Notes · FrenchUK · A-Levels

Life for the marginalised

Quelle vie pour les marginalisés ? is the second sub-theme of AQA's current-issues theme, studied at A-Level only. It asks who the marginalised are, what help exists for them and what attitudes prevail towards them. The notes map the French vocabulary of exclusion - la précarité, le mal-logement, les invisibles - alongside the actual machinery of French social protection (le RSA, le 115, le Samu social, les CHRS, la trêve hivernale, le DALO) and the associative sector that works beside it, and teach the impersonal and conditional structures used to propose solutions in French.

5 sections~24 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 3 · Advanced 2

T·0555 / 15

Exam profile

AO1 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to spoken French on exclusion and povertyAO2 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to written French on social policyAO3 · Manipulate the language accurately, using a range of lexis and structureAO4 · Show knowledge of, and respond critically to, marginalisation in French-speaking society

Operators:traduirerésumerclasserexpliquerproposerévaluer

basic level

This sub-theme belongs to the current-issues theme and is not part of AS French (7651).

higher level

The full A-Level expects the mechanisms of exclusion to be analysed, not just described: how precarity becomes homelessness, why aid can fail to reach those entitled to it, and how attitudes shape policy - argued in French with conditional and impersonal structures.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Life for the marginalised

Who they are: qui sont les marginalisés ?#

StandardAQA 7652 3.1.2 - Quelle vie pour les marginalisés ? : qui sont les marginalisés ?DfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Les marginalisés : quatre mécanismes d'exclusion

Fig. 1Organising the sub-theme by mechanism rather than by label. Each branch names a different route into exclusion, which is what turns a list of groups into an analysis.

French distinguishes three degrees where English often has one, and using them correctly is the fastest way to sound analytical. La pauvreté is a lack of resources measured against a threshold - le seuil de pauvreté. La précarité is instability: an income, a job or a home that may disappear at any moment, so that a person is not yet poor but has no security. L'exclusion is the end point: being cut off from work, housing, healthcare, social contact and rights. The sequence matters because it is causal - la précarité mène à l'exclusion lorsque plusieurs difficultés se cumulent - and describing the mechanism rather than the state is what a critical response means.

The groups themselves are best organised by the mechanism that excludes them. Exclusion by housing: les sans-abri, les SDF (sans domicile fixe), les mal-logés - people in overcrowded, unsafe or unheatable housing, a category the Fondation Abbé Pierre has made central to French debate through its annual report on le mal-logement. Exclusion by work: les chômeurs de longue durée, les travailleurs pauvres (in work but below the poverty line), les jeunes sans qualification, les travailleurs précaires on short contracts. Exclusion by status: les sans-papiers, les demandeurs d'asile, les gens du voyage. Exclusion by health, age or ability: les personnes en situation de handicap, les personnes âgées isolées, les personnes souffrant de troubles psychiques, les personnes dépendantes.

Two terminological points carry real weight. First, French has moved from les handicapés to les personnes en situation de handicap, a formulation that places the disability in the interaction with the environment rather than in the person; using the older form sounds dated and slightly harsh. Second, les invisibles is the standard French journalistic term for people whom society does not see - and, crucially, it is not only a metaphor: people who do not claim what they are entitled to are described as being in a situation of non-recours aux droits, a genuine French administrative concept. Non-take-up of benefits is a major, measurable, non-obvious cause of continuing poverty, and citing it lifts an answer.

The vocabulary of the street is precise and should be learned exactly, because listening passages use it. Faire la manche is to beg. Un squat is an occupied empty building. Un hébergement d'urgence is emergency shelter, une place d'hébergement a shelter place. Dormir dehors, dormir dans la rue, être à la rue - note that être à la rue means to be homeless, not merely to be in the street. La rue as a noun in this context means homelessness itself: sortir de la rue is to escape homelessness. And un centre d'accueil de jour is a day centre where people can wash, eat and get help with paperwork.

