The DELF A2 writing paper consists of two exercises, each worth 12.5 marks. They look similar. They are not.
Exercise 1 wants a story. Something happened to you, and you describe it with your feelings attached. Exercise 2 wants an action. You invite, thank, apologize, complain, or ask, and the corrector checks whether you performed each one.
Candidates who treat both the same way lose marks on one or the other. Usually, exercise 2, because they write a pleasant paragraph and forget to invite anyone.
These sample papers separate the two properly.
How Is the DELF A2 Writing Paper Structured?
Two exercises in 45 minutes, marked out of 25. Each carries 12.5 marks and asks for about 60 words. Exercise 1 describes an event or personal experience. Exercise 2 performs speech acts such as inviting, thanking, or apologizing.
| Exercise | What it asks | Minimum words | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Describe an event or experience, with your impressions | 60 | 12.5 |
| 2 | Write a message that invites, thanks, apologizes, asks, or informs | 60 | 12.5 |
Both are marked independently. A strong exercise 1 does not rescue a weak exercise 2, so budget your 45 minutes evenly. Twenty minutes each, five minutes to check.
The writing paper is presented alongside listening and reading in a collective session lasting one hour and forty minutes. The pass mark is 50 out of 100 across the four papers, with a floor of 5 out of 25 in writing. Official specifications are on the France Éducation International A2 diploma page.
Sample Paper 1
Exercise 1: Describe an experience
Exercice 1 : 12,5 points
Le week-end dernier, vous avez assisté à un mariage dans votre famille. Vous écrivez un message à votre amie française Léa pour lui raconter cette journée. Vous décrivez ce que vous avez fait, les personnes présentes et vos impressions. (60 mots minimum)
Model answer (78 words)
Salut Léa,
Samedi dernier, je suis allée au mariage de ma cousine à Jaipur. C’était magnifique !
La cérémonie a commencé le matin et elle a duré trois heures. Toute ma famille était là, même mes oncles qui habitent à Mumbai. J’ai porté un sari rouge et j’ai beaucoup dansé le soir.
J’étais un peu fatiguée à la fin, mais très heureuse. Je pense que c’était la plus belle journée de l’année.
Et toi, ça va ?
Bises, Ananya
Exercise 2: Perform the speech acts
Exercice 2 : 12,5 points
Vous avez emprunté un livre à votre voisine française, Madame Berger, et vous l’avez perdu. Vous lui écrivez un message. Vous vous excusez, vous expliquez ce qui s’est passé, vous proposez une solution et vous la remerciez pour sa patience. (60 mots minimum)
Model answer (82 words)
Bonjour Madame Berger,
Je vous écris parce que j’ai un problème. Je suis vraiment désolée : j’ai perdu le livre que vous m’avez prêté le mois dernier.
Je l’ai emporté dans le train et je crois que je l’ai oublié sur mon siège. J’ai téléphoné à la gare, mais personne ne l’a trouvé.
Je voudrais vous acheter le même livre cette semaine. Est-ce que ça vous convient ?
Merci beaucoup pour votre patience et encore pardon.
Cordialement, Ananya Sharma
These are the practice papers. For the full method, the vocabulary lists, and an in-depth look at both task formats, see the DELF A2 writing guide.
Sample Paper 2: Practice This One Cold
Write both before you read any model. That is the only honest test.
Exercise 1. Vous avez changé de ville il y a deux mois. Vous écrivez à un ami français pour raconter votre installation : votre nouveau logement, votre quartier, ce qui vous plaît et ce qui vous manque. (60 mots minimum)
Exercise 2. Votre collègue français, Thomas, vient d’obtenir une promotion. Vous lui écrivez un message. Vous le félicitez, vous l’invitez à dîner chez vous samedi, vous lui demandez s’il a des allergies alimentaires et vous lui proposez de venir avec sa femme. (60 mots minimum)
Exercise 2 in this pair has four speech acts: congratulate, invite, ask, and propose. Miss one and the task completion band drops. Underline them on the question paper before you write a word.
What Is the Difference Between the Two Tasks?
