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?

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:

DELFA1-A0topics

A0 French: Nouns and Articles

A0 French: Adjectives and Adverbs

A0 French: Numbers, Dates and Time

A0 French: Verbs and Conjugation

A0 French: Forming Questions

A0 French: Pronouns

A0 French:  Idioms

 

French Level A1 Grammar

DELFA1-A1topics

 

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

A1 French: Prepositions

A1 French: Numbers, Dates and Time

A1 French: Verbs and Conjugation

A1 French: Forming Questions

A1 French: Negatives

A1 French: Pronouns

A1 French: Idioms

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.

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