Worked example

Translation into English: a passage on precarity

Translate into English: « On imagine le pauvre sous les traits du sans-abri. Or la majorité des personnes en difficulté travaillent : elles enchaînent les contrats courts, paient un loyer qu'elles ont du mal à assumer et basculent dans la précarité au premier imprévu. »

Handle On imagine and sous les traits de
On imagine = We picture or People imagine. sous les traits de is a fixed expression meaning in the guise of or as: We picture the poor as the homeless man. Do not translate traits as features here.
Recognise Or as a connector
Or at the start of a sentence is not gold and not or: it is an argumentative connector meaning yet, but in fact, now. Mistranslating it destroys the logic of the passage - and it is a classic ten-mark discriminator.
Find the idioms
enchaîner les contrats courts = to go from one short contract to the next. avoir du mal à = to struggle to. assumer un loyer = to keep up with the rent. basculer dans = to tip over into.
Handle au premier imprévu
un imprévu is an unforeseen event; au premier imprévu = at the first setback or the moment anything unexpected happens. The definite article plus premier is idiomatic French for the first time that happens.
Check the pronoun chain
elles refers to les personnes en difficulté (feminine plural), so English uses they. The feminine plural is grammatical gender, not a statement that these people are women - a point worth checking so you do not mistranslate.

Result: We picture the poor as the homeless man on the street. Yet the majority of people in difficulty are in work: they go from one short contract to the next, pay a rent they struggle to keep up with, and tip over into precarity at the first setback.

Typical mistakes

Treating all marginalised people as homeless; the largest groups are in work or in housing but precarious.
Translating être à la rue as to be in the street - it means to be homeless.

Active revision

Expliquez en français, en 100 mots, la différence entre pauvreté, précarité et exclusion, en montrant comment on passe de l'une à l'autre.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - subject content (AQA) · GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages (Department for Education)

What help exists: quelle aide pour les marginalisés ?#

AdvancedAQA 7652 3.1.2 - Quelle vie pour les marginalisés ? : quelle aide pour les marginalisés ?DfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

French help comes in two layers that must be kept distinct. L'aide publique is state and local-authority provision, funded by taxation and delivered as rights. L'aide associative comes from the voluntary sector and depends on donations, volunteers and public grants. The relation between them is the analytical question of the section: associations often reach people the administration cannot, but they also absorb needs the state has failed to meet. The French formulation is: les associations pallient les défaillances de l'État autant qu'elles le complètent - associations make up for the state's failings as much as they complement it.

The public machinery is nameable and precise. Le RSA - le revenu de solidarité active, created in 2009 to replace the earlier RMI - is the basic income floor for adults with little or no income. L'AAH is the allowance for disabled adults. Access to healthcare is organised so that everyone lawfully resident has cover, under the protection universelle maladie that replaced the earlier CMU in 2016. Le 115 is the free emergency social helpline, and le Samu social, created in 1993 by the doctor Xavier Emmanuelli, sends teams out to people sleeping rough. Les CHRS - centres d'hébergement et de réinsertion sociale - provide accommodation with support towards reintegration. Le DALO, from the law of 5 March 2007, makes the right to housing enforceable against the state. La trêve hivernale suspends evictions from 1 November to 31 March.

The associative layer works alongside it: les Restos du Coeur for food aid, Emmaüs for shelter combined with work, the Fondation Abbé Pierre for housing advocacy, le Secours populaire and le Secours catholique for general assistance, la Croix-Rouge for emergency response, and countless small local associations. The actions to learn are: distribuer des repas, faire une maraude, tenir une permanence (running a drop-in session), accompagner dans les démarches, héberger, orienter vers un service. The word to avoid is la charité, which in this context sounds condescending; the sector calls what it does la solidarité.

Why does help fail to reach people? This is the question that separates band-three answers from band-five ones, and French has precise vocabulary for it. Le non-recours aux droits - people not claiming what they are entitled to - is the central concept, and its causes are nameable: la complexité administrative, la honte or le sentiment de stigmatisation, l'illectronisme now that so many procedures are online, la méconnaissance des dispositifs, and la peur du contrôle. Add the saturation of provision: les places d'hébergement sont insuffisantes, le 115 est saturé. A high-value sentence: le problème n'est pas seulement l'insuffisance des dispositifs, mais le fait qu'une partie de ceux qui y ont droit n'y recourent pas.

