Guides · Language guide
The CEFR levels, explained.
What A1 to C2 mean for a reader, why B1 is where reading for pleasure starts, the plus levels, how many hours each level takes, and the exams in Spanish, French and English.
October 30, 2026
The Council of Europe’s language levels went nearly two decades without a scale for reading for pleasure. It arrived with the Companion Volume, first published online in 2018 and in its final form in 2020, and read from the bottom up it tells a small story of its own. At A1 you can follow an illustrated story if the pictures help you guess. At A2 you can manage short narratives in simple, everyday language. At B1 the word “novels” appears for the first time, with a condition attached: a dictionary, used regularly.
That scale is the best way into the CEFR for anyone who learns a language by reading, and it makes the case this guide argues: B1 is where reading for pleasure begins, and the little “plus” levels between the main ones matter more than their size suggests.
The short answer
The CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, sorts learners into six levels: A1 and A2 (basic user), B1 and B2 (independent user), C1 and C2 (proficient user). The Council of Europe published it in 2001. Its 2020 Companion Volume added a Pre-A1 level, defined the in-between “plus” levels (A2+, B1+, B2+) more fully and added new scales, among them one for reading as a leisure activity.
For a reader, roughly: A1 is very short texts, a phrase at a time; A2, short, simple texts and stories in everyday language; B1, stories and simple novels with a dictionary; B2, novels in straightforward language, read largely on your own; C1, literature, with some rereading; C2, virtually anything. The scale is the same for Spanish, French and English, and the DELE, DELF and Cambridge exams are all mapped to it.
Facing Pages · bilingual stories
Stories in Spanish, French and English from A1 to C1
228 original stories in Spanish, French and English, with your own language on the facing page, matched sentence by sentence. The first episode of every series is free, and there’s no account to make.
Reading this on a computer?
Scan the code with your phone’s camera. It opens the App Store or Google Play, whichever your phone uses. No account needed.
Or text yourself the linkSix levels, three bands
The levels describe what you can do with a language, not lists of what you know. There are no word lists in the CEFR and no grammar lists either; those come later, language by language, in documents like the Instituto Cervantes’ Plan curricular for Spanish. The framework itself is a bank of “can do” statements, organized by activity: reading, listening, speaking, writing and, since the Companion Volume, mediation, the work of passing meaning between people or texts. Its one-paragraph summary of each level, the global scale, is the version usually quoted.
Here is the reading side of each level, drawn from the Companion Volume’s scales for overall reading and for reading as a leisure activity, with the exam that certifies it in each of the three languages we publish stories in.
| Level | What you can read | Exams (Spanish · French · English) |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-A1 | Familiar words with pictures beside them, like a menu illustrated with photos | None |
| A1 | Very short, simple texts, a phrase at a time, rereading as you go; illustrated stories when the pictures carry much of the meaning | DELE A1 · DELF A1 |
| A2 | Short, simple texts on familiar, concrete matters; short narratives in simple language | DELE A2 · DELF A2 · A2 Key |
| B1 | Straightforward factual texts on your own interests; stories and simple novels with a clear storyline, with a dictionary | DELE B1 · DELF B1 · B1 Preliminary |
| B2 | Reading with a large degree of independence, adapting your speed to the text; novels in straightforward language, given time and a dictionary | DELE B2 · DELF B2 · B2 First |
| C1 | Long, complex texts, including literature, with some rereading and reference tools | DELE C1 · DALF C1 · C1 Advanced |
| C2 | Virtually every kind of text, classical or colloquial, with an ear for style | DELE C2 · DALF C2 · C2 Proficiency |
Look down the middle column and the jump between A2 and B1 stands out. Below it, reading is about short texts on familiar ground. Above it, the reader chooses the text: their own interests, a story with a plot, eventually a book. That is why we put the start of reading for pleasure at B1, not B2. B2 adds independence; B1 is where the pastime begins.
Two things the levels are not. They aren’t a ladder to native speech: the Companion Volume says plainly that C2 has nothing to do with an idealized native speaker, and describes it instead as the precision and ease of a highly successful learner. And they aren’t equal steps, as the hours below show.
What the levels look like on the page
The clearest way to see the levels is in the verbs. These lines come from free stories in our library.
At A1, everything happens now. Sam met la clé dans la serrure, mais la porte ne s’ouvre pas. Sam puts the key in the lock, but the door doesn’t open: one tense, the present, and one idea per clause. In Spanish, Lola tiene diez años y vive en Granada. Our beginner stories keep sentences to an average of ten words or fewer.
