The JAMB syllabus for French has four sections: written comprehension, the structure and use of written French (grammar and vocabulary), the workings of French sounds, and the culture and civilisation of France and Francophone Africa. Every UTME French question comes from one of those four. The paper is written French only, so there is no oral exam, but you still have to answer sound questions on screen.
Below is the whole syllabus for the 2027 UTME, section by section, in plain English. After that come the textbooks JAMB recommends, the subject combination you need for French and Education French, a study plan, and the mistakes that cost French candidates marks every year. I checked everything against the current JAMB French syllabus document, and where I am giving my own opinion, I say so.
JAMB syllabus for French at a glance
| Detail | What you need to know |
|---|---|
| Exam | UTME, set by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) |
| Sections in the syllabus | 4 |
| Comprehension texts | The syllabus names two texts (Text 1 and Text 2) |
| Questions in French | 40 multiple-choice questions (Use of English has 60) |
| Total exam time | 2 hours for all four subjects together |
| Mode | Computer-based test (CBT) |
| Oral or listening test | None. Sound questions are asked in written form |
| Tenses left out | Imperfect, perfect and pluperfect subjunctive |
| 2027 changes | None published by JAMB as of 24 October 2026 |
| Cost | Free on jamb.gov.ng |
What JAMB says the French paper is testing
The syllabus opens with four general objectives. Each one lines up with one of the four sections, which tells you how the paper is built:
- Can you understand written French? (Section 1)
- Can you apply the rules that govern how written French is put together? (Section 2)
- Do you know how French sounds work when the language is spoken? (Section 3)
- Do you know the culture of France and Francophone West Africa, and how it compares with Nigeria? (Section 4)
Grammar is the largest block of content, and it also decides whether you understand the comprehension passages. Weak grammar costs you marks in two sections at once.
Section 1: Written comprehension in French
The syllabus lists two texts on general and emerging topics. The themes it names are love, life, death, politics, marriage, health, communication, child trafficking, cultism, travel, corruption and money laundering. The passages are not literature set books. They read like newspaper articles or short stories about ordinary life.
JAMB wants you to work out what each passage says, what the writer intends and the tone it is written in, and then to reason your way to the option the passage supports, even when the exact words are not in the text.
The themes list is useful for building vocabulary. Make a word list for each theme: la santé, le voyage, la corruption, le blanchiment d’argent (money laundering), la traite des enfants (child trafficking). If a passage on cultism appears and you already know une secte and le campus, you will read it twice as fast.
Section 2: Structure and use of written French
JAMB calls this section the principles governing the structure and use of written French. It is the grammar section and it has five parts.
Form classes (parts of speech)
| Form class | What the syllabus lists |
|---|---|
| Nouns | Simple and compound; singular and plural; masculine and feminine |
| Pronouns | Personal, impersonal, demonstrative, possessive, relative |
| Verbs | Reflexive and non-reflexive; moods and tenses |
| Adjectives | Qualifying, possessive, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite, numeral, ordinal |
| Adverbs | Forms ending in -ment, preposition plus noun, special forms, manner; adverbials of time, place, purpose, cause or consequence, and concession |
| Prepositions | Simple and compound |
| Conjunctions | Coordinating and subordinating |
| Articles | Definite, indefinite, partitive |
| Contraction | For example au, aux, du, des |
Vocabulary
You are tested on the meaning and use of words in current contexts, plus their opposites and synonyms. Expect questions of the type “choose the word closest in meaning to the underlined word” or “choose the opposite of”.
Word order
Affirmative, interrogative, imperative and passive sentences. The questions usually ask for the correct arrangement, or for the correct form when a sentence is turned from active to passive, or from a statement into a question using inversion or est-ce que.
Basic processes
- Conjugation in all tenses, except three: the imperfect subjunctive, the perfect (past) subjunctive and the pluperfect subjunctive. The present subjunctive is still in.
- Negation: ne…pas, ne…plus, ne…rien, ne…personne, ne…ni…ni, aucun…ne, and similar forms.
- Agreement: adjectives with nouns, past participles with their subject or object.
- Pluralisation, including irregular plurals.
- Derivation: forming new words from roots, such as a noun from a verb.
- Degrees of comparison: comparative and superlative, including the irregular bon, meilleur, le meilleur.
Set expressions
Proverbs, idioms, conventional phrases, figures of speech (metaphor, simile and hyperbole are named) and speech acts, meaning what a sentence is doing: greeting, apologising, refusing, thanking. Idioms are where many good candidates drop marks, because you cannot work them out from grammar. Keep a separate notebook for them and add five a week.
Section 3: Workings of French sounds
Nobody speaks in the UTME. Sound knowledge is tested in writing, usually as “which word does not rhyme with the others” or “in which word is the final letter pronounced”. The syllabus covers:
- Sound discrimination: telling apart close sounds. The syllabus examples are tout and tu, and fais and fée.
