CEFR A2 in French: what you can do

A2 is the level where French starts to be useful. You can handle short, predictable exchanges and describe your life in a few simple sentences. You can also talk about things that already happened, which is the big step up from A1.

What you can do

Handle simple tasks in shops, at the station, at the post office and at the doctor's.
Describe your family, your routine, your home and your work in a few connected sentences.
Talk about the past with simple expressions: hier, la semaine dernière, l'année passée.
Understand the main point of short, clear messages and announcements.
Write short notes and simple personal messages, such as thanking someone or making an invitation.

A quick self-check

You are probably at A2 if you can do most of these:

Tell a friend what you did last weekend in five or six sentences.
Buy train tickets and understand the departure time.
Describe your day from morning to evening.
Explain a simple problem: Je n'ai pas reçu mon colis.
Write a message of 40 to 60 words to book a table.

Typical grammar at A2

The passé composé

The passé composé is the main past tense in speech. It combines avoir or être with a past participle: j'ai mangé, nous avons fini, elle est partie. For when to use it, and how it differs from the imparfait, see passé composé vs imparfait.

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs describe daily routines: je me lève, tu te laves, il s'habille, nous nous couchons. In the passé composé they use être: je me suis levé tôt.

Object pronouns

Pronouns replace nouns and come before the verb: Je le vois. Elle lui parle. Nous les achetons. Learn le, la, les, lui, leur and y, en gradually.

Comparatives

Plus ... que, moins ... que and aussi ... que compare things: Paris est plus grand que Lyon. The irregular forms are meilleur (better) and mieux (better, for adverbs).

Possessives and demonstratives

Mon, ma, mes; ton, ta, tes; son, sa, ses; notre, votre, leur and ce, cet, cette, ces are used all the time. Remember that mon, ton, son are used before a vowel, even for feminine nouns: mon amie.

The partitive and negation

Use du, de la, des for amounts: je voudrais du pain. After a negative, they become de: je ne veux pas de pain. See articles and the partitive.

Vocabulary themes

Shopping, clothes and prices
Health and the body
Travel, hotels and transport
Hobbies, weather and the seasons
Work and school

What you may find hard

Choosing the right past tense. Many learners use the passé composé for everything. The imparfait needs separate practice.
Être or avoir? Verbs of movement and all reflexive verbs take être.
Liaison and elision. Je + aime becomes j'aime, and le + hôtel becomes l'hôtel.

The DELF A2 exam

DELF A2 tests the same four skills as A1, with longer texts. It asks you to write a short message, speak about familiar topics for a few minutes and understand recorded announcements.

How to practise at this level

Read short texts at your level and write your own mini-stories in the past. Dictation helps with verb endings that sound the same but are spelled differently. When you feel comfortable, try B1.