep the official syllabus PDF open while you study. The download link sits near the top of this page, and a printed copy with topics ticked off is the simplest way to make sure nothing is left out before the exam. If grammar is where you lose marks, start with the Class 12 French grammar worksheets and tense practice page before moving to full papers.

Section-wise Marks Distribution and Paper Pattern (Theory)

The theory paper is 80 marks and you get 3 hours to write it. The remaining 20 marks of the 100 come from internal assessment, which includes your oral test [verify]. Within the 80-mark paper, the marks are split evenly across the four skill areas, so no single section can be skipped.

Table: Section-wise Marks Distribution

Because each section carries the same weight, a student who is strong in grammar but weak in writing loses just as many marks as the reverse. Treat the four sections as four separate preparation targets.

Table: Question Types and Marks per Question

Internal choice appears in some sections. A common pattern is a writing question that offers two letter topics and asks you to attempt any one [verify]. Read the choice instruction carefully before you start writing, because attempting both wastes time and only one answer is marked.

Marks distribution and question numbering can shift slightly from year to year, so use the tables above to understand the shape of the paper, not as a fixed blueprint. Cross-check the exact pattern against the official board circular for the 2020 exam [verify]. Once the pattern is clear, practise it under real conditions using Class 12 French previous year question papers with solutions, and fix grammar gaps with the Class 12 French grammar worksheets and tense practice page.

Detailed Grammar Topics in the Class 12 French 2020 Syllabus

Grammar carries 20 marks in the theory paper, and it also decides how well your writing and comprehension answers score. A letter with wrong verb endings loses marks twice: once in the grammar question and again in the writing section. So the grammar list below is not a separate topic to finish and forget. It is the base for everything else.

Treat each point as something you must be able to produce in a sentence, not just recognise. The board's grammar questions usually ask you to fill in a blank, conjugate a verb, or rewrite a sentence, so passive reading of a rule will not help in the exam [verify].

Tenses and Moods

The syllabus expects you to handle these tenses: présent, passé composé, imparfait, futur simple, plus-que-parfait, conditionnel présent and subjonctif présent [verify]. Learn the endings first, then the irregular forms that keep appearing in papers.

• Présent: Je finis mes devoirs. (I finish my homework.)
• Passé composé: Elle est partie hier. (She left yesterday.) Note the auxiliary être and the agreement.
• Imparfait: Quand j'étais petit, je jouais au cricket. (When I was small, I played cricket.) Used for habits and descriptions in the past.
• Futur simple: Nous visiterons Paris l'année prochaine. (We will visit Paris next year.)
• Plus-que-parfait: Il avait déjà mangé quand je suis arrivé. (He had already eaten when I arrived.)
• Conditionnel présent: Je voudrais un verre d'eau. (I would like a glass of water.)
• Subjonctif présent: Il faut que tu viennes à l'heure. (You must come on time.)

The three moods to prepare are the imperative (Écoutez bien! Listen carefully!), the conditional, and the subjunctive. The subjunctive appears after expressions of necessity, doubt or emotion, for example Il est nécessaire que..., Je doute que..., Je suis content que... [verify]. A common mistake is using the indicative after these expressions: Il faut que tu viens is wrong, and the fix is Il faut que tu viennes.

Sentence Structures and Pronouns

Pronouns are tested heavily because they shorten sentences. Learn where each pronoun sits in the sentence.

• Direct object pronouns (le, la, les): Je le connais. (I know him.)
• Indirect object pronouns (lui, leur): Je lui parle. (I speak to him.)
• y replaces a place or à + thing: J'y vais. (I am going there.)
• en replaces de + noun or a quantity: J'en veux deux. (I want two of them.)
• Relative pronouns (qui, que, où, dont): Le livre que je lis est intéressant. (The book that I am reading is interesting.)
• Possessive pronouns (le mien, la tienne, les leurs): Ce stylo est le mien. (This pen is mine.)
• Demonstrative pronouns (celui, celle, ceux, celles): Je préfère celui-ci. (I prefer this one.)

For sentence structures, revise negation (ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... rien), interrogation with inversion and with est-ce que (Viens-tu? / Est-ce que tu viens?), comparative and superlative (plus grand que, le plus grand), and the gerund with en + present participle (En marchant, il écoute de la musique. While walking, he listens to music.) [verify].

Other Grammar Points

These smaller items appear inside almost every question, so a quick revision pays off.

