The DELF A1 Exam: What to expect & How to practise with Progress with Lawless French

Table of Contents

• What can you expect from the DELF A1 Exam?
• First step to get ready for your exam
• Practising French Levels A0 and A1 with Progress with Lawless French
• What do the CEFR French levels A0 and A1 cover?
• French Level A0 Grammar
• French Level A1 Grammar
• Smash your French DELF A1 exam

What can you expect from the DELF A1 Exam?

DELF A1 tests the most basic level at which a language is used, called the "discovery" stage.  At this stage, you need to be able to interact in simple ways. You’ll be expected to be able to speak about yourself and your immediate environment.

DELF A1 Test Sections	Duration	Mark out of
Listening Three or four very short recordings on everyday life (played twice), followed by questionnaires to test how much was understood. Maximum duration of recordings: 3 mins	Approximately 20 minutes	25
Reading Comprehension questionnaires dealing with four or five written documents on everyday life.	30 minutes	25
Writing Two-part test:     - filling in a record, a form      - writing simple phrases (postcards, messages, stories etc) on everyday topics	< 30 minutes	25
Speaking Three-part test:       - guided conversation       - exchanging information       - role-play	10 mins prep then 5 - 7 mins	25

Exam duration (not counting the oral section): 1 hour 15 minutes

* Total mark out of 100
* Overall pass mark: 50/100
* Pass mark per test: 5/25

First step to get ready for your exam

We can help you practise for your DELF A1 French exam to perfection! Sign up for a free Progress with Lawless French account today to get your personalised Studyplan filled with in-depth lessons and tailored kwizzes (our quick tests) based on your French level.

Progress with Lawless French works out what you already know and what you need to work on so that you don’t waste time going through the basics and you’re always learning new stuff and always progressing at your pace.

You can also listen to sample recordings for DELF A1 listening section to get an idea of the difficulty of each level and the type of situations presented. Or download a sample paper for DELF A1 here.

If you want some practical tips and fun, engaging exercises hand-picked by us, take a look at our detailed A1 exam tips & exercises.

Practising French Levels A0 and A1 with Progress with Lawless French

If you're registered to take the DELF A1 exam and you want to really smash it, you’ll need to perfect your French grammar first.

We’ll help you go into all the detail you need, as well as give you plenty of material to practise so when you get to the exam, you’ll feel full of confidence!  

What do the CEFR French levels A0 and A1 cover? 

The CEFR levels go from A0 up to C2. If you want to learn more about the CEFR levels, here's a more detailed explanation.

French Level A0 Grammar

Although there is a DILF exam to cover Level A0, it's only available to take in France. Level A0 is really 'survival French' covering the absolute basics of the language. But even if you're taking DELF A1, we strongly advise you practise and perfect everything in A0 as well, so let's look at that first:

A0 French: Nouns and Articles

• Using le, la, l' to say "the"

• Using un or une to say "a"

• Plural of "the" and "a" : les and des

• Most nouns take an -s in the plural unless they already end in -s, -x, -z

A0 French: Adjectives and Adverbs

• Adjectives (describing words) following c'est are always masculine

• Adjectives in the feminine form usually take -e

• Adjectives in plural form usually take -s

• Adjectives usually go AFTER nouns

• Position of Adjectives - common adjectives that go BEFORE the noun

A0 French: Numbers, Dates and Time

• Numbers - how to express decimals

• How to express dates in French

A0 French: Verbs and Conjugation

• Je becomes j' with verbs beginning with a vowel (elision)

• Conjugate avoir (J'ai, Tu as, Vous avez) in the present tense in French

• Conjugate être (Je suis, Tu es, Vous êtes) in the present tense in French

• Conjugate aller (Je vais, Tu vas, Vous allez) in the present tense in French

• Conjugate faire (Je fais, Tu fais, Vous faites) in the present tense in French

A0 French: Forming Questions

• Questions - Qu'est-ce que... c'est / c'est que ça/cela?

A0 French: Pronouns

• Say your name: Je m'appelle, Tu t'appelles and Vous vous appelez

• Tu and vous are used for three types of "you"!

A0 French:  Idioms

• Avoir faim / soif : To be hungry / thirsty

• Avoir chaud / froid : To be hot / cold

• Avoir (nombre) ans : to be (number) years old

• Say where you come from with je viens de

• Il y a : there is/there are

• Describing things with c'est (it is)

• Say where you live with J'habite à

 

French Level A1 Grammar

 

As you can see, there's a huge amount to cover in A1 French. You'd probably pass your DELF A1 exam knowing just a fraction of this, but since you can't know what you'll be tested on, we recommend you practise as much as possible!

Also, remember the exam is a means to an end: perfecting your A1 French is the real goal.

A1 French: Nouns and Articles

• When and when not to use le, la, les (8 topics, different difficulty levels)

• Contractions: à + le > au, de + le > du...

