CESS & Examen d'entrée (Belgium) · French Language and Literature

Belgian Francophone Literature, Advanced Syntax, and Stylistics

45 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

Practise Belgian Francophone Literature, Advanced Syntax, and Stylistics now

Random questions from this topic, one at a time. You see the answer and the explanation straight after each one.

All 45 questions

  1. Which Belgian playwright and essayist won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, notably for symbolist masterworks such as Pelléas et Mélisande?
  2. In the sentence 'Les lettres que nous avons ______ hier sont importantes', which spelling of the past participle of écrire is grammatically correct?
  3. Which rhetorical figure of speech is demonstrated by the famous phrase from Corneille's Le Cid, 'Va, je ne te hais point' ('Go, I do not hate you at all')?
  4. Which prolific Liège-born author created the famous pipe-smoking Parisian police detective Jules Maigret?
  5. Which subordinating conjunction systematically requires the subjunctive mood in the subordinate clause?
  6. In Belgian French, which numerical terms are standardly used in place of standard Parisian 'soixante-dix' (70) and 'quatre-vingt-dix' (90)?
  7. Which Belgian symbolist poet wrote the seminal collections 'Les Campagnes hallucinées' (1893) and 'Les Villes tentaculaires' (1895)?
  8. In the sentence 'Elles se sont ______ les mains avant le repas', what is the grammatically correct past participle form of laver?
  9. Which Brussels-born author of 'Mémoires d'Hadrien' and 'L'Œuvre au noir' became the first woman elected to the Académie française in 1980?
  10. In classical French versification, what is the structure of a standard 'alexandrin' verse?
  11. Which Namur-born writer, poet, and painter explored inner imaginary realms through prose poems centered on the fictional character Plume?
  12. Which 1867 masterpiece by Charles De Coster is considered the founding epic of modern Belgian Francophone literature?
  13. Which figure of speech is defined by an ABBA syntactic or semantic cross-inversion, as in 'Il faut manger pour vivre et non vivre pour manger'?
  14. In informal Belgian French, how is the verb 'savoir' frequently used in place of standard 'pouvoir'?
  15. Which 1892 symbolist novel by Georges Rodenbach is renowned for integrating photographic illustrations of urban canals into the narrative fabric?
  16. Which verbal combination correctly completes the hypothetical statement: 'Si nous ______ le temps, nous ferions le tour de Gand'?
  17. Which autobiographical novel by contemporary Belgian author Amélie Nothomb satirizes corporate hierarchy and cultural clash in a Japanese corporation?
  18. Which rhetorical figure is illustrated by juxtaposing two contradictory words in the same phrase, such as 'cette obscure clarté'?
  19. Which sentence correctly uses the indicative mood because it expresses affirmative certainty?
  20. In Belgian French student life, what does the colloquial noun 'kot' designate?
  21. What is the rhyme scheme designated by 'rimes croisées' (alternate rhymes) in French poetry?
  22. In the sentence 'Ces maisons, la commune les a ______ démolir', which form of the past participle of faire is correct?
  23. Which 20th-century Brussels playwright became famous internationally for grotesque, medieval-tinged theatrical works such as 'Escurial' and 'Fastes d'Enfer'?
  24. In declarative sentences, what is the correct relative ordering of the indirect pronoun 'lui' and the direct pronoun 'le'?
  25. What poetic device consists of repeating the identical word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences or verses?
  26. In Belgian everyday parlance, what weather phenomenon is commonly referred to as 'une drache'?
  27. In narratology, what is 'focalisation zéro' (zero focalization)?
  28. Which Ghent-born Belgian essayist and playwright, mother of Françoise Mallet-Joris, wrote the psychological drama 'Le Burlador' and the philosophical work 'Le Couple'?
  29. Which grammatical marker formally distinguishes a French gérondif from a simple participe présent?
  30. What everyday technological device is standardly called a 'GSM' in Belgian French, where hexagonal French speakers would say 'un portable' or 'un mobile'?
  31. Which mood is required after verbs of thinking or believing (e.g., penser, croire) when they are used in the negative form in standard French?
  32. Which Ghent-born bilingual Belgian author wrote the fantastical gothic masterpiece 'Malpertuis' (1943) under the pseudonym Jean Ray?
  33. In the phrase 'deux heures et ______', what is the correct spelling and agreement of demi?
  34. Which rhetorical trope is illustrated by using 'le Palais de Justice' or 'Bruxelles' to denote the administrative power or government residing there?
  35. In Wallonia and Brussels, what public municipal structure is referred to as 'une aubette'?
  36. In versification, what is the term for carrying the syntactic sense of a line over into the subsequent verse without a rhythmic pause at the line break?
  37. Which idiomatic phrase is characteristically Belgian where standard French would use 'avoir du mal à'?
  38. Which Belgian playwright wrote the celebrated 1921 tragicomedy 'Le Cocu magnifique' (The Magnificent Cuckold)?
  39. In traditional standard French orthography, what is the plural form of the compound noun 'un gratte-ciel' (skyscraper)?
  40. What poetic pronunciation rule counts two consecutive vowels as two separate metrical syllables rather than a single diphthong?
  41. In Belgian French, what specific time of day does the adverb 'à tantôt' typically refer to?
  42. In the sentence 'Elle a acheté des écharpes ______', which spelling of the compound color blue-green is correct?
  43. In Belgian household vocabulary, what everyday item is designated by 'un essuie de vaisselle'?
  44. Which Belgian psychoanalyst and novelist wrote acclaimed mythological retellings including 'Œdipe sur la route' (1990) and 'Antigone' (1997)?
  45. Which mood and conjunction pair is required to express an action prior to another in French syntax?

Keep practising

More CESS & Examen d'entrée (Belgium) topics

All CESS & Examen d'entrée (Belgium) practice →

Ready for the full CESS & Examen d'entrée (Belgium) test?

Take a mock testCESS & Examen d'entrée (Belgium) hub