NECO Syllabus For French 2025

NECO has made the French syllabus available to all candidates to help them prepare better for the exam. Since French is often a second language for many students, it’s important that candidates bring their best effort to the exam. The NECO Syllabus for French clearly outlines the important topics to focus on and guides students on what to study and what to avoid.

By using the NECO Syllabus for French, candidates can prepare more effectively, strengthen their skills in areas like grammar, sentence structure, and figures of speech, and increase their chances of passing the exam successfully. Below, you will find the detailed syllabus alongside a list of books you can use for your revision. Read on for full details.

NECO French Examination Structure

The NECO French exam is divided into three papers, with Paper 3 further subdivided into parts:-

Paper 1: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

• Duration: 1 hour
• Format: 50 multiple-choice questions
• Content: Questions on vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, and language use. This paper tests candidates’ understanding of the French language basics through objective questions.

Paper 2: Essay Writing and Letter Writing

• Duration: 2 hours
• Format: Written answers

Content:

• Section A: Essay writing on various topics such as social issues, culture, or everyday life.
• Section B: Letter writing (formal and informal) including applications, invitations, and personal letters.

Paper 3: Oral Examination

Duration: Approximately 15 minutes per candidate

• Reading Aloud: Candidates read aloud a given passage to assess pronunciation and fluency.
• Conversation: An oral interview where candidates answer questions to test comprehension, spontaneous speaking ability, and grammar.
• Picture Description and Storytelling: Candidates describe a picture or narrate a story based on prompts to test vocabulary, creativity, and oral expression.

NECO Syllabus for French 2025

1. Parts of Speech (Les Parties du Discours)

• Nouns (Les Noms): Proper vs. common, count vs. mass, singular vs. plural, masculine vs. feminine.
• Pronouns (Les Pronoms): Personal, possessive, indefinite, demonstrative, relative, impersonal, including considerations of number and gender.
• Verbs (Les Verbes): Types: regular and irregular; common moods and tenses; standard expressions such as “avoir + noun” (e.g., avoir faim) and “venir de + infinitive.”
• Articles (Les Articles): Definite, indefinite, and partitive articles; gender and number agreements.
• Adjectives (Les Adjectifs): Possessive, demonstrative, indefinite, interrogative; agreement and position.
• Adverbs (Les Adverbes): Formation and position; special adverbs like mal, vite, fort, tout, etc.
• Negatives (Les Négations): Negative expressions such as “ne…pas,” “ne…rien,” “ne…jamais,” etc.
• Conjunctions (Les Conjonctions): Common conjunctions like et, mais, donc, ou, parce que, etc.
• Prepositions (Les Prépositions): Prepositions such as à, de, sur, en, devant, etc.

2. Sentence Structures

• Sentence Patterns (Les Types de Phrases): Declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, etc.
• Voice (La Voix): Active and passive voices.
• Direct and Reported Speech (Discours Direct et Indirect): Understanding and converting between direct and indirect speech.
• Compound and Complex Sentences (Phrases Composées et Complexes): Formation and usage.

3. Figures of Speech

• Common Figures of Speech (Figures de Style Courantes): Similes, metaphors, hyperbole

4. Idiomatic Expressions and Proverbs

• Understanding and usage of common idiomatic expressions and proverbs.

Recommended Textbooks for NECO French

• Ajiboye, Tunde et al: Nouvel Horizon 4 – Ibadan, Bounty Press Ltd.
• Mazauric, Catherine et al: On y va 3 – Ibadan, Spectrum Books.
• Berard, Evelyne et al: Tempo 1 & 2 – Didier, Hatier.
• Ajiboye, T.: Companion to French Grammar – Ilorin, Info-Links Publishers.
• Ferrar, H. A.: French Reference Grammar – Oxford University Press.
• Dangnaud-Macé, P & Sylès, G.: Le Français sans faute – Paris, Hatier.
• Le Nouveau Bescherelle: La grammaire pour tous – Paris: Hatier.
• Soyoye, F. A.: Manuel de conjugaison de verbes – Sophire Ed. Resources.
• Ajiboye, T.: An Introduction to Practice in Oral French – Revised edition, Ibadan, Bounty Press Ltd.
• Adegbilero, L. M.: Teaching Yourself French (with cassette/CD) – Revised edition, Ibadan, Bounty Press Ltd.
• Chamberlain, Alan & Steele Ross: Guide pratique de la communication – Paris, Didier.
• Any useful French dictionary: e.g., Micro Robert, Petit Robert, Petit Larousse, Dictionnaire du français fondamental pour l’Afrique.
• Any useful French–English/English–French dictionary: e.g., Shorter Harraps, Collins, Cassell’s.

Bonne chance!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments, and we’ll be happy to respond. Please share this with other candidates preparing for NECO. Don’t forget to visit our site for detailed syllabi on other NECO subjects to help you study better.