- Letter and sound correspondence: knowing which spellings give which sound, and which letters are silent.
- Syllabification: splitting a word into syllables.
- Liaison: when a normally silent final consonant is sounded before a vowel, as in les amis.
- Sense groups in reading, with e caduc (the e that drops out in speech), pause and intonation.
- Sound similarity: words that sound alike, such as maison and saison.
- Faux amis: French words that look like English words but mean something else.
The recommended oral text for this section is Ajiboye’s An Introduction to Practice in Oral French. I would also listen to French audio daily, even ten minutes of radio or a news clip. Reading sound rules off a page is slow. Once you have heard the sounds, the written questions get much easier.
Section 4: Culture and civilisation
This section covers France and Francophone Africa, and the syllabus asks you to compare them with Nigeria where possible. The areas it names:
| Area | What to know |
|---|---|
| Educational system | How schooling is organised, from nursery to the baccalauréat, and how that differs from Nigeria’s system |
| Socio-economic life | Work, trade, money and daily economic life |
| Political organisation | How government is structured in France and in Francophone African states |
| Cultural life | Greetings, dressing, food, leisure, marriage, festivals, art and professions |
The two culture texts JAMB recommends are Girod and Grand-Clément’s Comment vivent les Français and Mbuko’s French Essays on Culture and Civilisation for Schools and Colleges. Since Nigeria’s neighbours Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon all use French, our own region gives you plenty of material to compare.
Recommended textbooks in the JAMB syllabus for French
JAMB groups its reading list into written language, oral, culture and dictionary. You do not need all of them. One grammar book, the oral text, one culture text and a good dictionary will cover the syllabus.
| Area | Author (year) | Title and publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Grammar | Adeleke, J. (2018) | A Short French Grammar, 5th ed., Success Printers, Badagry |
| Grammar | Adeniyi, E. A. (2006) | Contes Nigérians II, revised ed., Adek Graphic Productions, Ilorin |
| Grammar | Ajiboye, T. (2014) | Companion to French Grammar, 4th ed., Cleavoketa Books, Ibadan |
| Grammar | Ajiboye, T. (2012) | Nouvel Horizon, Book 4, new revised ed., Bounty Press, Ibadan |
| Grammar | Hatier (1980) | Le Nouveau Bescherelle: L’Art de Conjuguer, Spectrum Books, Ibadan |
| Grammar | Maice, G. and Merlo, G. (1998) | Grammaire progressive du français (niveau intermédiaire), Clé International, Paris |
| Grammar | Mazauric, C. and Sirejols, E. (2006) | On y va! Book 3, Spectrum Books, Ibadan |
| Grammar | Ojo, S. A. (2000) | A Comprehensive Revision Handbook of French Grammar, Agoro Publishing, Ibadan |
| Oral | Ajiboye, T. (2010) | An Introduction to Practice in Oral French, Bounty Press, Ibadan |
| Culture | Girod, R. and Grand-Clément, F. (1979) | Comment vivent les Français, Hachette, Paris |
| Culture | Mbuko, L. (2000) | French Essays on Culture and Civilisation for Schools and Colleges, Bounty Press, Ibadan |
| Dictionary | Any | A good French/English or French dictionary |
JAMB also allows “any other relevant materials”, which for culture includes French newspapers and magazines. The Bescherelle is the one I would buy first if you can only buy one book, because conjugation runs through every section of the paper.
JAMB subject combination for French and Education French
Use of English is compulsory for every candidate. The other three subjects depend on the course. These are the general requirements in the JAMB brochure, as shown on myschool.ng’s brochure mirror. Individual universities add their own conditions, so confirm yours on JAMB’s brochure portal before you register.
| Course | UTME subjects (general rule) | O’Level (general rule) |
|---|---|---|
| French (B.A.) | Use of English, French, and two other Arts or Social Science subjects | Five credits including English Language, French and one other Arts subject |
| Education and French | Use of English, French, and two other Arts subjects | Five credits including English Language and French |
A few institution differences worth knowing, from the same brochure listings:
- Several universities, including UNN and Babcock, ask for Literature in English among the UTME subjects for French. Literature in English is the safest third subject if you have not chosen one.
- Some universities do not make UTME French compulsory for the French degree. OAU and UNIZIK are listed this way, and UNIBEN and UNIZIK admit students with no French background at O’Level.
- Some, like UNILAG and UNILORIN, also want a credit in Mathematics at O’Level.
A sensible combination for most French candidates is Use of English, French, Literature in English and one of Government, History, or CRS/IRS. If you are considering Government, our JAMB syllabus for Government guide covers that paper the same way this one covers French.
