The six levels at a glance
The hours are cumulative hours of instruction — classroom time from complete beginner, as the Alliance Française du Yorkshire publishes them for its students — not a promise: the same center reckons A1 alone is about a year of classes at two and a half hours a week. The levels come in pairs, and the pairs are named for what you can do: A1 and A2 are basic users, B1 and B2 independent users, C1 and C2 proficient users.
Read the hours column for the steps, not the totals. Each level from A2 up is another 200 to 300 hours, and the two steps most learners feel are A2 to B1, where French stops being a list of set phrases, and B1 to B2, where conversation stops being hard work.
| Level | What you can do in French | Hours of classes |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Familiar words and simple sentences; simple questions, if people speak slowly and help | 60–100 |
| A2 | Short routine exchanges — shopping, where you live, your job; the point of short, clear messages | 160–200 |
| B1 | Most travel situations; an unprepared chat on a familiar topic; brief reasons for your opinions | 360–400 |
| B2 | Regular conversation with native speakers; most TV news and films; a viewpoint with its pros and cons | 560–650 |
| C1 | Fluent, spontaneous French for work and study; long, complex texts; speech whose structure is only implied | 810–950 |
| C2 | Virtually anything you hear or read, even at native speed; fine shades of meaning | 1,060–1,200 |
How long does it take to learn French?
Two published numbers answer it, in two different units. The Alliance Française du Yorkshire expects 560–650 cumulative hours of classes to reach B2 — the level French universities usually ask for — and 810–950 to reach C1. The US Foreign Service Institute, which trains American diplomats, puts French in its easiest group for English speakers and gives it 30 weeks of full-time study — 690 hours in class, at 23 hours a week plus 17 hours of self-study — to reach a professional working level in speaking and listening (3 on the US government's ILR scale), on the State Department's Foreign Language Training page as checked 6 November 2026. That is about 1,200 hours of work in all. French sits at the long end of that group: FSI gives Spanish the same 30 weeks, and Italian and Portuguese 24.
Both are classroom figures. Time you spend outside class — conversation, reading, listening — counts too, which is why two learners on the same course can finish a level apart; FSI says its timelines vary with the learner's natural ability, earlier language learning and time in the classroom. The table turns the Alliance's B2 figure into calendar time at four paces.
| Hours a week | Time to B2 | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 2.5 | About 4–5 years | One evening class a week |
| 5 | About 2–2½ years | Two evening classes a week |
| 10 | About 13–15 months | An intensive part-time course |
| 23 | About 6 months | FSI's full-time class load |
A2 vs B1 in French
At A2, French works for routines you can predict: buying things, saying where you live and what you do, a short exchange you could not keep going on your own. B1 is the first independent level. The grid's B1 learner gets through most situations while traveling, joins a conversation on a familiar subject without preparing, tells a story or the plot of a film and gives reasons for an opinion. On the Alliance's figures that is about 200 more hours of classes (160–200 to 360–400), and most of it is speaking: the move from answering questions to keeping a conversation going.
B1 vs B2 in French
B2 is where you stop being the slow one in the conversation. The grid's B2 learner talks with native speakers regularly without strain on either side, follows most TV news and the majority of films in standard French, reads articles whose writers take a position, and can explain a point of view with its advantages and disadvantages. B1 handles the familiar; B2 handles the unfamiliar topic and the argument. It is another 200–250 hours of classes (360–400 to 560–650), and it is the level French universities usually ask of international students — the DELF B2 is the usual proof.
C1 and C2
C1 is the first level the grid calls fluent: you speak fluently and spontaneously, with little obvious searching for words, use French flexibly for social and professional purposes, and follow speech even when how it fits together is only implied. C2 is mastery: you understand virtually everything you hear or read and can put across fine shades of meaning precisely. Few learners get there. In the Alliance Française network's 2024 figures, 70% of enrolments in its general French courses were at A1–A2, 27% at B1–B2 and 3% at C1–C2.
Which French exam fits which level
Each DELF or DALF exam tests one level and either awards it or not, so you choose the level before you book; a TCF or TEF places you wherever you are. Canada's immigration system reads TCF Canada and TEF Canada results on its own scale, the NCLC, which TCF Canada vs TEF Canada explains; DELF vs DALF has every DELF and DALF level's papers and timings.
| Exam | Levels | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| DELF | A1, A2, B1, B2 — one exam per level | A diploma for life, if you pass |
| DALF | C1, C2 — one exam per level | A diploma for life, if you pass |
| TCF, TEF | All six, from one exam | A score that places you on the scale; TCF Canada and TEF Canada results count for two years |
Where your French is now
The vocabulary test at the top of this page estimates how many French words you know and the CEFR band that usually goes with that number — an estimate, not a certification, and the same bands Nivelo uses for English and Spanish, which have not been calibrated separately for French. It takes about two minutes, and the French vocabulary test page explains how the estimate works. Use the band to find your row in the first table, then its hours for a rough idea of how far the next level is.