Cambridge IGCSE French 0520/12 is the May/June 2026 Paper 1 (Listening), variant 2. It lasts about 50 minutes, including 6 minutes to transfer your answers, is worth 40 marks and is sat by every 0520 candidate. There were 37 questions on six recordings, each heard twice, and every answer is a letter. The hardest part was the last three questions, where you choose two true statements out of five for each. This guide gives the official answer to every question, explains what each section was about and shows where the distractors were. The paper, its mark scheme and the transcript are free on the Tutopiya Learning Portal.

For an overview of all four 0520 components from this series, see IGCSE French 0520 May/June 2026 past papers: what came up and how it was marked.

0520/12 at a glance

Questions	Format	Recording	Marks
1–8	Short remarks, choose one of four pictures (A–D)	Flying to Paris: airport, meal, drink, a fellow passenger and the weather	8
9–14	Announcement, choose one of four pictures (A–D)	Tourist information about Castel-en-Bessin	6
15–19	Conversation, match five gifts to six statements (A–F)	Choosing a 70th birthday present for Grandad Gaston	5
20–28	Interview in two parts, three options (A–C)	Adrien’s farm placement abroad	9
29–34	Interview, four options (A–D)	Gilles at the Salon des Jeunes Inventeurs	6
35–37	Interview, choose two of five statements (A–E)	Clara on snowshoeing in Quebec	6
	Total		40

Questions 1 to 34 score one mark each. Questions 35 to 37 score two marks each, one for each correct letter.

Answer key for every question

Question	What it tested	Answer
1	Departure gate number	B
2	Vegetarian meal	C
3	Drink offered	A
4	Lucie’s job	D
5	Lucie’s pet	C
6	Item on special offer	A
7	What Lucie likes doing in Paris	B
8	Weather in Paris	C
9	What the town has	D
10	Recommended local speciality	A
11	Saturday market	B
12	Summer club	C
13	Activity at the playground	D
14	Tourist office closing time	C
15	Balloon flight	F
16	Pastry workshop	D
17	Golf weekend	B
18	Diving	E
19	Football matches	A
20	Country of the placement	A
21	Why he chose that country	B
22	Why he could take part	C
23	His role on the farm	B
24	Type of farm	A
25	Why he liked living there	C
26	What the school’s money paid for	A
27	Most interesting moment	B
28	How the placement should change	B
29	Fact about Gilles	C
30	His childhood hobby	A
31	What the fair means to him	D
32	Purpose of his invention	B
33	His favourite part of inventing	C
34	His plans	B
35	Clara’s start in snowshoeing	C and D
36	What the sport does for her; her club	A and B
37	Safety and what she enjoys	B and D

Question-by-question walkthrough

Questions 1–8: a flight to Paris (8 marks)

Eight short announcements and remarks, each heard twice, with four pictures per question. The skill tested is catching one key word, and each item has only one fact in it.

• Gate (Question 1): gate 24, option B. The four options were all even numbers in the twenties, so you need the number itself, not just its range.
• Meal and drink (Questions 2 and 3): pasta for the vegetarian menu (C) and orange juice (A). The other drink options were a bottle of water and two takeaway cups.
• Lucie (Questions 4, 5 and 7): she is a singer (D), she has a dog (C) and she loves shopping in Paris (B).
• Special offer (Question 6): perfume (A), not the watch, the gift box or the earrings.
• Weather (Question 8): windy (C). The pilot also gives the arrival time first, so wait for the weather word.

Questions 9–14: Castel-en-Bessin (6 marks)

A tourist announcement with a pause in the middle. Each question gives a short sentence frame and four pictures.

• The town has a fine beach (Question 9, D), and the recommended speciality is apple tart (Question 10, A).
• The Saturday market sells flowers (Question 11, B). The announcement also mentions local produce and craftspeople, which could pull you towards a food picture.
• The summer club is sailing (Question 12, C), and the playground has a climbing wall (Question 13, D).
• Question 14 is a time question: the office opens every day from 10:00 to 18:30, and the question asks when it closes, so the answer is 18:30 (C). All four options started with 18, so only the minutes mattered.