Worked example

Proposing solutions in French: the conditional and the impersonal

Write a short proposal in French on improving access to help for people sleeping rough, using the structures French actually uses for recommendations.

Avoid the flat il faut
il faut is correct but monotonous. The alternatives, in rising order of sophistication: il faudrait + infinitive (conditional, softer), il conviendrait de + infinitive, il serait souhaitable que + subjonctif, on gagnerait à + infinitive, rien n'empêcherait de + infinitive.
Build one sentence with each
Il faudrait multiplier les maraudes en hiver. Il conviendrait de simplifier les démarches administratives. Il serait souhaitable que chaque personne accueillie puisse bénéficier d'un référent unique. On gagnerait à rapprocher les services sociaux des lieux de vie.
Add a conditional consequence
Si les démarches étaient simplifiées, le non-recours reculerait sensiblement. This is the type-two si-clause: si + imparfait in the condition, conditionnel présent in the consequence. Never conditional after si.
Add a concession so it is not naive
Certes, toutes ces mesures ont un coût ; néanmoins, l'inaction en a un également, souvent supérieur. Naming the objection and answering it is what a critical response means.
Close with a hierarchy, not a list
La priorité, à mes yeux, n'est pas de créer de nouveaux dispositifs mais de faire connaître ceux qui existent. Choosing between your own proposals is the clearest signal of judgement.

Result: Il faudrait d'abord multiplier les maraudes en hiver et il conviendrait de simplifier les démarches administratives. Il serait souhaitable que chaque personne accueillie puisse bénéficier d'un référent unique, et l'on gagnerait à rapprocher les services sociaux des lieux de vie. Si les démarches étaient simplifiées, le non-recours reculerait sensiblement. Certes, toutes ces mesures ont un coût ; néanmoins, l'inaction en a un également, souvent supérieur. La priorité, à mes yeux, n'est donc pas de créer de nouveaux dispositifs mais de faire connaître ceux qui existent déjà.

Typical mistakes

Describing France as having little social provision; the French system is extensive, and the interesting question is why it does not reach everyone.
Confusing le RSA (an income floor) with le SMIC (the minimum wage) - a factual error that undermines the whole answer.

Active revision

Rédigez 120 mots en français expliquant pourquoi une partie des personnes éligibles ne demande pas les aides auxquelles elle a droit, et proposez deux remèdes.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - subject content (AQA)

Attitudes: quelles attitudes envers les marginalisés ?#

StandardAQA 7652 3.1.2 - Quelle vie pour les marginalisés ? : quelles attitudes envers les marginalisés ?DfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Attitudes range across a spectrum, and naming the whole spectrum in French is what the strand asks for. At one end: la solidarité, la compassion, l'empathie, l'engagement. In the middle, and most common: l'indifférence, l'habitude, le détournement du regard - the small, everyday act of looking away, for which French has the exact phrase détourner le regard. At the other end: la méfiance, le rejet, la stigmatisation, l'hostilité, and the accusation of assistanat - the claim that recipients are living off benefits by choice. Being able to voice each position in French without endorsing it is a skill the card discussion directly rewards.

The stigmatising discourse has recognisable French formulations you should be able to identify and answer: ils n'ont qu'à travailler, ils profitent du système, on ne peut pas accueillir toute la misère du monde. The counter-arguments are equally standard: most benefit recipients are in or seeking work; le non-recours is far more common than fraud; and precarity results from structural factors - le coût du logement, la précarisation du marché du travail, les ruptures familiales, les problèmes de santé - rather than individual choice. Notice that answering a stigmatising claim with evidence, in French, is exactly the AO4 skill of responding critically.

Attitudes have physical consequences that make excellent concrete material. Le mobilier urbain anti-SDF - benches divided by armrests, spikes or sloped surfaces designed to prevent sleeping - is regularly denounced in French media as l'architecture hostile or le mobilier anti-sans-abri, and it is a vivid, verifiable example of how attitudes are built into a city. On the other side, initiatives such as les bains-douches municipaux, les boîtes à dons, les frigos solidaires and les épiceries solidaires embody the opposite attitude. Naming one example of each is worth more than a paragraph of adjectives.