Exercise 1 is a narration and needs past tenses plus your reactions. Exercise 2 is a set of actions that requires the appropriate speech acts and register. Correctors use different descriptors for each.
| Exercise 1 | Exercise 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Tell what happened | Get something done |
| Main tenses | Passé composé, imparfait | Present, passé composé, conditional for requests |
| What is checked | Details, examples, feelings | Every instructed act performed |
| Common failure | Listing facts with no reaction | Writing warmly but forgetting an act |
| Register | Usually informal, tu | Depends on the addressee |
The top band for exercise 1 asks you to recount an event and describe your feelings and reactions. So the sentence “J’étais un peu fatiguée, mais très heureuse” is doing real work. Without a line like that, a factual account stays in the middle band.
The top band for exercise 2 asks for a short text that fully satisfies the task and includes extra details that enrich it. So performing the four acts is the floor, not the ceiling. Adding “et encore pardon” at the end is what lifts it.
A2 is often the level at which learners aiming for Canada realize that DELF is not the exam their application requires. TCF and TEF guide sets out the differences in fees, formats, and validity.
How Are the 12.5 Marks Awarded Per Exercise?
Five criteria worth 2.5 marks each: task completion, coherence, social appropriateness, vocabulary, and grammar. Each is banded at 0, 0.5, 1.5, or 2.5.
| Criterion | Below A2 | At A2 | At A2+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Task completion | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 |
| Coherence and cohesion | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 |
| Social appropriacy | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 |
| Vocabulary and spelling | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 |
| Grammar | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 |
Two correctors mark every script independently. Double marking is compulsory.
Look at the gap between 1.5 and 2.5. On vocabulary, the A2 band accepts phonetic spelling for words outside your basic repertoire. The A2+ band expects lexical spelling to be mostly correct. That single step is worth a full mark on both exercises, so two marks overall.
The published bands and descriptors are in the official A2 written production grid.
What the marked comparison below shows is something worth saying plainly. At A2, most lost marks are not language failures. They are packaging failures, and packaging is teachable in a fortnight. That is the part of the paper our A2 batches attack first, because it moves scores faster than adding vocabulary ever does.
Two Versions of the Same Message, Marked
Nothing shows the bands better than the same task written twice. Both versions below answer the lost-book task from sample paper 1.
Version A (63 words)
Bonjour,
J’ai perdu votre livre. Je suis désolée. Je l’ai laissé dans le train. J’ai appelé la gare mais rien. Je peux acheter un autre livre. Vous voulez ? Merci. Au revoir.
Version B (82 words)
The model answer was given earlier on this page.
Version A, marked
Task completion, 1.5. The four acts are all present in some form: apology, explanation, solution, thanks. They are present but bare. The A2+ band asks for extra detail that enriches the message, and there is none.
Coherence, 0.5. Nine short sentences, no connectors at all. “J’ai appelé la gare mais rien” breaks down halfway. The descriptor for the middle band expects simple connectors or a clear chronological logic, and neither is here.
Social appropriateness, 0.5. “Bonjour” with no name, then “Au revoir” as a written sign-off. The register is wrong for a neighbor you are apologizing to. “Vous voulez ?” is blunt when a request is needed.
Vocabulary, 1.5. Adequate for the task, nothing more. No spelling errors.
Grammar, 1.5. Correct but limited. Only present and passé composé, no conditional, no complex structure attempted.
Total: 5.5 of 12.5.
Version B, marked
Task completion, 2.5. Same four acts, plus the detail of when the book was borrowed, plus a timeframe for the replacement, plus a second apology at the end.
Coherence, 2.5. Paragraphs, connectors, and a clear order: problem, explanation, solution, thanks.
Social appropriacy, 2.5. Named greeting, vous throughout, “Cordialement” as the closing, and a request framed with the conditional.
Vocabulary, 2 and Grammar, 2. Both solid, held back only by range.
Total: 11.5 of 12.5.
The gap is six marks. The French in version B is barely harder. What differs is packaging: a name in the greeting, four connectors, one conditional, and paragraph breaks. That is a fortnight of habit-building, not a level of language.
Which Errors Score You Zero?
Four anomalies exist, and each is mechanical. Writing off-topic, writing the wrong text type, leaving the page blank, or writing 29 words or fewer.
- Wrong topic. You cannot reach the top band on task completion or vocabulary.
- Wrong text type. You were asked to write a message to a neighbor, but you wrote an essay. You cannot reach A2 or A2+ on task completion or coherence.