• Articles: definite, indefinite and partitive. Je bois du lait. (I drink milk.)
• Prepositions with geographical names: à Paris, en France, au Canada, aux États-Unis [verify].
• Agreement of the past participle: with être the participle agrees with the subject (Elle est allée), and with avoir it agrees with a preceding direct object (Les lettres que j'ai écrites) [verify].
• Direct and indirect speech: Il dit: "Je suis malade." becomes Il dit qu'il est malade. (He says that he is ill.) Watch the tense shift when the reporting verb is in the past.

Use the Class 12 French grammar worksheets and tense practice page to drill these points, and check the question style against Class 12 French previous year question papers with solutions.

Prescribed Textbook Lessons and Authors (Literature Section)

The literature section carries 20 marks and is built entirely from the prescribed Class 12 French textbook followed in state board schools [verify]. Unlike comprehension, where the passage is new to you, here the text is known in advance. That makes literature the easiest section to score full marks in, provided you have actually read each lesson rather than borrowed someone's notes the night before.

The exact lesson list, page numbers and author names for the 2020 exam should be checked against the official syllabus PDF and your own textbook's contents page [verify]. The lesson names below follow the pattern of the Class 12 French course; confirm each one against your copy before you build a revision plan around it [verify].

• Prose lessons: short narratives and descriptive passages, each followed by comprehension and vocabulary exercises [verify].
• Poetry or song extracts: short verses with simple themes, tested on meaning and central idea rather than literary criticism [verify].
• Author details: a line or two about each writer, since questions sometimes ask who wrote a given extract [verify].

For each prose lesson, write a two-line summary in English in your own words. For example, if a lesson describes a family moving to a new city, your note should say who moved, why, and what changed for them. Two lines force you to identify the plot, which is exactly what a "résumez le texte" question needs.

Literature questions usually fall into four types: comprehension (who did what, why), character (describe a person and give one quality with evidence from the text), theme (what the lesson teaches about family, honesty, environment or hard work), and value-based understanding (what would you have done in the character's place) [verify]. A typical question looks like: Quel est le thème principal de ce texte? Justifiez votre réponse. Marks here are split between the point you make and the evidence you quote from the text, so a theme answer without a supporting line from the lesson loses half its value.

A common mistake is retelling the whole story when the question asks only about a character. The fix: one sentence naming the character, one sentence on the quality, one sentence quoting or pointing to the incident that proves it. Prepare a five-line character sketch and a three-line theme note for every prose lesson, and revise them weekly. Our Class 12 French literature lesson summaries can help you cross-check your notes, and once your summaries are ready, test yourself with Class 12 French previous year question papers with solutions to see how literature questions are actually worded.

Writing Skills: What to Prepare for the Composition Section

The writing section asks you to produce French text of your own: a letter, a message, a notice or a short composition. Nothing here is unseen in the way a comprehension passage is, because the formats repeat every year and the topics come from everyday life. What the examiner checks is whether you can follow a format, fill it with relevant content, and write grammatically clean French.

The formats expected are an informal letter to a friend, a formal letter (complaint, request or application), a short message, a notice, and a guided composition of about 80 to 100 words [verify]. Learn the shape of each one separately, because a notice pinned to a school board and a letter to a company share almost nothing except the language.

Letter Writing (Formal and Informal)

Every French letter follows the same skeleton: sender's address at the top left, the date below it, the salutation, the body in short paragraphs, and the closing formula. In an informal letter you open with Cher ami / Chère amie and close with Bises or Amicalement. In a formal letter the salutation is Monsieur / Madame and the closing is Je vous prie d'agréer, Monsieur, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées. Writing Bises at the end of a complaint letter is the kind of slip that costs marks for format even when the French is correct.

Message and Notice Writing

A message is short: who it is for, what happened, what the reader should do, and who wrote it. Marie, je serai en retard ce soir. Commence à dîner sans moi. Papa. A notice announces something to a group (a cancelled class, a lost bag, a school trip) and needs a heading, the essential details, and the date or place. Keep both under 40 words and do not decorate them with letter formulas.

Guided Composition

Here you get a topic and a few hints, and you write 80 to 100 words. Common topics: describing a recent event such as a festival or trip, inviting a friend, applying for a course, complaining about a product you bought, or giving your opinion on a social issue. Stick to sentences you can control. Ten correct short sentences score better than four ambitious ones with tense errors.

