Write a Diary... Notes | Leaving Cert French

The diary entry (le journal intime) is one of the most predictable Section II options on the Leaving Certificate Higher Level French paper, and the one you can prepare most of in advance. Written Production makes up 25% of your total Higher Level grade. In Section II, you first answer a compulsory 40-mark question (about 90 words), and then you choose two 30-mark questions (each about 75 words). The journal intime usually appears as an option alongside a letter or email in the first of these 30-mark slots. Unlike a formal letter, the diary has no separate marks for the opening and closing formulas; the date, salutation, and sign-off are marked inside the 15 Communication marks as part of register and layout. The remaining 15 marks evaluate Language, where your verbs carry the greatest weight. This guide breaks down the structure, tense sequencing, scenario vocabulary, and grammatical checkpoints needed to write a top-scoring entry of 75–90 words.

Layout Conventions and Word Budget

A diary entry requires three framing bookends. Getting them right signals the correct register immediately and protects your 15 Communication marks.

The Three Framing Bookends

The Date: Write the date at the top right or left. Use the masculine definite article, a cardinal number, and a lower-case month: Le 18 mai or Samedi 14 octobre. Never add English-style ordinal endings like 18ème. The only ordinal permitted is the first of the month: Le 1er mai.
The Salutation: Address the diary directly as an intimate friend: Cher journal, (always masculine with a capital C and a comma). Never write Chère journal.
The Sign-off: Give a natural reason for closing, then say goodnight: Allez, il est minuit et je tombe de fatigue. À demain, cher journal ! or Bonne nuit, cher journal.

A diary is private self-communion. Never sign your own name, an invented name, or a letter valediction like Amitiés or Grosses bises. Signing your name makes the entry read like a letter and loses layout credit.

Direct Diary Hooks

Bring an authentic, confiding voice to line one by speaking directly to the diary using informal tu:

Tu ne vas jamais me croire ! (You will never believe me!)
Je dois absolument te raconter ce qui s'est passé. (I simply have to tell you what happened.)
Si tu savais quelle journée je viens de passer... (If you only knew the kind of day I've just had...)

The Four-Step Word Budget (75–90 Words)

Beginners often run out of time or make avoidable errors because they write too much. Stick to this word budget:

Hook (8–10 words): An exclamation and emotional opening (Cher journal, quelle journée cauchemardesque ! Je suis anéantie.).
Events and Reactions (35–40 words): Recount two or three key moments in order, attaching a visceral feeling to each one.
Maturity and Reflection (15–20 words): Step back to look at what the day taught you, using En y repensant... or Avec le recul....
Tomorrow and Sign-off (12–15 words): State a concrete intention for tomorrow and close (Demain, j'irai lui parler. Bonne nuit, cher journal !).

Getting the Tenses Right: Four Timeframes in One Entry

Do not write the whole piece in one tense. A strong entry weaves together four primary timeframes, with a fifth available for deeper past narrative.

Tense	Narrative Role	Example Sentence	English Gloss
Passé composé	Specific, completed actions that advance the story	Ce matin, j'ai reçu un appel inattendu.	This morning, I received an unexpected phone call.
Imparfait	Background setting, weather, ongoing emotions, physical states	Il pleuvait des cordes et mon cœur battait à tout rompre.	It was pouring rain and my heart was beating wildly.
Présent	Your emotional and physical state right now at your desk	Maintenant, assis dans ma chambre, je me sens soulagé.	Now, sitting in my room, I feel relieved.
Futur simple / proche	Hopes, decisions, and immediate plans for tomorrow	Demain, j'irai lui présenter mes excuses.	Tomorrow, I will go apologise to him/her.
Plus-que-parfait (bonus tense)	An action that happened prior to another past event	J'avais oublié mes clés dans ma chambre.	I had forgotten my keys in my room.

Verbs with Être and Participle Agreements

Movement verbs (aller, venir, entrer, sortir, arriver, partir, monter, descendre, tomber, naître, mourir, rester, retourner) and all reflexive verbs take être in compound tenses.

Do not write fatigué(e) or furieux(se) on your script. A hedged ending shows you are dodging the agreement rather than demonstrating it, and it makes the piece look like a grammar exercise. Decide in line one whether your persona is male or female, and keep every adjective and être participle consistent.

Reflexive verbs agree with the grammatical subject, but with one critical rule: if a direct object follows the verb, the past participle does not agree.

Elle s'est lavée. (She washed. Agreement with subject elle.)
Elle s'est lavé les mains. (She washed her hands. No agreement, because les mains is a direct object following the verb.)
Je me suis rendu compte que... (Fixed idiom: no agreement on rendu because compte functions as the direct object.)

Also remember that monter, descendre, sortir, and passer take avoir when followed by a direct object: J'ai descendu l'escalier (I went down the stairs).

