CEFR levels A1 to C2 explained: what you can read at each level

If you’ve studied a European language, you’ve probably been told you’re “a B1” or “working toward B2.” These labels come from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, or CEFR, published by the Council of Europe in 2001 and extended in a Companion Volume in 2020. It’s now used around the world to describe ability in many languages, European and otherwise.

The CEFR doesn’t describe what you know. It describes what you can do: order a meal, follow a news report, argue a point at work. This article looks at the six levels from one angle, reading, because reading is where the differences between levels are easiest to see. For a shorter summary, see Lexo’s guide to levels.

The six levels at a glance

The CEFR groups its six levels into three bands.

Level	Band	Traditional name	What reading looks like
A1	Basic user	Breakthrough	Very short, simple texts, a phrase at a time: signs, notes, simple messages
A2	Basic user	Waystage	Short, simple texts on familiar, everyday topics, in common words
B1	Independent user	Threshold	Straightforward texts on familiar subjects, read with reasonable understanding
B2	Independent user	Vantage	Most texts, with a good degree of independence; rare idioms still cause trouble
C1	Proficient user	Effective operational proficiency	Long, complex texts in detail, rereading the hardest parts
C2	Proficient user	Mastery	Virtually anything, including complex literary writing

The reading descriptions above paraphrase the CEFR’s own scales for reading comprehension. The 2020 Companion Volume also added a Pre-A1 band below A1 and many new descriptors, including a scale for reading as a leisure activity.

One passage, six levels

Descriptions only go so far. Here is what the levels look like on the page. Jane Austen opened Pride and Prejudice (1813) with one of the best-known sentences in English:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

The sentence is a joke. It sounds like a solemn philosophical principle, and it’s really about the neighborhood mothers who have already decided which of their daughters a rich newcomer will marry. Austen makes the joke explicit in the next sentence. Here’s that opening rewritten at each level. These versions are our own, written for this article.

A1

Mr. Bingley is young. He is rich. He has no wife. The families near his house have daughters. They are happy.

Present tense, the most common words, one idea per sentence. The facts survive, the irony doesn’t, and the reader has to supply the link between “no wife” and “daughters.”

A2

Everyone says the same thing: a rich young man without a wife wants to find one. When a man like this comes to live near them, the families with daughters are very interested. They all want him to marry one of their girls.

Still short sentences and everyday words, but now there are connectors (when), a little more description and a clear chain of cause and effect. The joke is beginning to show.

B1

People like to say that a young man with a lot of money must be looking for a wife. Nobody knows what such a man really thinks when he arrives in a new place. But the local families are already sure that he will marry one of their daughters.

Longer sentences, a reported idea (people like to say that…), a contrast with but. A B1 reader can follow the irony because the text hands it over plainly.

B2

It is a truth that everyone accepts: a single man with a large fortune must be in need of a wife. However little the neighbors know about his feelings when he first arrives, they are so sure of this truth that they think of him as the rightful property of one of their daughters.

Now the vocabulary widens (fortune, rightful property) and the grammar carries more weight (however little… they are so sure… that). A B2 reader gets the joke from the style itself, not just from the facts.

C1

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known his feelings or views may be when he first enters a neighborhood, this truth is so firmly fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered the rightful property of one or other of their daughters.

Close to the original, with the period phrasing intact and a few small modernizations. At C1, a reader handles long sentences and formal vocabulary, perhaps rereading once.

C2

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

Austen’s words, unchanged. A C2 reader takes in the rhythm, the old-fashioned grammar (on his first entering) and the comedy all at once.

Notice what moves as the levels rise. Sentences get longer and are joined in more ways. Vocabulary shifts from the most common words toward rarer and more precise ones. Grammar adds tenses, passives and subordinate clauses. And meaning moves from the surface into the style: at A1 everything is said outright, while at C2 the most important thing, the joke, is never said at all.

What you can read at each level

A1: phrases and short messages

You can pick out familiar names, words and simple phrases, and you’ll often reread. Signs, menus, short notes and very simple messages are within reach. A novel, even a simplified one, is generally too much at this stage, because stories need past tenses and connected sentences.

