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
CEFR A2 is the second of the six CEFR levels, the upper half of Basic User, and the level schools sell as elementary or pre-intermediate. At A2 you understand sentences and frequently used expressions about immediate needs, handle simple routine exchanges of information on familiar topics, and describe your background and surroundings in simple terms.
Most adults who come to me for coaching are A2 and have been for years. They can order, book, greet and apologise, and 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 started being a wall.
This page is only about A2. The whole ladder is in CEFR Levels Explained: A1 to C2 in Plain English; the general argument about hours is in How Long Does It Take to Learn English? The Honest Math. Here you get the level by ear and a routine to leave it.
The official A2 can-do descriptors
These are the A2 rows of the Council of Europe’s self-assessment grid, the two spoken rows quoted in full and the other three condensed. The last clause of the spoken interaction row is the whole level in one sentence.
• Spoken interaction: ‘I can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar topics and activities. I can handle very short social exchanges, even though I can’t usually understand enough to keep the conversation going myself.’
• Spoken production: ‘I can use a series of phrases and sentences to describe in simple terms my family and other people, living conditions, my educational background and my present or most recent job.’
• Listening: phrases and the highest frequency vocabulary about personal and family information, shopping, the local area and work; the main point of short, clear, simple messages and announcements.
• Reading: very short, simple texts, and specific information in advertisements, menus and timetables.
• Writing: short, simple notes and messages, and a very simple personal letter.
What A2 speaking actually sounds like
The spoken scales are blunt. Fluency: ‘short contributions, even though pauses, false starts and reformulation are very evident’. Pronunciation, in the 2020 wording: conversational partners ‘will need to ask for repetition from time to time’. Grammar, from the examiners’ table: the A2 speaker ‘uses some simple structures correctly, but still systematically makes basic mistakes – for example tends to mix up tenses and forget to mark agreement; nevertheless, it is usually clear what he/she is trying to say’.
Here is that description as speech, in two turns written by me, not transcribed from learners. An A2 speaker asked how yesterday went: ‘Yesterday I go… I went to the office, and then I have meeting with my boss. It was… difficult, because the client is not happy. My boss say we need new plan.’ Every feature is there: the tense repaired mid-sentence, the agreement missing on ‘say’, the false start, the meaning nevertheless clear.
The same story at B1: ‘Yesterday I had a difficult meeting with my boss because one of our clients was unhappy with the delivery, 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 but the effort of listening.
How to tell whether you are A2 or B1
Three questions, out loud and honestly. Can you hold a two-minute conversation without the other person rescuing it? Can you tell what happened yesterday in connected sentences, tenses holding? Can you give an opinion and one reason for it? One no and you are on the border; two or three and you are A2. Three hesitant yeses is the border too, where most of my students live for a year.
The exam anchors: on the Cambridge English Scale, A2 Key grades B and C sit at 120 to 139 and mean A2, while 140 to 150 on Key earns a certificate stating B1. TOEFL, IELTS and the rest are in CEFR to IELTS Conversion (and TOEFL, Cambridge, DET, TOEIC). The free CEFR level test on this site places your reading and grammar in five minutes.
The A2 plateau: why so many learners stall here
First, A2 runs on memorised social routines; the framework notes that A2 is where ‘the majority of descriptors stating social functions are to be found’: greetings, thanks, invitations, apologies. Routines cover predictable situations completely and unpredictable ones not at all, which is why an A2 speaker feels fluent in a café and mute in a meeting.
Second, the steps are not equal, in the framework’s own words: ‘experience with existing scales suggests that many learners will take more than twice as long to reach Threshold Level [B1] from Waystage [A2] than they needed to reach Waystage’, because of ‘the necessary broadening of the range of activities, skills and language involved’. A2 sits halfway to B1 on the scale. It looks like the next rung and behaves like the next floor.
Third, the classroom ration; the general arithmetic is in the how-long article named above. The A2-specific point is that memorised routines survive on a few minutes of speaking a week and building new sentences under pressure does not, and that skill is the whole difference between A2 and B1. That gap is the plateau.
