# Confused as to how the French express "questions on an exam paper" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 27, 2021, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-as-to-how-the-french-express-questions-on-an-exam-paper/956709 "2021-12-27T06:01:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-as-to-how-the-french-express-questions-on-an-exam-paper/956709/1 "2021-12-27T06:01:22Z")
How do the French express a phrase like “certain questions on an exam paper”. is it "curtains questions dans l’examen or sur? dans ? le sujet de l’examen? Is there a difference between l’examen and le sujet de l’examen? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-as-to-how-the-french-express-questions-on-an-exam-paper/956709/2 "2021-12-27T11:44:27Z")
“on an exam paper” sounds weirdly stilted. Surely just “certain questions on the exam” would suffice (or actually “in the exam” in my dialect). In my ancient French Intensive course, the actual physical exam paper was always called “la copie d’examen” in any instructions about it, like how many pages it had and whether it needed to be turned in or could be kept. ---
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-as-to-how-the-french-express-questions-on-an-exam-paper/956709/3 "2021-12-27T15:16:14Z")
It’s a normal “English” expression. I’m so used to dealing with the English, it didn’t occur to me that “on the exam paper” sounds weird to American ears. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-as-to-how-the-french-express-questions-on-an-exam-paper/956709/4 "2021-12-27T15:26:27Z")
Actually, it sounds American to me (I’m not, BTW) but that’s just the “on” vs “in” part. It’s referring to the exam paper, not the exam, that sounded stilted to me. Generally that’s only a phrase I’d use if I was referring to the physical printout itself. You sit an exam, or the first paper of your English exams, but if you had questions about it, they’d be about “the exam”, or “the paper”, but not “the exam paper”. It sounds overly formal. But this is a digression, sorry for that. I’m sure one of the resident actual French speakers will be along shortly to give you an actual answer more current than my 25-year old French tests. ---
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-as-to-how-the-french-express-questions-on-an-exam-paper/956709/5 "2021-12-27T15:41:42Z")
Thanks Mr. Dibble. But I personally have only heard the British use the term “on the exam paper”. I’ve rarely if ever heard Americans use it. I was curious about the origin and many results come up on Google for Trinity College Dublin and GCSE. But thanks for your feedback and I hope you can find the answer to my question. I thought French exam-related vocabulary in French and English would be quite easy to find on translation websites.It is certainly easier than it used to be but there are still quite a few gaps. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-as-to-how-the-french-express-questions-on-an-exam-paper/956709/6 "2021-12-27T17:37:55Z")
_Certaines questions à l’examen_ is probably what I would go for. But _dans_ or _sur_ instead of _à_ don’t sound incorrect either (though maybe a bit less idiomatic?). We might need the whole sentence and not just this fragment to be able to say exactly how it should go in French. ---
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-as-to-how-the-french-express-questions-on-an-exam-paper/956709/7 "2021-12-27T18:27:35Z")
Thanks Hypnagogic\_Jerk. “à l’examen” works very well. I hadn’t thought of it. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2021, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-as-to-how-the-french-express-questions-on-an-exam-paper/956709/8 "2021-12-28T00:03:57Z")
> [@Octagon](#): > > But I personally have only heard the British use the term “on the exam paper” That sentence is perfectly natural in my dialect of English (SE Louisiana, USA). “_Questions on the exam paper_” and “_Questions on the exam_” don’t really connote anything different in this context.