At A2, finished events arrive. A girl in Valencia tells her grandmother ayer usé los mismos ingredientes e hice todo igual, “yesterday I used the same ingredients and did everything the same way”, with the preterite of a regular verb and of hacer.
B1 is two past tenses working together, the way most stories are told. Ce vendredi-là, Tonton Albert a trouvé un trésor dans un carton de vieux livres. Le lendemain matin, le trésor n’était plus là. The passé composé says what happened; the imparfait says how things stood. Spanish makes the same split, between the preterite and the imperfect.
At B2 and C1, time folds back on itself. Haydée Ledesma había dado su última clase de tango once años atrás: she had taught her last tango class eleven years earlier, a pluperfect in the very first sentence of a Buenos Aires story. A C1 story set in Quebec City opens La lettre arriva le troisième soir, in the passé simple, the literary past tense of written French, almost never heard in conversation. Sentences average up to twenty words, and what matters is often what a character doesn’t say.
The plus levels
Between the main levels sit three more: A2+, B1+ and B2+. The 2001 framework introduced them; the Companion Volume strengthened their descriptions. A plus level describes a learner who is very strong at one level without yet meeting the minimum for the next, and who is starting to show features of the level above. They are also written A2.2, B1.2 and B2.2, with A2.1 and B1.1 standing for the level proper.
On the leisure-reading scale, the plus levels are where the next level’s reading first shows up. Short, simple stories and comic strips about familiar situations are an A2+ skill. Reading a magazine’s account of a film or a concert and getting the main points, or a simple poem or song lyric, is B1+. The framework’s own commentary calls B1+ a “strong Threshold” performance, using the old name for B1, and describes the way to B2 as slow, steady progress across an intermediate plateau.
That plateau is where many learners decide they are stuck. They aren’t, necessarily. B2, the Companion Volume says, sits as far above B1 as A2 sits below it: a whole new level, not a last step. A learner who reads magazine reviews and simple novels but not yet much else is probably at B1+, a stage the framework treats as real, and the cure for it is more reading at that level, not a harder book.
How long each level takes
The CEFR doesn’t say. One widely used set of figures comes from Cambridge English, for learners of English, and they are guidelines only: about 200 guided learning hours, meaning lessons and supervised study, to move from one level to the next. Counted from zero, Cambridge’s table runs 90 to 100 hours for A1, 180 to 200 for A2, 350 to 400 for B1, 500 to 600 for B2, 700 to 800 for C1 and 1,000 to 1,200 for C2.
Look at the gaps rather than the totals and the levels widen as you climb. A1 to A2 is the shortest step on the table, roughly a hundred hours. C1 to C2 is three to four hundred. Progress that felt fast in the first months slows on paper, too, not just in your head.
For Spanish and French, a figure often quoted comes from the US Foreign Service Institute, which trains diplomats. It puts both in its first category, languages close to English, and expects 30 weeks, at 23 hours of class and 17 of self-study a week, to reach a score of 3 in speaking and listening: 690 hours of class in all. That score is on the Interagency Language Roundtable scale, not the CEFR, so treat any CEFR level attached to it as a guess. Both sets of numbers are estimates for learners in structured courses. Your own pace depends on the things Cambridge itself lists: your background, how intensively you study, and how much of the language you meet outside lessons.
Facing Pages · bilingual stories
Stories in Spanish, French and English from A1 to C1
228 original stories in Spanish, French and English, with your own language on the facing page, matched sentence by sentence. The first episode of every series is free, and there’s no account to make.
Reading this on a computer?
Scan the code with your phone’s camera. It opens the App Store or Google Play, whichever your phone uses. No account needed.
Or text yourself the linkExams: diplomas and tests
Every major exam in these three languages is mapped to the CEFR, but they come in two kinds, and the difference matters if you need a certificate.
Spanish. The DELE is a family of six diplomas, A1 to C2, issued by the Instituto Cervantes in the name of Spain’s Ministry of Education under a 2002 royal decree that ties them to the CEFR’s six levels. DELE diplomas don’t expire. The SIELE is a single test that places you anywhere from A1 to C1 with a score out of 1,000, and its certificate is valid for five years.
French. The DELF covers A1 to B2 and the DALF covers C1 and C2. Both are diplomas of the French Ministry of Education, run by France Éducation international, and both are valid for life. The TCF is a test, not a diploma: it places you on the scale from A1 to C2, and its result is valid for two years.
