GCSE French, German and Spanish: specification updates for summer 2026

In April 2025 the Department for Education (DfE) published an updated version of the Subject Content along with a summary of changes which aims to give additional clarity around requirements for GCSE French, German and Spanish.

We can confirm that these changes are minor and will not impact significantly on teaching and learning.

We're pleased to confirm that we’ve now updated our GCSE French (8652), German (8662) and Spanish (8692) specifications, along with the grammar requirements and a version of the vocabulary lists within the updated specification for each language, clearly showing where items have changed.

You can find a full list of what has changed in Appendix 1: Table of changes to GCSE French, German and Spanish specification vocabulary lists. We have also summarised the main points below.

Key changes

Some of the grammar requirements at Higher tier are now included at Foundation tier, for example:

• reflexive use of verbs in singular and plural
• plural reflexive pronouns in French and Spanish

1. dative plural nouns in German
2. infinitive constructions using prepositions ohne/statt … zu and um … zu in German
3. Antes de, después de + infinitive in Spanish.

Words listed under one part of speech in the specification may now be used in other parts of speech when the meaning is equivalent, for example:

1. French: plastique (noun and adjective)
2. German: lesen/das Lesen (verb and noun)
3. Spanish: plástico/el plástico (adjective and noun).

Previously, the derivational morphology section applied only to Reading. This has been changed to allow derived forms to be used in other skills as long as the derivation in its spoken or written form is clearly recognisable as being derived from the base form, for example:

1. French: extrêmement, as extrême is listed
2. German: unmöglich, as möglich is listed
3. Spanish: normalmente as normal is listed.

The vocabulary list totals are still 1,200 at Foundation tier and 1,700 at Higher tier and any additional vocabulary items which have been added to maintain these totals are highlighted. We've not removed any individual words unless these words do not need to be listed separately, for example where they can be accessed through the grammar rules (see examples above).

We are now updating our suggested KS4 Schemes of Work and the interactive vocabulary lists and vocabulary sound bank to reflect the changes - we will let schools and colleges know when these updates are completed.

If you have any questions about these changes or anything else related to our specifications, please get in touch with us at mfl@aqa.org.uk or call us on 01423 534381.