A ghost story

"Une histoire de fantôme"
French C1 writing exercise

Hugo is visiting his mother on All Saints' Day.

 

Use Le Passé Simple when appropriate.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "All Saints' Day", "full moon", "to shine its light", "cemetery", "weeds", "tombstone", "the snapping noise of a twig", "darkness", "figure", "to make one's blood run cold", "a ray of moonlight", "engraved in my memory", "in a flash".

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into French

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise

Here's a preview of the text for the writing challenge, when you're ready click the start button above:

It was November 1st, All Saints' Day. Night had fallen very early that day, And although it was only 5pm, it looked like the middle of the night. Only the full moon, with its pale light, was shining upon the cemetery where I'd come to visit my mother who'd left us the previous winter. While I was pulling the weeds which were starting to invade the tombstone, I heard the snapping of a twig which someone had just walked on. I turned suddenly, and in the darkness, it seemed I could distinguish a pale figure whose familiar bearing made my blood run cold. "Mummy [US: Mommy]?" I stammered in a voice I didn't recognise. At that moment, a ray of moonlight lit the bottom of the face of the one whose maternal smile was engraved in my memory, then in a flash, the figure evaporated in the night.

I'll be right with you...