CEFR A1 · Débutant

A1 French - Beginner

Your first real sentences in French - present tense, gender, and the verbs everything else is built on.

Levels: 11
Grammar points: 99
Active vocabulary: ≈500 words
Certified by: DELF A1

What you can do at A1

Introduce yourself and ask someone else the same questions.
Order in a café, shop, and ask the way.
Understand slow, clearly articulated French about immediate needs.
Write a short note, fill in a form, describe where you live.

Story length

80–200 words · 5 pages

Typical study time

60–100 guided hours

French you meet here

bonjour · merci · s'il vous plaît

Study-time figures are the guided-hour ranges commonly published by French language schools, counted cumulatively from zero. They describe a classroom average, not a promise.

Why A1 is the level it is

A1 is the level where French stops being a wall of sound and starts being a system. Almost all of it is one job: getting the present tense of être, avoir, aller and faire so far into your hands that you never have to assemble them consciously again. Everything from A2 upward is built on those four verbs, and learners who rush this level pay for it twice.

The second job is gender. English gives you no preparation for it, and there is no rule that covers French nouns reliably - the endings are suggestive, not decisive. The only method that works is meeting each noun enough times, in enough sentences, that la table simply sounds right and le table sounds broken. That is an argument for reading, not for flashcards: a card teaches you the noun, a sentence teaches you the noun with its article attached.

Expect the gap between written and spoken French to be at its most brutal here. Ils parlent and il parle are four letters apart on the page and identical in the ear. Reading and listening at the same time is not a nice extra at A1; it is the only way the two versions of the language get filed together.

The A1 curriculum, unit by unit

11 levels and 99 grammar points, in the order Gallus teaches them. Each unit lists its must-know forms with a real example - the supporting points are covered inside the stories.

A1.1 Se présenter - Être, Avoir & Pronoms 11 points

Être au présent (toutes personnes)

Je suis étudiant. Tu es français. Ils sont à Paris.

to be: full conjugation

Avoir au présent (toutes personnes)

J'ai un chat. Elle a vingt ans. Nous avons faim.

to have: full conjugation

Pronoms sujets (je/tu/il/elle/on/nous/vous/ils/elles)

Je parle. Tu écoutes. On mange ensemble.

Subject pronouns - all persons including on = we (informal)

C'est / Ce sont

C'est mon ami. Ce sont mes parents. C'est beau !

Presentational: it is / they are
A1.2 Articles, Noms & Genre 10 points

Articles indéfinis: un / une / des

un livre, une table, des amis

A / an / some (indefinite)

Articles définis: le / la / l' / les

le café, la ville, l'ami, les enfants

The (definite)

Genre des noms (masculin/féminin)

le garçon / la fille, le soleil / la lune

Grammatical gender - must be memorised

Pluriel des noms (+s / -al→-aux)

un ami → des amis, un journal → des journaux

Noun plurals
A1.3 Adjectifs - Accord & Position 9 points

Accord adjectif (genre + nombre)

un ami sympa / une amie sympa / des amis sympas

Adjectives agree in gender and number

Adjectifs après le nom (position normale)

une voiture rouge, un film intéressant, une fille intelligente

Most adjectives follow the noun

Adjectifs BANGS (avant le nom)

un grand appartement, une belle ville, un vieux monsieur, un bon repas

Beauty/Age/Number/Goodness/Size adjectives precede the noun
A1.4 Verbes -ER au présent 9 points

Verbes -ER réguliers au présent

parler → je parle, tu parles, il parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils parlent

Regular -ER verbs: drop -er, add endings

Verbes -ER courants

parler, manger, travailler, habiter, aimer, regarder, écouter, acheter

High-frequency regular -ER verbs
A1.5 Verbes irréguliers essentiels - Aller, Faire, Venir 9 points

Aller au présent

Je vais au marché. Tu vas bien ? Ils vont à Paris.

to go - also used for near future

Faire au présent

Elle fait du sport. Qu'est-ce que tu fais ? Il fait beau.

to do/make - + weather, activities

Venir au présent

Il vient de Lyon. Nous venons ici souvent.

to come - + origin with de
A1.6 Pouvoir, Vouloir, Devoir & Savoir 9 points

Pouvoir + infinitif

Je peux venir ce soir. Tu peux m'aider ? On peut entrer ?

can / to be able to

Vouloir + infinitif / nom

Je veux un café. Elle veut partir. Vous voulez quoi ?

to want (to)

Devoir + infinitif

Tu dois travailler. Ils doivent partir. Je dois me lever tôt.