Questions 15–19: a birthday present for Gaston (5 marks)

Alma and her brother discuss five gift ideas. You match each gift to one of six statements, and one statement (C, that Gaston would find the present boring) is not used. This is the first section where options are mentioned and then rejected, so you have to follow the reason, not just the topic.

Gift	Answer	Why
Balloon flight	F	His colleagues gave him one when he retired
Pastry workshop	D	Lunch is included
Golf weekend	B	With the hotel it would cost too much
Diving	E	He has always wanted to try it
Football matches	A	A gift card lets him invite a friend

The golf weekend carries two reasons against it: he has hardly played since breaking his wrist, and the price. Only the price matches a statement. The diving idea is dropped because their grandmother wouldn’t agree, but the statement that fits is that Gaston always wanted to try it.

Questions 20–28: Adrien’s farm placement (9 marks)

A two-part interview with three options per question. Almost every question has a distractor that is mentioned in the recording but does not answer the question.

• Question 20 (A, Belgium): a friend went to Ireland; Adrien went to Belgium.
• Question 21 (B): he had never been abroad, so he didn’t want to go far. His parents’ pleasure that it was a French-speaking country is a separate point.
• Question 22 (C): he is at an agricultural lycée. University students also take part, but that isn’t why he could.
• Question 23 (B): he worked alongside the farmer on every task except driving vehicles such as the tractor, so A is the trap.
• Question 24 (A): the farm raises cows and sheep. The organic vegetables belong to a different farmer Adrien knows in France.
• Question 25 (C): the farmer’s wife cooked him good meals. The couple have no children, which rules out B.
• Question 26 (A): the grant paid for his travel (and accommodation). The work clothes were lent by the farmer, not paid for.
• Question 27 (B): the night a lamb was born. The vet was only in a video he had watched with his teacher.
• Question 28 (B): two weeks was not long enough. He says there were plenty of activities, so C is wrong.

Questions 29–34: Gilles at the inventors’ fair (6 marks)

An interview with four options per question and a pause halfway.

• Question 29 (C): he has entered the competition. He came with his class last year; this year he is with his parents, and he is in the 16 to 18 category, so A and D don’t fit.
• Question 30 (A): as a child he built small wooden boats. His grandfather was a carpenter, not a gardener.
• Question 31 (D): the fair lets him talk to other young people who share his passion. The advice he received came from a student, not from professionals.
• Question 32 (B): he made a smart rucksack to prevent back pain, so its aim is health. He says he did not choose protecting the planet, and the light comes on when the bag is too heavy, which is not the same as the invention being heavy.
• Question 33 (C): his favourite part is thinking about a problem and finding a solution. He sometimes works in his office at night, but that isn’t what he likes most.
• Question 34 (B): he hopes to study computing at university. He says he won’t make money from his rucksack.

Questions 35–37: Clara and snowshoeing (6 marks)

Three groups of five statements, and you choose two true ones in each. There are two pauses in the recording, one after each group. This is the hardest section, because each wrong statement echoes something Clara says.

• Question 35 (C and D): she thinks so many people do it in Quebec because it is easy to learn, and a couple of friends introduced her to it. Wrong: she moved to Quebec only last year (A), she had never skied (B), and she says you don’t risk falling (E).
• Question 36 (A and B): snowshoeing taught her to enjoy winter, and it helps her breathing. Wrong: it needs no special fitness (C), her club has people of all ages (D), and they walk at their own pace rather than racing (E).
• Question 37 (B and D): she once got lost, and she loves the silent white landscapes. Wrong: she checks the weather online, not on the radio (A), she prefers trails that aren’t too hard (C), and she can’t imagine snowshoeing in Antarctica (E).

Where the marks are on 0520/12

• Picture questions (1–14) carried 14 marks. These rely on single words: numbers, food, jobs, animals, weather and times.
• Matching (15–19) carried 5 marks, with one spare statement.
• Three-option interview questions (20–28) carried 9 marks, the largest single section.
• Four-option interview questions (29–34) carried 6 marks.
• Choose-two statements (35–37) carried 6 marks, 15% of the paper from just three questions.
• That is 14 + 5 + 9 + 6 + 6 = 40. From Question 15 on (26 marks), the recordings regularly mention options that turn out to be wrong, so listening to the whole answer matters more than spotting a word.