• Using du, de la, de l' to express "some" or "any" (2 topics)

• Plural forms of nouns – special cases (5 topics, plus 3 bonus topics)

A1 French: Adjectives and Adverbs

• How adjectives change according to gender and number (8 topics)

• Formation of adverbs - regular Forms

• How to express possession (3 topics)

• Plural of beau, nouveau and vieux

• Adjectives following personne, rien, tout le monde, quelqu'un are always masculine

A1 French: Prepositions

• Prepositions - locations: to/from general places: à, de

• Time: À + [heure] = At + [time]

• Locations: chez = at someone's place

• Prepositions - time: après, avant

• Relative positions: à côté de, en face de, à l'extérieur de, à l'intérieur de, près de, loin de, au coin de

• Compound nouns formed with noun + à + verb-infinitive indicates function

• Locations: dans VS en (2 topics)

• Using dans (instead of sur) for streets and transportation

• Use à (to) and de (from/of) with cities

• Use pour + infinitive to say in order to

• Relative positions: dans, sur, devant, derrière, entre, sous

• Transportation: à, en, par le usge with means of transport

• Prepositions - joining nouns – à means with/made with, but de is used with materials

• Use en with feminine countries and au(x) with masculine countries

• Prepositions - joining nouns – à/de change the function/meaning

A1 French: Numbers, Dates and Time

• Dates: from the ... to the

• Expression large numbers: thousands, millions and billions

• Formation of numbers from 70 to 99

• Numbers - forming ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 10th…)

• Numbers - arithmetic

• Telling the time in French (2 topics)

• Numbers - approximate numbers

• Morning / Day / Evening - matin/matinée, jour/journée, soir/soirée

• Ordinal and Cardinal numbers - differences between French and English usages

A1 French: Verbs and Conjugation

• Conjugation of Regular -er verbs in the present tense

• Conjugation of Regular -ir verbs in the present tense

• Le présent (Present Tense) - Conjugation of Irregular Verb avoir, être, aller, faire (4 topics)

• Le Futur Proche Tense - Verb aller + infinitive

• Verb basics - 6 forms for 9 pronouns and their meanings

• Compound subjects are replaced with subject pronouns nous, vous, ils/elles

• Reflexive Verbs - Futur Proche - aller + infinitive

• Reflexive Verb - Present tense basics - s'habiller, se réveiller, se lever, s'amuser, se laver, se coucher (6 topics)

• Le présent (Present Tense) - Conjugation of irregular verbs venir/tenir, prendre, apprendre, comprendre, etc (12 topics)

• Le présent - Usage - differences between French and English use of the present tense (3 topics)

A1 French: Forming Questions

• Forming YES/NO questions - three simple forms

• Forming YES/NO questions - by inverting - present tense

• Forming questions - by inverting - with names, things and emphasis

• Forming YES/NO questions - by inverting - present tense special case: puis-je

• Questions - qui, que/quoi, quand, où, comment, pourquoi, combien (who, what, when, where, how, why, how many)?

• Questions - C'est quoi, Qu'est-ce que c'est ? = What's that?

A1 French: Negatives

• Using ne ... pas with simple tenses (2 topics)

• Using ne ... pas with compound tenses

• Negative expressions - ne… jamais = Never

• Negative expressions - Non plus = neither / nor

• The partitive article in negative sentences (du, de la, de l', des become de or d')

• Using 'si' instead of 'oui' to disagree with a negative question or statement

• Negative expressions - ne … pas du tout

A1 French: Pronouns

• Pronouns: ça

• Simple cases of use - moi, toi, lui, elle (me, you, him, her)

• Disjunctive/stress pronouns - simple cases of use - nous, vous, eux, elles

• "He/she is..." and "It is"/"They are" (il/elle/ils/elles)

• On can mean "we" (as can nous) and "one" and "people"

• Indefinite pronouns - tout le monde

• Direct/indirect object pronouns me/te/nous/vous

• Demonstrative pronouns - c'est versus ce sont

A1 French: Idioms

• Faire de / jouer à : how to talk about leisure activities

• Jouer de : to play an instrument

• Talking about the weather: using il fait + [adjective]

• Talking about the weather - il y a + [noun]

• Avoir peur de: to be afraid / to be scared of

• Je voudrais versus je veux

• Idiomatic expressions with aller: health (aller bien)

• Idiomatic expressions with être: ça m'est égal, I don't mind/care

• To like - plaire vs aimer

• Idiomatic expressions with faire: cela ne fait rien

• Avoir besoin de to express "to need to" (2 topics)

• Expression of located pain: Avoir mal à (to be in pain, to hurt somewhere)

• Idiomatic expressions with être: être à to express possession

• Être en train de: expression of the Continuous Present (ongoing actions)

• Expressions of timeliness - in general

• Idiomatic expressions with être: Ça y est = That's it, it's done

• Faire les courses VS faire les magasins

Smash your French DELF A1 exam

Now that you know what topics Progress with Lawless French can help you practise based on your level, you can start working through them one by one!

Remember you can improve your study sessions enormously if you include our quick and challenging kwizzes! By taking kwizzes, our algorithm will identify your knowledge gaps and suggest to you the topics you need to work the most on.

Make sure you read our detailed guide for your A1 exam with practical tips and exercises for you to smash your French DELF A1 exam!

And if you’re ready for your French DELF A2 exam read about the topics it covers or keep browsing through our list of 8 official French proficiency tests and diplomas to see which is the right one for you.