must / to have to
A1.7 Verbes -IR, -RE & Pronominaux 9 points

Verbes -IR réguliers au présent

finir→je finis, choisir→tu choisis, réfléchir→il réfléchit

Regular -IR verbs: -is/-is/-it/-issons/-issez/-issent

Verbes -RE réguliers au présent

attendre→j'attends, vendre→tu vends, répondre→il répond

Regular -RE verbs

Verbes pronominaux au présent

se lever: je me lève, tu te lèves, il se lève, nous nous levons

Reflexive verbs: daily routine
A1.8 Possessifs, Démonstratifs & Partitifs 9 points

Adjectifs possessifs

mon/ma/mes, ton/ta/tes, son/sa/ses, notre/nos, votre/vos, leur/leurs

Possessive adjectives - all persons

Adjectifs démonstratifs: ce/cet/cette/ces

ce livre, cet homme, cette femme, ces enfants

Demonstrative adjectives: this/these/that/those

Article partitif: du / de la / de l' / des

Je bois du café. Elle mange de la salade. Il a de l'argent.

Partitive: some (uncountable mass nouns)
A1.9 Prépositions & Lieu 8 points

Prépositions de lieu

dans, sur, sous, devant, derrière, à côté de, en face de, près de, loin de

Spatial prepositions

Pays + prépositions (en/au/aux/à)

en France, au Japon, aux États-Unis, à Londres

en + feminine country, au + masculine country, aux + plural, à + city
A1.10 Questions & Négations 8 points

Mots interrogatifs: qui, que, où, quand, comment, pourquoi, combien

Où habitez-vous ? Comment ça va ? Pourquoi tu pars ?

Core question words

Quel / Quelle / Quels / Quelles

Quel âge as-tu ? Quelle est ta nationalité ? Quels livres ?

Which/what - agrees with noun in gender and number
A1.11 Temps, Nombres & Expressions idiomatiques 8 points

Heure: Il est... heures

Il est huit heures et demie. À quelle heure ? À 20h30.

Telling time (12h and 24h)

Jours, mois, saisons

lundi, janvier, l'été - le lundi (habitude)

Days, months, seasons - le + day for habitual action

How to actually get through A1

Learn nouns with their article, always

Never store table. Store la table. The article is half the word, and retrofitting gender onto a few thousand nouns later is the single most common regret of intermediate French learners.

Read aloud, even badly

French spelling hides a third of what it writes. Saying the sentence forces you to confront silent endings and liaison instead of skating over them, and it makes the audio far easier to parse the second time.

Do not skip the pronouns

On does the work of "we" in almost all spoken French, and beginners who only learn nous spend a year sounding like a textbook. Learn both from the start.

Ten minutes daily beats ninety on Sunday

At A1 you are building recognition, not knowledge, and recognition is a frequency effect. A short session every day moves you faster than one long one per week, by a wide margin.

A1 French - frequently asked questions

How long does A1 French take?

Most French schools budget 60 to 100 guided hours to bring an absolute beginner to A1, plus roughly the same again in independent study. At 20–30 focused minutes a day that is around four to six months. English speakers tend to be at the fast end of that range, because a large slice of French vocabulary is already familiar.

What do I need to know for the DELF A1?

Present tense of the high-frequency verbs, basic negation, articles and gender, adjective agreement, question forms, numbers, time and the near future with aller + infinitive. The exam tests listening, reading, writing and a short face-to-face interview, and it is pitched at everyday survival topics: yourself, your family, where you live, shopping, directions.

Is French hard for English speakers at A1?

Less hard than almost any other major language. The US Foreign Service Institute puts French in Category I and budgets 600–750 hours to professional working proficiency, against 2,200 for Japanese. The two real obstacles at A1 are grammatical gender, which English has no equivalent for, and the distance between how French is written and how it is spoken.

Should I learn vocabulary or grammar first at A1?

Neither in isolation. A1 grammar is so small and so load-bearing - four verbs, articles, agreement, negation - that you meet it constantly in even the simplest text, so reading gives you both at once and attaches each word to a context you can recall. Isolated word lists give you the word and nothing that goes with it.

Does A1 count for a French visa or residence permit?

Not on its own. The first multi-year residence permit is currently pegged at A2, the 10-year carte de résident at B1, and naturalisation moved to B2 on 1 January 2026. A1 is the step before all of them, not a qualifying level in itself. Always check the current requirement with the relevant préfecture before booking an exam.

Starting point

A1 is the first level. There is nothing before it.

Next level

A2 - Elementary

The whole roadmap: 61 levels, 424 grammar points

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See all five levels, A1 to C1