Learn each room and furniture noun's article
Gender is often not guessable from the ending, so learn the article (le/la) with every room and furniture noun. Watch the traps: la chambre (bedroom) and la salle de bains (bathroom) are feminine; le salon, le jardin, le canapé and le tapis are masculine even though several end in a vowel. The full rooms/furniture tables are in the study note; this recall is examiner-marked.
Learn chores as whole verb + object phrases
Helping at home is almost always a chore verb + its fixed object, so learn the phrase whole: ranger sa chambre (tidy one's room), faire la vaisselle (do the washing-up), passer l'aspirateur (vacuum), débarrasser/mettre la table (clear/lay the table), arroser les plantes (water the plants). Many use irregular faire or mettre. The full appliance and chore lists are in the study note.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
être vs avoir describing a room
To say what a room or piece of furniture is like (big, comfortable, old), French uses être + adjective, never avoir: ma chambre est petite — NOT "ma chambre a petite"; le canapé est bleu — NOT "le canapé a bleu". Use avoir only for possession: j'ai une grande maison vs ma maison est grande. Same slip examiners flag for describing a person.
Cited w22 41 Q2 Task 1: être/avoir confusion describing a person — the same slip appears describing a room or furniture.
Agree adjectives with feminine home nouns
Many household nouns are feminine (la chambre, la cuisine, la maison), so their adjectives need a feminine ending: une grande cuisine — NOT "un grand cuisine"; des chambres spacieuses. An -e adjective like confortable doesn't change for gender, but the article still must agree (une, not un). Do not just copy the masculine base form.
Cited Writing Accuracy boilerplate, every sitting (s22/w22/s23/w23): gender, article choice and adjective agreement named scoring-critical.
Most home adjectives follow the noun
Most adjectives describing rooms and furniture follow the noun: une table ronde, un jardin magnifique, une cuisine moderne. Only a small BAGS set (grand, petit, joli, vieux, beau, nouveau, bon) goes before: une grande maison, un vieux canapé. Putting an ordinary descriptive adjective before the noun, copying English word order, is an accuracy error.
pièce, chambre and salle de bains differ
une pièce = a room in general (also a coin, or a play), whereas une chambre is specifically a bedroom, not any room. Keep bathroom words split: la salle de bains (with bath/shower) versus les toilettes (the toilet) — French separates them where English says "bathroom" for both. Candidates confuse pièce with food/routine vocabulary when topics mix.
Cited w22 Speaking Topic 2: "pièce" (room) confused with breakfast/food vocabulary.
le lave-vaisselle is masculine and singular
Compound appliance nouns look plural or feminine but are not: le lave-vaisselle (dishwasher) and le lave-linge (washing machine) are masculine singular, so le lave-vaisselle est (not "sont"). Also, spelling-change chore verbs still form a regular past participle in -é — ranger → rangé, nettoyer → nettoyé — so j'ai rangé, never "j'ai rangais".
Household gender isn't guessable from endings
It is a false belief that household gender follows a reliable pattern — "words ending in -e are feminine". Household vocabulary breaks this: le salon, le jardin, le canapé are masculine though they end in a vowel; la chambre, la maison are feminine. la table fits the "-e" guess, but le canapé does not. Learn each noun with le/la.
Cited Writing Accuracy boilerplate, all sittings: gender and article choice named a recurring, scoring-critical accuracy fault.
Answer home-life questions room by room
Build a home answer in fixed steps: (1) name the room with its article; (2) describe it with être + adjective (elle est grande); (3) list what's in it with articles (un lit, une armoire); (4) add a chore as a verb + object (je range ma chambre).
Match the chore to the tense the task asks
Chore bullets often signal a tense, and the wrong one caps Task Completion. Use the present for routine (je range ma chambre), the perfect for what you did (hier, j'ai passé l'aspirateur), and the future for what you will do. Check the time marker first.
Audit every adjective against its noun
Before moving on, re-read each adjective against the noun it describes — masculine or feminine, singular or plural? Household nouns are frequently feminine (la cuisine, la maison), so a masculine adjective left unchanged is the commonest Accuracy slip here.
This topic covers the rooms of a house, furniture and furnishings, household appliances, the garden, and helping at home (chores).
Rooms (learn with the article):
| French | English |
|---|---|
| le salon | living room |
| la cuisine | kitchen |
| la chambre | bedroom |
| la salle de bains | bathroom |
| les toilettes (f pl) | toilet |
| la salle à manger | dining room |
| le jardin | garden |
| le grenier | attic |
| la cave | cellar |
| le couloir | corridor |
Furniture and furnishings:
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