A2: short, simple texts

You can read short texts about familiar, concrete things in high-frequency language: personal messages, simple instructions, short news items written for learners. This is where graded readers and simplified novels become possible, with short chapters, clear sentences and plenty of support.

B1: straightforward texts

You can read straightforward texts on familiar subjects and understand them reasonably well: blog posts, simple articles and books written or adapted for intermediate learners. For many learners, B1 is where reading starts to feel like reading rather than decoding.

B2: most texts, with some effort

You can read with a good degree of independence, adjusting your speed to the text. Articles for general readers and some fiction written for native speakers are possible, especially contemporary fiction with simple style. Idioms and low-frequency words still slow you down.

C1: long and complex texts

You can follow long, complex texts in detail, including literature, even outside your own field, provided you can reread difficult sections. Classic novels close to their original form are within reach.

C2: virtually anything

You can read and critically interpret almost every kind of written text, including abstract, structurally complex and highly colloquial writing. This is where you read the complete, unabridged classic.

How many words is that?

The CEFR itself doesn’t set vocabulary sizes, but researchers have tried to estimate them. James Milton (2010, “The development of vocabulary breadth across the CEFR levels”) brought together vocabulary test results for learners of English whose levels were known from Cambridge exams. The test measured how many of the 5,000 most frequent words (counted as lemmas, so walk, walks and walked count once) each learner knew:

Level	Known of the 5,000 most frequent words
A1	fewer than 1,500
A2	1,500–2,500
B1	2,750–3,250
B2	3,250–3,750
C1	3,750–4,500
C2	4,500–5,000

Milton called these broad generalizations, and learners vary a good deal. The ceiling of 5,000 is the test’s limit, not the learners’. Figures for other languages differ, partly because of how each language’s word lists are built.

For a sense of scale, compare this with the vocabulary an unsimplified novel requires. Research on English suggests that knowing about 98% of the words in a novel takes a vocabulary of roughly 8,000 to 9,000 word families, with names counted separately (Nation 2006, “How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening?”). That gap is why reading at lower levels depends on adapted or graded texts. See how many words you need to read a novel.

Your levels can be uneven

The CEFR has separate scales for reading, listening, speaking and writing, among other activities, and nobody expects them to match. It’s common to read at a higher level than you speak, especially if you read a lot. That’s normal, and it’s useful: reading at your reading level gives you language that your speaking can catch up with later.

It also means “I’m a B1” is less precise than it sounds. For choosing books, the level that matters is your reading level. If you’re unsure, see how to choose your reading level.

How to estimate your reading level

• Use the CEFR self-assessment grid. The 2001 framework includes a grid of plain “I can…” statements for each skill and level. Reading the reading row honestly is a decent first estimate.
• Take an exam. Exams such as DELE (Spanish), DELF and DALF (French) and the Goethe-Zertifikat (German) are aligned to the CEFR. Japanese and Chinese have their own exam scales, JLPT and HSK, and comparisons with the CEFR are approximate.
• Try texts at different levels. Read a page at each of two neighboring levels. The one you can follow comfortably, without frequent lookups, is your level for everyday reading.

How Lexo uses the levels

Lexo is an iPhone and iPad app that rewrites classic novels at five CEFR levels in the language you’re learning:

Level	In Lexo
A2	Elementary
B1	Intermediate
B2	Upper intermediate
C1	Advanced: close to the original, lightly condensed
C2	Proficient: the complete novel

Lexo starts at A2. At A1, most learners are still building the basic words and grammar that any story needs; once you can manage simple sentences in the present and past, you’re ready for an A2 book.

You choose the level for each book, so you can read Treasure Island at A2 and a story you know well, like Pride and Prejudice, a level higher. At every level, you can tap a word to see its meaning in that sentence, hear it pronounced, or see the whole sentence translated into your own language, and you can listen to the narration with the words highlighted as they’re read. Lexo is in beta and launching on the App Store soon. Get notified at launch.