The most sophisticated move available is to point out that attitudes and policy reinforce one another. If public discourse frames poverty as a personal failing, provision becomes conditional and controlling; if it frames it as a social risk, provision becomes a right. French has the terms for this: une logique d'assistance versus une logique de droits; le contrôle versus l'accompagnement. Say it as: la manière dont une société parle de ses pauvres détermine la manière dont elle les traite. That single sentence, delivered in the speaking test, demonstrates critical thinking rather than reporting.

Worked example

Refuting a stigmatising claim in the speaking test

The examiner puts the provocation: « Certains disent que les gens à la rue ont choisi cette vie. Qu'en pensez-vous ? » Build a controlled 40-second reply.

Acknowledge before refuting
Il est vrai qu'une minorité refuse l'hébergement proposé. Conceding a grain of truth prevents the answer from sounding like a slogan and is credited as critical response.
Explain the concession away
Mais ce refus s'explique : les centres imposent parfois de se séparer de son chien, de son conjoint ou de ses affaires. This is the analytical move - the apparent choice has a cause.
Give the structural counter
Surtout, la plupart des personnes à la rue y sont arrivées à la suite d'une rupture : perte d'emploi, séparation, problème de santé. On ne choisit pas une rupture. Note the compact y sont arrivées and the impersonal on.
Add the administrative fact
Enfin, le nombre de places d'hébergement reste insuffisant, et le 115 est régulièrement saturé : parler de choix suppose qu'il existe une alternative. This is the strongest single point - choice presupposes an alternative.
Close with a judgement
Je considère donc que cette idée de choix relève d'un préjugé commode, qui dispense de s'interroger sur les causes. relever de means to be a matter of, and un préjugé commode - a convenient prejudice - is precise and forceful without being aggressive.

Result: Il est vrai qu'une minorité refuse l'hébergement proposé. Mais ce refus s'explique : les centres imposent parfois de se séparer de son chien, de son conjoint ou de ses affaires. Surtout, la plupart des personnes à la rue y sont arrivées à la suite d'une rupture - perte d'emploi, séparation, problème de santé - et l'on ne choisit pas une rupture. Enfin, le nombre de places reste insuffisant et le 115 est régulièrement saturé : parler de choix suppose qu'il existe une alternative. Je considère donc que cette idée relève d'un préjugé commode, qui dispense de s'interroger sur les causes réelles.

Typical mistakes

Writing only about compassion, so the answer has nothing to argue against.
Using les SDF as a noun for people in every sentence; vary with les personnes sans domicile fixe, les personnes à la rue, les personnes accueillies.

Active revision

Formulez en français trois arguments stigmatisants couramment entendus, puis réfutez chacun en une phrase appuyée sur un fait ou un mécanisme.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - subject content (AQA)

Le lexique et les tournures: precarity, exclusion and solidarity#

StandardAQA 7652 3.1.2 - Quelle vie pour les marginalisés ?AQA 7652 3.3 Grammar

The field in blocks. Les états: la pauvreté, la précarité, l'exclusion, la misère, le dénuement, l'isolement, la solitude, la marginalisation, le mal-logement, le surendettement. Les personnes: les sans-abri, les SDF, les mal-logés, les sans-papiers, les demandeurs d'asile, les chômeurs de longue durée, les travailleurs pauvres, les personnes en situation de handicap, les invisibles. Les dispositifs: le RSA, l'AAH, l'aide au logement, l'hébergement d'urgence, le 115, les CHRS, la trêve hivernale, le DALO, une maraude, une épicerie solidaire. Les verbes: basculer dans, sombrer dans, s'enfoncer dans, se retrouver à la rue, joindre les deux bouts (to make ends meet), s'en sortir (to get out of it), rebondir, se reconstruire.

