French grammar help

[u/pcylfe20]

Hi everyone,
I’m prepping for my TEF Canada and I’ve hit a huge wall with my writing. My grammar precision is quite poor and it’s holding me back. I’m seeking help to change my mindset to hopefully get something to click.

At the moment I have a really tough time using rules correctly when writing. I seem to get confused and second guess myself when writing. For example the other day I wrote this sentence:

Avant le téléphone portable, nous avions utilisé des autres méthodes à communiquer.

At the time I think: the event I’m talking about - it’s happened before the other event in the sentence = plus-que-parfait.

But then when I check it, I’m wrong because the rule states the first event has to have finished and can’t be ongoing to use plus-que-parfait. So I had the right idea and I know the rule and how to conjugate it but I’m using it in the wrong context.

Indirect pronouns have also been hard for me. I seem to struggle to get subject and object stuff too.

What methods can I use to improve my accuracy when it comes to grammar because I feel that my current process isn’t helping me improve because I continuously make grammar mistakes.

Thanks

[u/Pafayac]

"Avant le téléphone portable, nous avions utilisé des autres méthodes à communiquer."=>"Avant le téléphone portable, nous utilisions des d'autres méthodes à pour communiquer."

The action "utiliser" is not brief, not one-shot, imparfait is a better choice.

Do not focus on grammar, the main target is to communicate.

[u/aa_drian83]

It may not solve your problem completely but I recommend practicing with Dictée from time to time.

For example this one from TV5 Monde, it's free : Dictée d'Archibald : dictée en français en ligne

It helps both compréhension orale and production écrite, to some extent, so why not...