Sequencing Connectives and Negative Structures

Every diary prompt requires you to tell a short story. Using time markers ensures your sequence of events is easy to follow, which directly addresses the Communication criteria.

Sequencing and Time Markers

Learn six and use four in your entry:

Ce matin / Cet après-midi / Ce soir (This morning / this afternoon / this evening)
Vers dix heures (At about ten o'clock)
D'abord (First of all)
Puis / Ensuite (Then / next)
Tout à coup / Soudain (Suddenly)
Au bout de dix minutes (After ten minutes)
Pendant que j'attendais... (While I was waiting...)
Finalement / Enfin (Finally / in the end)
Il y a deux heures (Two hours ago)

For example: D'abord, tout allait bien. Puis, vers vingt heures, tout à coup, la pluie a commencé. Au bout d'une heure, la tente était inondée. Finalement, nous avons dormi dans la voiture. (First, everything was fine. Then, at about 8 p.m., suddenly the rain started. After an hour, the tent was flooded. In the end, we slept in the car.)

Negatives in the Passé Composé

In simple tenses, the two negative parts wrap around the verb (Je ne comprends rien). In the passé composé, the negative wraps around the auxiliary, not the past participle:

Je n'ai rien mangé. (I ate nothing.)
Je n'ai jamais eu aussi peur. (I have never been so frightened.)
Je n'ai plus envie d'y retourner. (I no longer want to go back there.)
Personne ne m'a écouté. (Nobody listened to me.)
Je ne lui ai pas encore parlé. (I have not spoken to him/her yet.)

Two exceptions put the second word after the past participle: ne ... personne and ne ... que (Je n'ai vu personne = I saw nobody; Je n'ai dormi que deux heures = I only slept two hours).

Upgrading Emotion and Advanced Syntax

The assessment criteria reward the range of vocabulary and structures you use, as well as grammatical accuracy. Repeating content, triste, and mauvais keeps you in the middle Language band. Two or three vivid, correctly spelled idioms will lift your grade.

Vocabulary Upgrade Table

In these lists the (e) simply shows the feminine ending — on your script choose one persona and write the full form: ravie or ravi, never ravi(e).

Basic Phrase	Upgraded Expression	English Gloss
J'étais content(e)	J'étais aux anges / ravi(e)	I was over the moon / delighted
J'avais peur	J'avais la gorge nouée / J'étais mort(e) de trouille	I had a lump in my throat / scared to death
C'était mauvais	Quel cauchemar ! / Une catastrophe absolue	What a nightmare! / An absolute disaster
J'étais choqué(e)	Je n'en croyais pas mes yeux	I could not believe my eyes
J'étais triste	J'avais le cœur brisé	My heart was broken
J'étais gêné(e)	J'avais envie de disparaître sous terre	I wanted the ground to swallow me up

Complex Feelings with À la fois... et...

Show emotional maturity by pairing contrasting adjectives using à la fois... et... (both... and...):

En apprenant les résultats, j'étais à la fois folle de joie et morte de trouille. (Upon hearing the results, I was both overjoyed and scared to death.)
Je me sens à la fois soulagé d'avoir fini et déçu de ma note. (I feel both relieved to have finished and disappointed with my grade.)

High-Yield Sentence Builders

Après avoir / être + past participle: Après avoir raccroché, j'ai éclaté en sanglots (After hanging up, I burst into tears). Movement verbs take être and agree: Après être rentrée, je me suis couchée. (After getting home, I went to bed.)
Avant de + infinitive: Avant de répondre, j'ai pris une grande inspiration. (Before replying, I took a deep breath.)
En + present participle: The subject of both actions must be identical. Write En ouvrant la lettre, je tremblais de la tête aux pieds (Upon opening the letter, I was shaking from head to foot). Never write En ouvrant la lettre, mes mains tremblaient, because hands cannot open a letter.
Espérer que + indicative: After j'espère que, always use the indicative, usually the future simple: J'espère qu'il me pardonnera. Never use the subjunctive here.

Four Ready Scenario Kits

Examiners recycle predictable everyday settings. Learn the core nouns and verbs for these four scenarios so you are not struggling for basic content words under exam conditions.

In these lists the (e) simply shows the feminine ending — on your script choose one persona and write the full form: ravie or ravi, never ravi(e).