The grammar this sub-theme demands most is the language of cause and consequence, because everything here is about mechanisms. Cause: à la suite de, en raison de, du fait de, faute de (for want of - faute de logement abordable), à force de. Consequence: si bien que, de sorte que, au point que, ce qui explique que + subjonctif, d'où (hence - d'où l'importance des maraudes). Aggravation: s'aggraver, se dégrader, s'accumuler, se cumuler. A model sentence: Faute de logement abordable, des ménages qui travaillent basculent dans la précarité, si bien que le profil des personnes accueillies s'est profondément modifié.

The passive and its French alternatives matter here more than anywhere, because social-policy French is full of agentless statements. AQA requires the passive in all tenses at A-level. Learn the three routes: the true passive, des places d'hébergement ont été créées ; the impersonal on, on a créé des places d'hébergement ; and the pronominal passive, les places se créent lentement. French prefers the second and third in speech and the first in institutional writing, so match your choice to the register of the task.

Register warnings specific to this sub-theme. Avoid les clochards, which is dated and pejorative; avoid les handicapés in favour of les personnes en situation de handicap; avoid la charité in favour of la solidarité; and be careful with les pauvres as a noun, which is acceptable in general statements (la pauvreté touche les plus pauvres) but blunt as a label. Conversely, some technical terms make you sound informed at no cost: un dispositif (a scheme), un référent (a named caseworker), l'accompagnement, l'insertion, la réinsertion, le droit commun (ordinary services, as opposed to emergency provision).

Worked example

Three ways to say the same institutional sentence

Express the idea Emergency shelter places have been created this winter in three different French registers, and say when each is appropriate.

The true passive
Des places d'hébergement d'urgence ont été créées cet hiver. Note the double agreement: créées agrees with places (feminine plural) because the auxiliary is être. This is the register of an official report or a press article - and exactly what a reading text will use.
The on construction
On a créé des places d'hébergement d'urgence cet hiver. Here the participle does not agree, because the auxiliary is avoir and the direct object follows. This is the natural spoken register and the safest choice in the speaking test.
The pronominal passive
Des places d'hébergement se sont créées cet hiver. This suggests a process rather than a decision, and is slightly more literary. Use it when you want to background the actor entirely.
Add an agent if you need one
French dislikes a heavy agent phrase. Des places ont été créées par l'État is acceptable but stiff; L'État a créé des places is better French. If you know the agent, prefer the active.
Check the tense range
AQA requires the passive in all tenses at A-level. Rehearse: les places sont créées, étaient créées, ont été créées, avaient été créées, seront créées, seraient créées. Being able to produce the future and conditional passive on demand is a genuine A-level discriminator.

Result: Passive: Des places d'hébergement d'urgence ont été créées cet hiver (institutional register, note the agreement créées). With on: On a créé des places d'hébergement d'urgence cet hiver (spoken register, no agreement). Pronominal: Des places se sont créées cet hiver (process reading). Prefer the active if you know the agent: L'État a créé des places.

Typical mistakes

Writing les clochards or les handicapés - both are dated and will read as insensitive as well as inaccurate.
Overusing the true passive in speech, where French would use on or a pronominal verb.

Active revision

Réécrivez cinq phrases actives sur les dispositifs sociaux de trois façons : au passif, avec « on », et avec un verbe pronominal passif.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - grammar (AQA)

En épreuve: sensitive material, precise French#

AdvancedAQA 7652 4.4 Paper 1 - Listening, reading and writingAQA 7652 4.6 Paper 3 - Speaking, part one

Listening material on this sub-theme is often first-person testimony, sometimes with more than one speaker, and it carries emotional content that comprehension questions target directly. Two habits protect your marks. First, distinguish fact from feeling in your answer: if the question asks ce que le locuteur ressent, an answer describing what happened to him scores nothing. Second, listen for understatement, which French testimony uses heavily - ce n'est pas facile, on fait avec, on s'habitue - and which usually signals more distress than the words themselves state. Rendering that in an answer as il minimise ses difficultés is exactly the inference the question wants.

