CEFR A2 explained: what A2 actually sounds like, and how to leave it
By Maya Lindqvist, Language Learning Coach · Sep 2, 2026 · 9 min read
What CEFR A2 means
A2 is the second of the six CEFR levels, the upper half of Basic User, sold by schools as elementary or pre-intermediate.
At A2 you handle simple routine exchanges on familiar topics and describe your background in simple terms. You can order, book, greet and apologise.
Most adults who come to me for coaching are A2, and have been for years. They cannot tell me what went wrong at work yesterday.
The framework calls the level Waystage. My students call it the place where the language stopped being fun and became a wall.
The official A2 can-do descriptors
Here is the level in the Council of Europe’s own words, from the self-assessment grid.
The second line below is the whole of A2 in one clause, and it is the one nobody quotes in a brochure.
• Spoken interaction: simple, direct exchanges of information on familiar topics and activities
• The sting: ‘I can’t usually understand enough to keep the conversation going myself’
• Spoken production: phrases about family, living conditions, education and your present job
• Listening: high-frequency vocabulary, short and clear messages and announcements
• Reading: very short simple texts, advertisements, menus and timetables
• Writing: short notes, messages and a very simple personal letter
What A2 speaking actually sounds like
Effortful, in short bursts, with the tenses slipping.
The spoken scales are blunt. Fluency at A2 is ‘short contributions, even though pauses, false starts and reformulation are very evident’.
Grammar, in the examiners’ table: ‘uses some simple structures correctly, but still systematically makes basic mistakes’ — mixed tenses, missing agreement, meaning nevertheless clear.
Here is that as speech, written by me rather than transcribed. An A2 speaker asked how yesterday went: ‘Yesterday I go… I went to the office, and then I have meeting with my boss. My boss say we need new plan.’
The same story at B1: ‘Yesterday I had a difficult meeting with my boss, because a client was unhappy, so we spent the afternoon working out a new plan.’
One sentence instead of four, tenses that hold, a ‘because’ and a ‘so’ doing the linking.
What a listener notices at A2 is not the mistakes. It is the effort of listening.
How to tell whether you are A2 or B1
Three questions, asked out loud and answered honestly.
• Can you hold two minutes of conversation without the other person rescuing it
• Can you say what happened yesterday in connected sentences, tenses holding
• Can you give an opinion and one reason for it
The A2 plateau: why so many learners stall here
One no and you are on the border. Two or three and you are A2.
Three hesitant yeses is the border as well, and that is where most of my students live for a year.
They stall because everything that got them here stops working at the top of A2. Three reasons, in the order they bite.
• Routines cover a café completely and a meeting not at all
• The step is longer: the framework says more than twice as long
• A2 sits halfway to B1 but behaves like a floor, not a rung
• Memorised phrases survive on a few classroom minutes; new sentences do not
What A2 cannot do, and what no app fixes
Read the limits straight off the descriptors.
A turn you did not plan for stops you. You can say that something is a problem, not why it happened. A description runs out after a handful of sentences.
None of this is a character flaw. A2 is enough to live in the language on rails, and not enough to leave them.
An app does not fix every part of it either. For an exam certificate, written work, or a colleague who knows your industry, a class or a tutor is the better spend.
• Not for an app: exam coaching, written reports, your industry’s vocabulary
• Worth an app: daily speaking, and feedback on the errors the descriptors name
• The English anchor: 120 to 139 on the Cambridge English Scale means A2
• The free CEFR test here places your reading and grammar in five minutes
The hours from A2 to B1, in six languages
About another two hundred guided hours, on every published estimate I trust.
All of these count lessons, not minutes of speaking, and all of them are ranges with wide error bars.
The last three come from the schools themselves: an Antibes centre for French, an Instituto Cervantes centre for Spanish, the Goethe-Institut for German.
• Cambridge English: 180 to 200 cumulative hours for A2, 350 to 400 for B1
• LanguageCert, counting per level: 95 hours for A2 and 180 for B1
• French: 100 to 120 hours to A2, another 150 to 180 to B1
• Spanish: one centre runs its A2 course at 90 hours, B1 at 120
• German: roughly 150 to 260 clock hours to A2, 260 to 490 to B1
• Portuguese and Arabic: no institute figure I trust
A speaking-first routine to leave A2
One rule governs every turn: answer, add one detail, ask one question back.
That is the B1 interaction descriptor turned into a habit, and the single change that moved most of my plateaued students.
Take the topics from B1, not A2: yesterday, the weekend, a film, a problem at work, an opinion with a reason.
The grammar gate differs by language. Two past tenses in Spanish and Portuguese; the same split plus liaison in French; cases and the late verb in German; a script that omits short vowels in Arabic.
The partner is the hard part. Someone has to keep the conversation going, let you struggle, then point at the mistake, without getting bored.
That is the job Lucida does: spoken conversations with an AI coach, Lucy, and feedback on pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, pace and filler words. This is Lucida’s blog, so weigh that accordingly.
• Daily: ten to fifteen minutes of real conversation on one B1 topic
• Every turn: answer, extend by one detail, hand it back with a question
• Before each session: five minutes of shadowing, A2 passages then B1
• Weekly: a recorded two-minute monologue on a photo or a memory
• Monthly: the same prompt again, scored on tense slips and rescues needed
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between A2.1 and A2.2?
Nothing official. Schools split A2 into two modules for timetabling, and A2.2 usually means the second half of the coursebook. The framework has only A2 and, in its 2001 text, an A2+ band it calls strong Waystage. No exam reports A2.1 or A2.2.
Is A2 enough to work in English?
For predictable, familiar-topic tasks only. The descriptor covers ‘a simple and direct exchange of information’: reception, retail and written procedures, yes; meetings, complaints and negotiation, no. Job adverts that state a level rarely go below B1, and the UK Skilled Worker visa has required B2 since January 2026.
Is A2 enough to travel?
Comfortably, as long as the trip stays on rails. You can book, order, ask directions, buy tickets and have short friendly exchanges. When something goes wrong you will understand the problem and struggle to explain your side of it, which is the A2 ceiling exactly.
How long does it take to go from A2 to B1?
Roughly 150 to 200 guided hours on Cambridge’s cumulative estimates; LanguageCert’s per-level figure for B1 is 180. The framework itself says many learners take ‘more than twice as long’ to reach B1 from A2 as they needed to reach A2. Daily speaking is what changes the calendar.
Which exams certify A2?
For English, Cambridge A2 Key, where 120 to 139 on the Cambridge English Scale means A2. For the other languages Lucida teaches: DELE A2 for Spanish, DELF A2 for French, Goethe-Zertifikat A2 for German and CIPLE for Portuguese. Arabic has no board exam with the same standing, and IELTS reports no official A2 band.
Is A2 elementary or pre-intermediate?
Both labels are used for the same level. Some schools and test providers call A2 pre-intermediate, others call it elementary, and coursebook series usually run Elementary across A1 to A2 and Pre-intermediate across A2 to B1. Neither word is a Council of Europe term.
Leave the rails with a partner who keeps the conversation going
Lucida is an AI speaking coach app for iOS and Android: you hold real spoken conversations with an AI coach, Lucy, and get real-time feedback on pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, pace and filler words. It does the rescuing the A2 descriptor says you cannot yet do yourself. Free to download on iOS and Android; some features require a subscription.