1. Meeting Someone Famous

un chanteur célèbre / une actrice connue (a famous singer / a well-known actress)
je l'ai croisé(e) dans la rue (I bumped into him/her in the street)
je n'osais pas l'aborder (I didn't dare approach him/her)
je lui ai demandé un autographe / un selfie (I asked him/her for an autograph / a selfie)
il/elle était très sympa et souriant(e) (he/she was very nice and smiling)
je bafouillais tellement j'étais ému(e) (I was stammering, I was so moved)

2. A Ruined Holiday or Camping Trip

un camping / un emplacement minable (a campsite / a dreadful pitch)
les installations étaient sales (the facilities were dirty)
les douches étaient glaciales (the showers were freezing)
la nourriture était infecte (the food was disgusting)
la tente prenait l'eau (the tent was leaking)
il a plu sans arrêt (it rained non-stop)

3. An Accident or Theft

un accident de la route (a road traffic accident)
on m'a volé mon portefeuille / mon portable (my wallet / mobile was stolen)
j'ai appelé les secours / la police (I called the emergency services / the police)
la voiture a dérapé sur la chaussée glissante (the car skidded on the slippery road)
heureusement, personne n'a été blessé (luckily, nobody was hurt)
je suis allé(e) au commissariat pour porter plainte (I went to the police station to make a report)

4. Exam Results, School, and Arguments at Home

les résultats / le bulletin scolaire (results / school report)
j'ai réussi / j'ai échoué à mon examen (I passed / I failed my exam)
une dispute orageuse (a stormy argument)
mes parents m'ont interdit de sortir (my parents forbade me from going out)
ils m'ont privé(e) de mon portable (they confiscated my phone)
le conseiller d'orientation m'a rassuré(e) (the guidance counsellor reassured me)

The 90-Second Final Proofreading Routine

When you have 90 seconds remaining, do not write another sentence. Re-reading to eliminate simple verb, agreement, and accent slips protects your 15 Language marks far more effectively than adding extra words.

High-Frequency Accent and Spelling Traps

Preposition vs. Verb: à (to / at) vs a (has from avoir). Leaving off the grave accent on à turns your preposition into a verb error.
Where vs. Or: où (where) vs ou (or).
Imperfect Verb Endings: Check j'étais and j'avais (they end in -s, not -t or vowels alone).
Common Accented Words: Check déçu (needs the cedilla ç), à la fois, après, and très. Misplaced or missing accents count as spelling errors.
Elision: Check c'était (never write cétait or ce était).

Key terms

Journal intime: A personal French diary entry written in an informal, first-person singular register, balancing past narration with spontaneous feelings and reflection.
Cher journal,: The standard opening salutation for a French diary entry; 'journal' is masculine, so 'cher' must never be written with a feminine 'e'.
Communication (15) / Language (15): The official 30-mark breakdown for Section II optional tasks: Communication evaluates prompt completion, format, and register; Language evaluates verbs, vocabulary, and grammar.
Passé composé: The past tense used to recount completed, chronological actions that move the narrative forward.
Imparfait: The past tense used for background description, weather, continuous actions, ongoing emotions, and physical sensations.
À la fois... et...: A correlative coordinating structure meaning 'both... and...', used to express mixed, contradictory emotions.
Après avoir / être + past participle: An advanced syntactic structure meaning 'after having done something', requiring agreement when used with être verbs.
En + present participle: A gérondif construction indicating simultaneous action ('while/upon doing'), which is grammatically valid only when sharing the main clause's subject.
Espérer que + indicative: A grammatical rule stating that affirmative espérer que requires the indicative mood (typically future simple), never the subjunctive.
Le recul: Detachment or hindsight; the mature reflection that distinguishes a reflective personal diary from a basic factual report.

Check yourself

What three layout conventions must be present in every Leaving Certificate French diary entry?
The date (e.g. 'Le 12 juin'), the salutation ('Cher journal,' with a comma), and a closing sign-off (e.g. 'À demain, cher journal !').
Where do the two parts of the negative sit in a compound tense like the passé composé with 'rien'?
They wrap around the auxiliary verb, not the past participle: 'Je n'ai rien mangé'.
How should a female student write 'Thinking back on it, I was both delighted and terrified' without slashes?
'En y repensant, j'étais à la fois ravie et morte de trouille.' (A male writer uses 'ravi et mort de trouille'. Never hedge with brackets on your script.)
Why is the sentence 'En ouvrant la lettre, mes larmes ont coulé' grammatically incorrect?
In an 'en + present participle' construction, the subject of the participle must be the subject of the main clause. Here the tears ('mes larmes') did not open the letter. It should be: 'En ouvrant la lettre, j'ai éclaté en sanglots'.
Which mood and tense follow 'J'espère que' when expressing hopes for tomorrow?
The indicative mood, typically the future simple: 'J'espère que tout ira bien demain.' Affirmative espérer never takes the subjunctive.
What is the recommended word target for an optional 30-mark Section II diary entry?
75 to 90 words. This allows complete coverage of all prompt points and emotional reflection without increasing your exposure to unnecessary grammar errors.

Write a Diary...