Reading texts are more likely to be institutional or journalistic and to carry figures. You are not required to memorise French statistics, and you must never invent them, but you must be able to read them: un ménage sur cinq, une hausse de trois points, la moitié des bénéficiaires, plus d'un tiers. Learn the constructions - un(e) ... sur ..., une hausse or une baisse de ... points, la part de, le taux de. In your own answers, prefer the safe formulations that carry meaning without a number: une part croissante, une minorité, la plupart, la majorité.

In translation, this sub-theme has a predictable vocabulary set: homeless = sans-abri or sans domicile fixe; to make ends meet = joindre les deux bouts; benefits = les aides sociales or les prestations sociales; a shelter = un hébergement or un foyer; to be entitled to = avoir droit à (note à, and note that avoir le droit de means to be allowed to - a distinction examiners love); to apply for = faire une demande de or demander; a caseworker = un travailleur social. The avoir droit à / avoir le droit de pair is worth memorising as a unit.

For the card, the danger is tone. This sub-theme invites either sentimentality or, worse, a careless formulation that reads as contemptuous. The protection is to stay institutional and analytical: talk about les dispositifs, le non-recours, l'hébergement d'urgence, l'accompagnement, and attribute harsh views rather than voicing them - certains considèrent que..., ce que je nuancerais en rappelant que... Prepare two questions for the examiner that fit this card: Pensez-vous que la solidarité relève d'abord de l'État ou des associations ? and Existe-t-il, selon vous, une différence entre la situation française et la situation britannique ?

Worked example

Separating fact from feeling in a testimony answer

A speaker says: « J'ai perdu mon emploi en mars. Bon, ça arrive, hein. Après, le loyer, il faut bien le payer... On s'arrange, quoi. » Two questions: (a) Qu'est-il arrivé au locuteur ? (b) Quelle est son attitude face à sa situation ?

Answer (a) with events only
Il a perdu son emploi au mois de mars et éprouve des difficultés à payer son loyer. Nothing about attitude belongs in this answer; adding it risks the irrelevant-material penalty.
Identify the attitude markers for (b)
Bon, ça arrive, hein and On s'arrange, quoi are fillers and understatements. AQA's grammar list explicitly includes fillers such as alors, bon - they are there to be recognised. They signal resignation and a refusal to dramatise.
Note the impersonal on
On s'arrange rather than je m'arrange distances the speaker from his own difficulty. That grammatical choice is itself evidence of attitude, and saying so shows genuine linguistic reading.
Write (b) in the language of attitude
Il minimise ses difficultés et adopte un ton résigné : il présente sa situation comme banale et évite de se plaindre. Use verbs of attitude - minimiser, dédramatiser, se résigner, relativiser.
Check you have not padded
Give only what each question asks. AQA is explicit that irrelevant material forfeits the content mark even when the rest of the answer is right.

Result: (a) Il a perdu son emploi en mars et peine désormais à payer son loyer. (b) Il minimise ses difficultés : les tournures impersonnelles (« on s'arrange ») et les formules banalisantes (« ça arrive ») traduisent une attitude résignée et un refus de se plaindre.

Typical mistakes

Confusing avoir droit à (to be entitled to) with avoir le droit de (to be allowed to).
Inventing statistics to sound authoritative; a wrong figure is worse than no figure, and the safe quantifiers carry the same argumentative weight.

Active revision

Écoutez ou lisez un témoignage francophone sur la précarité. Rédigez ensuite deux réponses : une qui décrit les faits, une qui décrit les sentiments exprimés, en veillant à ne pas mélanger les deux.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - scheme of assessment (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Life for the marginalised

5 sections~24 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 3 · Advanced 2

Life for the marginalised

Key points

Translation into English: a passage on precarity

Key points

Proposing solutions in French: the conditional and the impersonal

Key points

Refuting a stigmatising claim in the speaking test

Key points

Three ways to say the same institutional sentence

Key points

Separating fact from feeling in a testimony answer

Sources

Life for the marginalised

Key points

Translation into English: a passage on precarity

Key points

Proposing solutions in French: the conditional and the impersonal

Key points

Refuting a stigmatising claim in the speaking test

Key points

Three ways to say the same institutional sentence

Key points

Separating fact from feeling in a testimony answer

Sources