Marks are usually split as format (2), content (4) and language accuracy (4) [verify], so a beautifully written letter with no date and no closing still loses two marks. Before you write anything, spend five minutes on a rough plan: note the format you will use, the three or four points you must include, and the tense each point needs (passé composé for a past event, futur simple for an invitation). This one step prevents the two most common disasters, a missing formula and a paragraph that drifts off the topic. Practise one letter and one composition each week, and check your attempts against Class 12 French previous year question papers with solutions to see the standard expected.

Comprehension: How the Unseen Passage Is Tested

The comprehension section gives you a French passage you have not seen before, usually 150 to 200 words long, on a familiar topic: family, school, environment, travel or health [verify]. Familiar topic does not mean easy vocabulary. The passage is written for Class 12 level, so expect a mix of past tenses, a few pronouns like y and en, and some words you will have to guess from context. You are not expected to understand every word; you are expected to find the answers.

The questions that follow usually fall into five types:

• True or false (Vrai / Faux), sometimes with a line from the passage to justify the answer.
• Fill in the blanks using words from the passage.
• Answer in French to short questions such as Pourquoi est-ce que Marie est allée à Paris ?
• Find synonyms or antonyms of given words from the text.
• Identify the main idea or give a suitable title.

Read the questions before the passage. Underline the key word in each question (a name, a place, a date), then scan the passage for that word. French questions often use a synonym of the word in the text, so if you are looking for content, also watch for heureux.

Answer in complete French sentences unless the question clearly asks for a single word. For a question like Où habite Paul ?, write Paul habite à Lyon, not just Lyon. A one-word answer to an "answer in French" question can lose you marks even when the fact is right.

A common mistake is copying a whole paragraph as an answer. Examiners want the specific point, so lift only the phrase that answers the question and build a short sentence around it. Practise with Class 12 French previous year question papers with solutions and time each passage at 15 minutes, so the pace is fixed before the exam.

Internal Assessment and Oral Component

The French paper is out of 100 marks, but only 80 of those come from the written exam. The remaining 20 marks are internal assessment, marked by your school through the year [verify]. Students often ignore these 20 marks and then lose the distinction they wanted. Treat internal assessment as a paper you write before the board exam, one you can prepare for calmly.

Internal assessment usually has three parts: an oral test, listening comprehension, and project work [verify]. Your school decides the exact weight of each part, so ask your French teacher for the split early in the year.

Oral test. The examiner normally asks you to introduce yourself in French, describe a picture, and hold a short conversation on a familiar topic such as your family, your school, your hobbies or your last holiday [verify]. For the picture, describe what you see and add two or three sentences of your own: Sur cette image, je vois une famille dans un jardin. Les enfants jouent et les parents préparent le déjeuner. (In this picture, I see a family in a garden. The children are playing and the parents are preparing lunch.)

Listening comprehension. You hear a short audio clip or a passage read by the teacher, then answer questions on it [verify]. The questions may be true or false, fill in the blanks, or one-line answers in French. Listen for names, numbers, places and times first; these are what most questions ask about.

Project work. You submit a file or give a presentation on a French-speaking country, a festival, or a cultural topic [verify]. A good project has a title page, a short introduction in French, two or three headings (for example, la géographie, la cuisine, les fêtes), and a conclusion. Keep the French simple and correct rather than long and complicated.

For oral practice, speak French aloud for five minutes every day and record yourself on your phone. Play it back and check three things: the accents on é and è, the endings of verbs, and whether you said le or la correctly. If you are unsure what the oral exam looks like, read How to prepare for the Class 12 French oral exam and then practise the same questions with a partner.

Exam Pattern and Duration: What to Expect on Exam Day

The theory paper runs for 3 hours and carries 80 marks [verify]. You get no extra reading time beyond the standard 15 minutes given before the paper starts, so use that quarter hour to read the question paper fully, mark the choices you plan to attempt, and note which section looks heaviest.

The paper usually follows four sections in this order: Section A (Comprehension), Section B (Writing), Section C (Grammar), Section D (Literature) [verify]. All questions are compulsory; internal choice appears only where the paper says so, for example "Attempt any one of the two letters" [verify]. Never leave a choice question blank hoping for an alternative later in the paper.

Plan your time like this:

• Comprehension: 30 minutes. Read the passage twice, then answer.
• Writing: 50 minutes. Spend 5 minutes planning each answer before you write.
• Grammar: 40 minutes. Do the items you are sure of first.
• Literature: 50 minutes. Answer in short, complete sentences.
• Revision: 10 minutes. Check accents, verb endings and question numbers.