What A2 cannot do
Read the limits off the descriptors. The interaction row’s last clause means a turn you did not plan for stops you. The production row gives you ‘a series of phrases and sentences’ about family, living conditions, education and your job, and nothing about events or reasons: you can say that something is a problem, not why. ‘Short contributions’ means 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. It is not enough to leave them, and everything that makes a language worth having happens off the rails.
The hours from A2 to B1
Cambridge English puts A2 at roughly 180 to 200 cumulative guided hours and B1 at roughly 350 to 400, so the step is another 150 to 200 guided hours. LanguageCert, counting per level rather than cumulatively, gives 95 hours for A2 and 180 for B1. Both are ranges with wide error bars, and both count lessons, not minutes of speaking.
The figure to remember: the step is about two hundred guided hours, and at two or three minutes of speaking per classroom hour, my arithmetic rather than anyone’s research, that is six to ten hours of you talking. B1 is a speaking level. Nobody publishes a figure for speaking hours, so I will not invent one; the routine below makes speaking most of your practice rather than a rounding error.
A speaking-first routine to leave A2
One rule governs every turn: answer, add one detail, ask one question back. That is the B1 spoken interaction descriptor turned into a habit, and the single change that moved most of my plateaued students. Topics come from B1, not A2: yesterday, the weekend, a film, a problem at work, an opinion with a reason.
The partner is the hard part. The A2 descriptor names the job: you ‘can’t usually understand enough to keep the conversation going’ yourself, so someone else must, then let you struggle, then point at the mistake, without getting bored. 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. This is Lucida’s blog, so weigh that accordingly.
• Daily: ten to fifteen minutes of real conversation on one of those topics, every turn answered, extended and handed back with a question.
• Before each conversation: five minutes with the free shadowing tool on this site, A2 passages then B1, for tempo and linking.
• Weekly: a two-minute monologue on a photo or a memory, recorded.
• Monthly: the same prompt, recorded again and scored on the two things the A2 descriptors name: tense slips repaired mid-sentence, and moments a partner would have had to rescue.
A2 in Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese
The descriptors are language-neutral, so the self-check and the plateau transfer; what changes is the grammar gate at the top of A2. In Spanish, Portuguese and Italian it is the split between the two past tenses, one for events and one for background, which yesterday’s story requires. In French it is the same split, plus liaison; in German, case endings and the verb that waits at the end of the clause. In every language the fix is the same: a lot of stories told out loud.
Institute figures, all ranges. For French, the Centre International d’Antibes’ table adds 100 to 120 hours to reach A2 and another 150 to 180 to reach B1. For Spanish, Instituto Cervantes Berlin runs its A2 course at 90 hours and B1 at 120; other centres differ. For German, the Goethe-Institut’s FAQ pages give about 200 to 350 teaching units of 45 minutes for A2 and 350 to 650 for B1, roughly 150 to 260 and 260 to 490 clock hours. Italian and Portuguese have no institute figure I trust.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between A2.1 and A2.2?
Nothing official. Schools split A2 into two modules for timetabling; 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: more active participation in conversation, given some help. No exam reports A2.1 or A2.2.
Is A2 enough to work in English?
For predictable, familiar-topic tasks only; the descriptor covers ‘simple and routine tasks requiring 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 learning hours by Cambridge’s cumulative estimates; LanguageCert’s per-level figure for B1 is 180. The framework itself says ‘many learners will 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, with 120 to 139 on the Cambridge English Scale meaning A2. For the other languages Lucida teaches: DELE A2 for Spanish, DELF A2 for French, Goethe-Zertifikat A2 for German, CILS A2 for Italian, and CIPLE, the University of Lisbon’s CAPLE certificate, for Portuguese. IELTS has no official A2 band.
Is A2 elementary or pre-intermediate?
Both labels are used for the same level: British Council calls A2 pre-intermediate, EF SET calls it elementary, and coursebook series usually run Elementary across A1 to A2 and Pre-intermediate across A2 to B1. Neither 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.