Before you register: profile code and O’Level upload
Three things trip up candidates before they even sit the paper:
- Profile code. From the phone number you will use for JAMB, text NIN, a space, then your 11-digit NIN (for example, NIN 12345678901) to 55019 or 66019. You receive a 10-character profile code, which you take to an accredited CBT centre to register. The name on your NIN must match your O’Level certificate, so fix any spelling difference with NIMC first.
- Subject choice. Choose French as one of your UTME subjects at registration. Changing subjects after registration is hard, so check the brochure for your first-choice institution before you go to the centre.
- O’Level upload. After the exam, your O’Level results, including the French credit, must be uploaded at a JAMB-accredited centre so CAPS can consider you for admission. Our JAMB CAPS guide explains what happens next.
How to study the JAMB French syllabus in 10 weeks
This is my own plan, built around how the syllabus is weighted by content. Adjust the weeks if you are starting later.
| Weeks | Focus | Daily task |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Articles, nouns, gender, plurals, adjectives and agreement | 20 noun genders a day, one grammar exercise |
| 3 to 4 | Verbs: present, passé composé, imparfait, futur, conditionnel, present subjunctive, imperative | Conjugate five verbs in every tested tense |
| 5 | Pronouns, negation, word order, passive voice | Rewrite ten sentences each day |
| 6 | Sounds: liaison, silent letters, e caduc, sound pairs, faux amis | Ten minutes of French audio, then a sound exercise |
| 7 | Culture and civilisation | One topic a day: schools, food, festivals, politics, greetings |
| 8 | Idioms, proverbs, vocabulary by theme | Five idioms and one theme word list |
| 9 to 10 | Past questions and timed comprehension | One full 40-question set in 25 minutes |
Read one short French text every day from week one. Comprehension speed builds slowly, and it is the section where the clock hurts most.
Common traps in UTME French
- Studying the excluded tenses. The imperfect, perfect and pluperfect subjunctive are out. Do not spend a week on them. The present subjunctive is in, after expressions like il faut que and bien que.
- Past participle agreement with avoir. The participle agrees with a direct object placed before the verb: les lettres que j’ai écrites. It is a common “choose the correct form” item.
- Trusting English look-alikes. Librairie is a bookshop, not a library. Actuellement means currently, not actually. Sensible means sensitive. Faux amis are named in the syllabus, so expect them.
- Forbidden liaison. There is no liaison after et, and none before an aspirated h, as in les héros.
- Partitive after negation. Je bois du lait becomes je ne bois pas de lait. The article changes to de.
- Ignoring culture. Many candidates skip Section 4 because it feels like general knowledge. It is the easiest section to revise in a short time.
Has JAMB changed the French syllabus for 2027?
As of 24 October 2026, JAMB has not published any change to the French syllabus for the 2027 UTME. The current document has the four sections and reading list described above. JAMB had also not confirmed the 2027 registration dates when I checked. For reference, 2026 registration ran from 26 January to 28 February 2026 and the UTME held from 16 to 25 April 2026. I will update this page when the 2027 dates are announced.
Taking sciences as well? The same method is used in our JAMB Biology syllabus and JAMB Chemistry syllabus guides, and there are matching guides for Economics and Geography.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an oral or listening test in JAMB French?
No. The UTME French paper is a written CBT. Sound topics such as liaison and sound discrimination are tested with written multiple-choice questions.
How many questions are in JAMB French?
French has 40 multiple-choice questions, like every UTME subject apart from Use of English, which has 60. You answer all four subjects within two hours.
Can I study French in university without French in WAEC?
At some universities, yes. The brochure listings show UNIBEN and UNIZIK accepting candidates with no French at O’Level, and OAU making it optional, but most universities still require a French credit.
Where can I download the JAMB French syllabus PDF?
From the syllabus section of the official JAMB website, jamb.gov.ng. It is free, so do not pay anyone for it.
Sources and updates
The sections, objectives, excluded tenses and reading list come from the JAMB UTME French syllabus, checked against two published copies of the document. Subject combinations come from the JAMB brochure entries for French and Education and French as reproduced on myschool.ng, which should be confirmed on JAMB’s own brochure portal. The 2026 registration and exam dates come from JAMB’s 2026 announcement as reported by Blueprint. Exam format figures (60 questions in Use of English, 40 in other subjects, two hours) follow JAMB’s published UTME structure. Last checked 24 October 2026.
I am Jude Chinecherem, a final-year MBBS student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I know what it feels like to want an education your family cannot afford. When my parents could not pay for my schooling, I had to learn how to find scholarships and work the system out on my own, with nobody to guide me. I came out the other side, and now I share everything I learned so the next student does not have to figure it out alone. This is the advice I wish someone had given me back then.
