Cambridge IGCSE French 0520/42 is the May/June 2026 Paper 4 (Writing), variant 2. It lasts 1 hour, is worth 45 marks and is sat by every 0520 candidate. You answer three questions: a poster (5 marks), an 80 to 90 word piece on festivals (12 marks), and either an email or a blog of 130 to 140 words (28 marks). Question 3 alone is worth more than the other two together. This guide goes through each task and shows how the official mark scheme awarded marks. The paper and its mark scheme 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.

0520/42 at a glance

Question	Task	Length	How it is marked	Marks
1	Complete a poster for a neighbourhood holiday club	Single words or phrases	1 mark per gap	5
2	Les fêtes: five bullet points	80–90 words	One grid out of 12	12
3(a)	Email to a Belgian friend about a long walk	130–140 words	Three grids out of 28	28
3(b)	Blog about a problem during a hotel stay	130–140 words	Three grids out of 28	(28)
	Total (Questions 1, 2 and either 3(a) or 3(b))			45

The rubric is to answer Question 1, Question 2 and either 3(a) or 3(b). If you answer both parts of Question 3, the scheme takes the better mark, but you will have lost time.

Task-by-task walkthrough

Question 1: holiday club poster (5 marks)

You are organising activities for a holiday club in your neighbourhood and complete a poster in French. The age range, opening hours and price are printed; you fill five gaps.

Gap	What goes there	Accepted, for example	Refused
1	A second opening day, after the printed Tuesday	Any day, or “le week-end”	Words that aren’t a day
2	A place in the neighbourhood	A street address, “à côté de la gare”, “stade"	"Centre-ville” or the name of a town
3 and 4	Two activities	”Cuisiner”, “dessin”, “football”, “karaoké”	Words that aren’t an activity
5	Something to bring (the poster already says a drink)	“Crème solaire”, “chapeau”, “casse-croûte”, “argent”	Drinks such as “eau”; unsuitable items such as “buffet”

How it is marked: one mark per correct gap, for communication. Spelling slips are tolerated if the word still sounds or looks right to a French speaker, but not if it suggests a word with a different meaning. Singular and plural are both accepted, any spelling is accepted for a town, and answers count wherever you write them as long as it is clear which gap they belong to. Every answer must also make sense on this poster, which is why a town name fails the “in the neighbourhood” gap.

Advice: keep it to simple, safe words you can spell. The refused answers show the trap: the gap must fit its label, so re-read the left-hand column before you write.

Question 2: Les fêtes (12 marks)

Write 80 to 90 words in French covering five bullet points:

1. What you usually do on your birthday (present tense).
2. What presents you like to receive.
3. Details of a traditional festival in your country.
4. Whether you prefer to celebrate in town or at home, and why.
5. How you would like to celebrate next New Year (conditional or future).

How it is marked: one grid out of 12, marked best fit. In summary:

• 10–12: every task done in the required detail, consistently relevant information and opinions, clear meaning even with some slips, straightforward vocabulary and structures, and a range of simple connectors (and, or, but, because, then).
• 7–9: most tasks in the required detail, mostly relevant, meaning mostly clear, more limited language with some repetition.
• 4–6: some tasks with some detail, basic language with frequent repetition.
• 1–3: little of the required detail and isolated words or phrases.

Notes from the 2026 scheme:

• In the top two bands, “opinions” includes reasons and explanations, so bullet 4 needs a “why”.
• Answering a bullet in the wrong time frame means that task isn’t completed in the required detail.
• For the New Year bullet, if the meaning is clear but you used the future instead of the conditional, you can still reach 11 provided every other task is done well.
• An answer that covers most tasks rather than all can, in theory, reach the bottom of the 10–12 band if it fits that band in every other way.
• The word count is for guidance only, and examiners mark everything you write.

Advice: two sentences per bullet, each with a detail or an opinion, gets you to about 85 words. Link them with simple connectors rather than reaching for complex structures; that is what this grid rewards.

Question 3(a): Une longue promenade (28 marks)

You set off one morning for a long walk and write an email to a Belgian friend. The five bullet points:

1. Who you went with (past).
2. What you thought of the place you visited (past opinion).
3. What you did at lunchtime (past). The scheme says it expects some context, so a bare “I ate a sandwich” is thin.
4. The advantages of walking (present, general).
5. What you are going to do on your next outing (future).

Question 3(b): Un problème à l’hôtel (28 marks)

You stayed in a hotel, had a problem, and write a blog about it. The five bullet points:

1. Details of the hotel. The scheme lists size, location and facilities.
2. The problem you had (past).
3. Your reaction. It must be a negative reaction to the problem, not your reaction to how it was solved.
4. The advantages of staying in a hotel. The scheme expects a general comment in the present tense.
5. Where you would like to spend your next holiday (conditional).