Write every answer in French unless the question itself is a translation or vocabulary item that asks for English. Number your answers exactly as they appear on the paper (A1, A2, B1 and so on); examiners mark by question number, and a missing number can cost you marks even when the answer is correct. A common mistake is answering a negative question with the wrong logic: Vous n'aimez pas le cinéma? answered with Si, j'aime beaucoup le cinéma. (Yes, I do like cinema a lot) shows you understood the negation. Practise full papers under this timing using Class 12 French previous year question papers with solutions so the 3-hour rhythm feels familiar before exam day.

Preparation Tips Specific to French

French rewards steady, small practice more than last-minute cramming. The plan below splits your preparation into four tracks, each with a fixed weekly routine. Decide the days now and write them in your diary, so revision does not depend on mood.

Grammar Drill Plan

Make a single A4 sheet titled "Mes temps" with one row per tense: présent, passé composé, imparfait, futur simple, plus-que-parfait, conditionnel présent and subjonctif présent [verify]. In each row write the endings, one regular example (parler) and the irregular participles you keep forgetting (fait, écrit, pris, venu, né). Keep this sheet in front of you and write 10 sentences daily, mixing tenses: Hier, j'ai fini mes devoirs avant que mes parents rentrent. (Yesterday I finished my homework before my parents came home.) Two minutes of checking your own sentences against the sheet teaches more than reading a grammar chapter. Use Class 12 French grammar worksheets and tense practice when you want ready-made exercises.

Vocabulary Building

Keep a thin notebook divided into themes: family, school, environment, health, travel. Each week add 10 new words to one theme, always with gender and one short sentence: la pollution, la pollution augmente en ville. Write the word on the left page and its sentence on the right; on Sunday, cover the left page and recall the words from the sentences. This prepares you directly for comprehension passages, where a familiar theme makes unknown words easier to guess.

Literature Revision

For every prescribed lesson, write a 5-line summary in simple French and list 3 character traits with one line of evidence each. Revise these cards weekly rather than once before the exam. If a lesson summary is unclear, compare it with Class 12 French literature lesson summaries and rewrite it in your own words.

Alongside these three tracks, memorise 5 opening and 5 closing lines for letters, and write one letter plus one composition every week. Twice a week, listen to a short French audio clip, news bulletin or dialogue for 10 minutes and note five words you caught. Finally, work through past papers to spot repeated grammar items and question types; those repeats tell you exactly where to spend your drill time.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in the French Exam

Most marks lost in French are not lost because the answer was hard. They are lost because of small slips that are easy to fix once you know them. Read the six below, then check your own last practice paper for each one.

1. Answering in English. If the question says "Répondez" or "Complétez", the examiner wants French. An English sentence, even a correct one, usually earns nothing in the language marks. The fix: write your answer in French, and if you are unsure of a word, rephrase the sentence in simpler French you can manage.

2. Ignoring accents. Accents are not decoration. ou means "or" while où means "where"; a is a verb form while à is a preposition; garçon without the cedilla is misspelt. The fix: after finishing any answer, spend 30 seconds scanning only for é, è, ê, ç and missing accents.

3. Wrong auxiliary in passé composé. Most verbs take avoir, but movement and reflexive verbs take être: Je suis allé (I went), not J'ai allé. The fix: memorise the common être verbs as a short list and check every past-tense sentence against it. Practise with Class 12 French grammar worksheets and tense practice.

4. Missing past participle agreement. With être, the participle agrees with the subject: Elle est partie. With avoir, it agrees only with a direct object placed before the verb: Les lettres que j'ai écrites (the letters that I wrote). The fix: before writing a past-tense sentence, ask "which verb, and is there a preceding direct object?"

5. Letter format slips. A letter without a date, a salutation or a closing formula loses format marks even when the French is good. The fix: learn one layout by heart (sender's address, date, salutation, body, closing) and use it every time.

6. Misreading negative questions. A question like Ne veux-tu pas venir? (Don't you want to come?) is asking for a view on not coming. Students often answer the opposite of what was asked. The fix: underline ne...pas, jamais or rien in the question before you answer, and check your reply matches the meaning.

Quick Revision Plan: Last 30 Days

Thirty days is enough if you divide the work by skill instead of revising everything every day. Each week below has one main job, and the daily oral and listening slots run alongside all four weeks.