English. Cambridge’s exams each target one level: A2 Key, B1 Preliminary, B2 First, C1 Advanced and C2 Proficiency. Below A2, its exams are for children.
If no university, employer or consulate is asking for a certificate, you don’t need one to know your level. The reading scale will tell you, and so will a page of a book: count the words you’d have to guess, as we explain in how many words you need to know in Spanish.
Our levels, mapped to the CEFR
Facing Pages sorts its Spanish, French and English stories into three levels, each a band of the CEFR.
- Beginner (A1–A2): stories of 150 to 300 words, inside about the 1,000 most common words plus up to eight topic words. In Spanish, the present tense, ir a plus an infinitive and gustar, with A2 stories adding the preterite of regular verbs and of ser, ir, tener, estar and hacer. In French, the present and the futur proche, with A2 adding the passé composé.
- Intermediate (B1): 400 to 700 words, inside about the 2,500 most common words plus up to twelve topic words, with natural dialogue. Spanish adds the imperfect beside the preterite, the future, the conditional and the first subjunctives after quiero que, ojalá and para que; French adds the imparfait, the futur simple, the conditional and the pronouns y and en.
- Advanced (B2–C1): 900 to 1,500 words, any vocabulary, the full subjunctive, and in French the passé simple in narration.
There is no C2 shelf. A reader at C2 can read virtually anything, and doesn’t need stories written for learners. Our stories stop where the rest of the literature in Spanish, French and English opens up. To find your place, trust the page over the label. If our beginner stories in Spanish or in French read without a stop on every line, try the intermediate ones, and read a lot there before you move on.
Then B2 arrives the way the Companion Volume describes it. After slow, steady progress across the plateau, you find you’ve arrived somewhere, and things look different.
Questions
What do the CEFR levels mean?
They are six levels of language ability set by the Council of Europe: A1 and A2 for a basic user, B1 and B2 for an independent user, C1 and C2 for a proficient user. Each level is defined by “can do” statements, such as what you can read, understand, say and write, not by how many words or grammar points you know.
Is B1 fluent?
Not in the everyday sense. In the CEFR’s one-paragraph summary of each level, fluency first appears at B2, for interaction that runs without strain on either side, and again at C1, for speech without much obvious searching for words. For a reader, B1 is still a milestone: it’s where you can follow stories and simple novels with a dictionary, the start of reading for pleasure.
How many hours does it take to reach each CEFR level?
Cambridge English’s guideline, for learners of English, is about 200 guided learning hours per level: roughly 90–100 hours for A1, 180–200 for A2, 350–400 for B1, 500–600 for B2, 700–800 for C1 and 1,000–1,200 for C2, counted from zero. Your own time depends on your background, how intensively you study and how much of the language you meet outside lessons.
How long does it take to get from A1 to B2 in Spanish or French?
No official figure exists for either language. Cambridge’s guideline for English puts A1 at 90–100 hours and B2 at 500–600, so roughly 400 hours between them. The US Foreign Service Institute expects about 30 weeks of full-time training, 23 hours of class and 17 of self-study a week, for an English speaker to reach a score of 3 in speaking and listening in Spanish or French, on its own scale rather than the CEFR.
What is A2 level in Spanish?
At A2 you can understand short, simple texts and stories in everyday language and handle routine exchanges about familiar things. The DELE A2 diploma certifies it. In our A2 stories, it’s where finished events arrive: the stories add the preterite of regular verbs and of ser, ir, tener, estar and hacer to the present tense.
What do A2.1, A2.2 and B1+ mean?
They split a level in two. A2.1 is A2 proper; A2.2, also written A2+, is a plus level: very strong at A2, with features of B1 starting to show, but not yet B1. The CEFR describes plus levels for A2, B1 and B2.
Is C2 the same as a native speaker?
No. The Council of Europe says explicitly that C2 has no relation to an idealized native speaker. It describes the precision, appropriateness and ease of highly successful learners of the language.
Facing Pages · bilingual stories
Stories in Spanish, French and English from A1 to C1
228 original stories in Spanish, French and English, with your own language on the facing page, matched sentence by sentence. The first episode of every series is free, and there’s no account to make.
Reading this on a computer?
Scan the code with your phone’s camera. It opens the App Store or Google Play, whichever your phone uses. No account needed.
Or text yourself the link