How Question 3 is marked (both options)

Write 130 to 140 words. The answer gets three separate marks, each from its own best-fit grid:

• Task completion (10): the top band (9–10) needs every task completed with detailed information, opinions or reactions and explanations, and writing that is focused and wholly relevant. A task counts as complete only if every part of the bullet is attempted reasonably successfully, and the scheme’s own example shows that a one-line opinion (“the film was interesting”) is not detailed enough. 7–8 is most tasks with straightforward information; 5–6 is some tasks with simple explanations.
• Range (10): the top band needs extended, well-linked sentences used frequently, a wide range of simple and complex structures from the syllabus giving sentences of varying length, and wide vocabulary. 7–8 needs some extended, mostly well-linked sentences and some complex structures; 5–6 is mostly simple structures with an attempt at complex ones. The scheme says to read “uses” as “uses successfully”, so a complex structure that doesn’t work doesn’t count.
• Accuracy (8): 7–8 is accurate (not necessarily faultless), with occasional errors that don’t impede communication; 5–6 is mostly accurate, with errors that sometimes impede it. Gender errors count here, and an extremely short answer with no errors can’t score more than 4.

Relevance rules: material unrelated to any bullet point is ignored. A wholly irrelevant answer scores 0 on all three grids, and if you misunderstand the task, Range is capped at 4.

Advice: plan five short paragraphs, one per bullet, and check that each uses the time frame its question asks for. Give every bullet a fact, an opinion and a reason. Build in two or three complex structures you are sure of, rather than many you aren’t.

Where the marks are on 0520/42

Skill	Where	Marks
Single-item communication	Question 1	5
Content, relevance and simple language together	Question 2	12
Task completion	Question 3	10
Range of language	Question 3	10
Accuracy	Question 3	8
Total		45

• Question 3 is 28 of the 45 marks, and 10 of those depend on answering every bullet point in detail.
• Accuracy is only 8 marks. Task completion and Range together are worth 20, so a fuller, more ambitious answer usually earns more than a short, safe one.
• Time frames matter in both longer tasks. Each Question 3 option needs past, present and a future or conditional, and Question 2 ends with a conditional.

How to self-mark 0520/42 with the mark scheme

1. Mark Question 1 gap by gap. Check each answer against the accept and refuse lists, and ask whether a French speaker would understand it in that line of the poster.
2. Tick off the bullet points. For Questions 2 and 3, mark each bullet as missing, partly done or fully done, and check its time frame.
3. Mark from the bottom up. The scheme says to start at the lowest band and work up to the one that fits best. Give the top of the band if your work convincingly meets it, the middle if it adequately meets it, and the bottom if it only just does.
4. Mark Question 3 three times, once for each grid, and add up out of 28.
5. Highlight your connectors and complex structures. Every band from 5 upwards needs some extended sentences, so if you can’t find any, Range will be low.
6. Count your errors per bullet, including genders, and decide whether they ever make the meaning unclear.

Sit 0520/42 as a timed mock

You have 60 minutes for three questions. Spend time in proportion to the marks.

Block	Marks	Time
Question 1: poster	5	5 minutes
Question 2: plan, write, check	12	16 minutes
Question 3: choose and plan	28	5 minutes
Question 3: write	–	26 minutes
Question 3: check tenses, agreements and genders	–	5 minutes
Final read-through	–	3 minutes

Choose your Question 3 option by checking that you can answer all five bullet points, not just the first one.

Other May/June 2026 0520 papers

• 0520 Paper 12 (Listening)
• 0520 Paper 22 (Reading)

Practise and download

• Download 0520/42 and its mark scheme 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 were the 0520 Paper 42 Writing tasks in May/June 2026? +

Question 1 was a poster for a holiday club in your neighbourhood (5 marks). Question 2 was 80 to 90 words on festivals and celebrations (12 marks). Question 3 was a choice of an email to a Belgian friend about a long walk, or a blog about a problem during a hotel stay, both 130 to 140 words (28 marks).

How many marks is 0520/42 and how long is it? +

It is out of 45 marks and lasts 1 hour. You answer Questions 1 and 2 and either 3(a) or 3(b), and Question 3 alone is worth 28 marks.

How is 0520/42 Question 3 marked? +

With three grids: Task completion out of 10, Range out of 10 and Accuracy out of 8. The examiner picks the best-fit band in each grid, so you need all five bullet points answered in detail, a range of linked and complex sentences, and accurate grammar and spelling.

What happens if I write more or fewer words than asked on 0520/42? +

For Question 2, the mark scheme says the word count is for guidance only and examiners mark everything you write. For Question 3, a very short answer can't cover every bullet point in detail, and an extremely short answer with no errors is capped at 4 out of 8 for Accuracy.

What did the poster in 0520/42 Question 1 need? +

Five gaps: a second opening day, a place in the neighbourhood, two activities and something to bring. Each scored one mark if it made sense; a town name or 'centre-ville' was refused for the place, and drinks were refused as the item to bring.

Where can I download 0520/42 May/June 2026 and its mark scheme? +

Both are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal, on the Cambridge IGCSE French 0520 past papers page.

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