• Week 1: Grammar. Revise every tense and mood on the syllabus, one per day, and write the endings plus irregular participles on a single sheet. Solve two grammar exercises daily, mixing tenses rather than doing ten sentences of the same tense. Use the Class 12 French grammar worksheets and tense practice if you run out of textbook exercises.
• Week 2: Literature. Cover every prescribed lesson once. For each, make a summary card with a five-line plot summary, three character traits and one theme. Keep the cards small enough to re-read in ten minutes.
• Week 3: Writing and comprehension. Write one letter and one composition under a 30-minute timer. Do one unseen passage in 15 minutes. Check each piece against the format and accuracy checklist before moving on. Lesson summaries for revision are in Class 12 French literature lesson summaries.
• Week 4: Full papers. Solve at least three complete past papers in one sitting of three hours. Mark them honestly, list every repeated error on one page, and revise that list the night before the exam. Finish by revising your theme-wise vocabulary notebook.

Daily, every week: 15 minutes of speaking aloud (self-introduction, picture description, a short opinion on a familiar topic) and 10 minutes of listening to short French dialogues or news clips. Record yourself once a week and compare with the previous recording to hear your pronunciation improve.

Print the official syllabus PDF and keep it on your desk. Tick each topic only after you have written at least one answer on it, not after you have read it. A topic you have read but never written stays a weak topic.

How to Download the MSBSHSE Class 12 French 2020 Syllabus PDF

The syllabus PDF is the only document that tells you exactly which topics the board will test. Download it once, save it to your phone and laptop, and keep a printed copy with your notes. The steps below take about five minutes.

1. Open the official board site. Go to the state board's official website (mahahsscboard.in) [verify]. Type the address yourself instead of clicking a search result, since lookalike sites often host outdated files.
2. Find the Class 12 syllabus section. Look for a menu item or tab labelled "Syllabus" or "Curriculum". Choose the Higher Secondary (Class 12) category, not the Class 10 one.
3. Select French for the 2020 exam year. The subject list is alphabetical, so French sits between English and Geography. Make sure the year printed on the link is 2020 [verify].
4. Download and check the file. Save the PDF with a clear name such as French_12_2020_syllabus.pdf. Open it and confirm the first page mentions the 2020 examination; a 2019 file with the same subject name is not what you need.

If the board site is slow or the link does not open, try the downloadable circulars section instead [verify]. Circulars announcing syllabus updates are usually posted there as separate PDFs.

You can also use the direct PDF link placed near the top of this page. Once you have the file, compare its topic list with the grammar and literature sections above, and use the Class 12 French previous year question papers with solutions to see how each listed topic actually appears as a question.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the duration of the Maharashtra Board Class 12 French 2020 exam?

The theory paper is of 3 hours duration, the standard time given for Class 12 language papers of the state board [verify]. Plan your writing section first, since the letter and composition carry more marks than individual grammar items, and keep the last 10 minutes for checking spellings and accents.

How many marks is the French 2020 paper for Class 12 Maharashtra Board?

French is marked out of 100: 80 marks for the written theory paper and 20 marks for internal assessment, which includes the oral component [verify]. The 80-mark paper is divided across comprehension, writing, grammar and literature, so no single section should be skipped during revision.

What are the main grammar topics in the Class 12 French 2020 syllabus?

Expect the full range of verb tenses (present, passé composé, imparfait, futur, conditionnel), moods including subjonctif and impératif, pronouns such as y, en and relative pronouns, plus agreement of adjectives and past participles. Exercises usually come as fill in the blanks, transformation and matching, so practise each topic in that question format.

Which textbook lessons are included in the Class 12 French 2020 syllabus?

The literature section draws from the lessons and extracts in your prescribed Class 12 French textbook. The exact lesson list is printed in the official syllabus PDF, so check it there rather than relying on a senior's notes [verify]. Read each lesson once for meaning and once for the vocabulary and grammar it reuses.

Is there an oral exam for Class 12 French in Maharashtra Board?

Yes, the oral component is part of the 20-mark internal assessment [verify]. It usually involves reading aloud, answering simple questions about yourself and a short conversation in French. Practise speaking the lesson vocabulary aloud, since marks come from pronunciation and fluency, not from memorised answers alone.

How can I download the MSBSHSE Class 12 French 2020 syllabus PDF?

Use the download link near the top of this page to open the official syllabus PDF. Save a copy on your phone and print one page per section. Tick off each grammar topic and lesson as you finish it, and cross-check the lesson list against your textbook before the exam.