How to self-mark 0520/12 with the mark scheme

1. Mark one letter per mark. Questions 1 to 34 are one letter each. For 35 to 37, the scheme lists two letters (for example, C / D) and two marks, so score one for each correct letter.
2. Check your shading, not just your ticks. The paper says to shade one letter for Questions 1 to 34 and two for 35 to 37. Practise the transfer, because a correct tick that is shaded wrongly on the answer sheet doesn’t count.
3. Read the transcript only after marking. For each wrong answer, find the sentence that gave the right one and the words that pulled you to the wrong one.
4. Sort your errors. Was it vocabulary you didn’t know (a number, a job, a type of farm), a distractor (an option mentioned but rejected), or a misread question (such as closing time versus opening time)?
5. Replay the sections you lost most marks on, without the transcript, until you can follow each speaker’s reasoning first time.

Sit 0520/12 as a timed mock

The recording sets the pace: you can’t pause it, and it includes the reading time before each section, the pauses and every repeat. Play the full audio from start to finish and treat the times below as a rough guide to how the 50 minutes are used.

Block	Questions	Time (approximate)
Flight to Paris	1–8	8 minutes
Castel-en-Bessin	9–14	5 minutes
Birthday present	15–19	5 minutes
Adrien’s farm placement	20–28	9 minutes
Gilles at the inventors’ fair	29–34	8 minutes
Clara and snowshoeing	35–37	9 minutes
Transfer answers to the answer sheet	–	6 minutes

Use the reading time before each section to underline the key difference between options, such as a time, a place or a negative. On the first hearing, cross out options you hear ruled out; use the second hearing to confirm.

Other May/June 2026 0520 papers

• 0520 Paper 22 (Reading)
• 0520 Paper 42 (Writing)

Practise and download

• Download 0520/12, its mark scheme and the transcript on the Learning Portal →
• All 0520 May/June 2026 papers: overview and marking patterns
• Try a free IGCSE French quiz

Need help with a 0520 topic? Book a free trial lesson with an IGCSE French tutor →

Frequently asked questions

What came up on 0520 Paper 12 Listening May/June 2026? +

Six sections: short remarks on a flight to Paris, a tourist announcement about the seaside town of Castel-en-Bessin, a brother and sister choosing a 70th birthday present for their grandfather, an interview with Adrien about a farm placement, an interview with Gilles at a young inventors' fair, and an interview with Clara about snowshoeing in Quebec.

How many marks is 0520/12 and how long is it? +

It is out of 40 marks and lasts about 50 minutes, including 6 minutes at the end to transfer your answers to the multiple choice answer sheet. There are 37 questions and you hear every recording twice.

Why are there 37 questions but 40 marks on 0520/12? +

Questions 1 to 34 are worth one mark each. Questions 35 to 37 each ask you to choose two correct statements out of five, and each is worth two marks, one per correct letter. That gives 34 + 6 = 40.

What were the answers to 0520/12 Questions 35 to 37? +

Question 35 was C and D, Question 36 was A and B, and Question 37 was B and D, according to the official mark scheme.

Do I write answers in French on 0520 Paper 1? +

No. Every answer is a letter. You tick boxes or write letters on the question paper while you listen, then shade them on the answer sheet in the 6-minute transfer time: one letter for Questions 1 to 34 and two letters for Questions 35 to 37.

Where can I download 0520/12 May/June 2026, the mark scheme and the transcript? +

The question paper, mark scheme and listening transcript are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal, on the Cambridge IGCSE French 0520 past papers page.

Ready to Excel in Your Studies?

Get personalised help from Tutopiya's expert tutors. Whether it's IGCSE, IB, A-Levels, or any other curriculum — we match you with the perfect tutor and your first session is free.

Book Your Free Trial