- Both. Task completion, coherence, and social appropriateness all go to zero.
- Under 30 words. Zero for that exercise, regardless of quality.
The word count trap matters more at A2 than at A1, because there are two exercises. Running out of time on exercise 2 and writing 25 words costs you 12.5 marks in one stroke. If you are short on time, write fast and rough. Marks exist for rough French. None exist for a half-finished sentence.
Because both writing exercises draw on daily-life vocabulary, they pair naturally with the receptive papers. The A2 listening sample papers cover the same situations in the audio, and the A2 reading sample papers reuse the same adverts and short articles.
Which Tenses and Connectors Do Correctors Expect?
Passé composé and imparfait for exercise 1, present and near future for exercise 2, and simple connectors throughout. The grid explicitly credits linking sentences with common articulators rather than juxtaposing them.
- For narration, use both past tenses. Passé composé for the events. Imparfait for the background and how you felt. “La cérémonie a commencé le matin” for the action, “Toute ma famille était là” for the setting. Using only the passé composé reads as A1 with more words.
- For requests, reach for the conditional. Je voudrais. Est-ce que ce serait possible ? Pourriez-vous ? Two conditional forms in a message signal control above the minimum band.
- Connectors worth learning cold. Alors, mais, parce que, donc, ensuite, après, enfin, c’est pourquoi. Eight words. They cover almost every A2 task, and the coherence criterion is worth 2.5 marks on each exercise.
- Openings and closings by register. Salut and Bises for a friend. Bonjour and Cordialement for a neighbor or colleague. Getting this pair right is most of the social appropriateness mark.
Students in DELF A2 writing classes usually see their biggest jump here, because register and connectors are quick to fix once someone points them out.
How Should You Use the 45 Minutes?
Twenty minutes per exercise, five to check. Spend the first two minutes of each underlining the instructions, not writing.
A workable routine:
- Two minutes. Read the task. Underline every instruction. Note the addressee and decide whether to use tu or vous.
- Three minutes. Jot six to eight keywords in the margin. One per idea.
- Twelve minutes. Write. Do not stop to perfect a sentence.
- Three minutes. Count the words. Check that every instruction is answered. Check that the greeting and sign-off exist.
Then repeat for exercise 2. Keep five minutes at the end for a final pass on both, looking only for agreement errors and missing accents.
Counting words is not optional. Do it by counting the words in one full line, then multiplying by the number of lines. It takes twenty seconds.
One more habit protects your marks. Read the task aloud in your head before you plan. Candidates misread A2 tasks more often than they misread any other paper, usually by missing one instruction buried in the last sentence.
Also, decide early which exercise to write first. Most people find exercise 2 easier because it is a checklist, so writing it first banks marks while you are fresh. Then exercise 1 gets whatever time remains, and narration is the more forgiving of the two if you run short.
Does DELF A2 Writing Have Practical Value?
A2 is the level required for a multi-year French residence permit, and the writing skills transfer directly to routine work emails. It is a checkpoint on the way to B1 and B2 rather than an endpoint.
France raised its language thresholds on 1 January 2026 under decree 2025-648. Long-term residence cards now need B1, and naturalization needs B2 in all four skills.
For learners in India, A2 writing is where French becomes usable in a professional inbox. Short emails, polite requests, apologies, and confirmations. Many working professionals find that alone justifies the level, well before any immigration question arises.
If Canada is your goal, remember that DELF is not the points exam. TEF Canada and TCF Canada are, and those results expire after two years.
A2 is often the level at which a French qualification first becomes useful at work, rather than just on a study plan. French on your CV sets out the roles and salary ranges involved.
Questions Learners Ask About DELF A2 Written Tasks
Have Both Tasks Marked Before You Sit the Exam
Two exercises, two sets of descriptors, five criteria each. You cannot accurately band your own script, which is why self-study plateaus at A2 writing.
Our DELF prep classes return both written tasks each week with a band on every criterion and a rewrite target. Batches stay at six to ten. If you are outside Delhi NCR, French classes from home run the same correction cycle online.
Preparing the whole level at once? Pair this with DELF A2 speaking papers, since both papers draw on the same topic vocabulary.
Call or WhatsApp 7011164582 for a free demo and a marked diagnostic script.