Here is something almost nobody tells TEF candidates: a quarter of the reading paper is not a reading test.
Ten of the forty questions are phrases et textes lacunaires, gapped sentences and gapped texts. You choose the word that fits the blank. Comprehension helps, but what those ten questions really measure is grammar and collocation.
This means a candidate who reads French articles every morning and still scores below NCLC 7 in reading may not have a reading problem at all. They may have a grammar problem hidden inside a reading paper.
Below is the full document breakdown published by the exam board, with sample items from each block and worked answers. For the general shape of the paper, our page on what TEF reading actually tests covers the ground first.
How many questions are on the TEF Canada reading, and what kind are they?
The TEF Canada reading has 40 multiple-choice questions, is scored out of 300, and is completed in 60 minutes. The exam board publishes the paper as five blocks: 7 questions on everyday documents, 10 on gapped sentences and texts, 5 on rapid reading of texts and graphs, 10 on administrative and professional documents, and 8 on press articles.
| Block | Questions | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday documents | 7 | Locating explicit information |
| Gapped sentences and texts | 10 | Grammar, collocation, connectors |
| Rapid reading, texts and graphs | 5 | Speed, data interpretation |
| Administrative and professional documents | 10 | Formal register, precise detail |
| Press articles | 8 | Inference, tone, argument |
That breakdown comes directly from the board’s reading preparation page, and it sums cleanly to 40.
Worth correcting straight away: a large number of preparation sites claim TEF reading has 50 questions. It does not. The board’s own published figure is 40 in 60 minutes, and a practice test with 50 items was built on outdated information.
Scoring works the same way as listening. One point for a correct answer, zero for a wrong one, zero for a blank. No marks are subtracted, so every question should carry an answer even when you are guessing.
One important difference from the listening paper is that you can go back. The board’s own pedagogical lead advises noting the screen number if a question defeats you, moving on, and returning at the end if time allows. That single permission changes how you should manage the hour.
Block 1: everyday documents, seven quick marks
Seven questions on the kind of text you would meet walking around a French-speaking city. Notices, small ads, menus, opening hours, job postings, instructions.
AVIS AUX RÉSIDENTS
À compter du lundi 7 septembre, la collecte des ordures ménagères aura lieu le mardi et le vendredi, et non plus le lundi et le jeudi.
La collecte des matières recyclables reste inchangée (mercredi).
Les bacs doivent être déposés en bordure de rue avant 7 h le matin de la collecte, et retirés avant 20 h le même jour.
Tout bac laissé sur le trottoir au-delà de ce délai pourra faire l’objet d’un avertissement.
Service des travaux publics de la Ville de Longueuil
Question 1. Quel jour la collecte du recyclage a-t-elle lieu ?
A. Lundi B. Mardi C. Mercredi D. Vendredi
Answer: C. The recycling day is unchanged and stated explicitly. Options A, B, and D all appear in the notice, attached to different collections.
Question 2. Quel risque un résident court-il en laissant son bac dehors à 21 h ?
A. Une amende immédiate B. Un avertissement C. Le retrait de son bac D. Une collecte annulée
Answer: B. The text says: « pourra faire l’objet d’un avertissement. Option A upgrades a warning into a fine, which is the classic overstatement distractor.
These seven marks go quickly if you locate the question’s keyword in the document first, then read the surrounding sentence carefully. The trap is always a detail that belongs to a different part of the notice.
What are the gapped-sentence questions in TEF reading?
Ten of the forty TEF reading questions are phrases et textes lacunaires, where you choose the word that fits a blank. They test grammar, collocation, and connector logic rather than comprehension, which makes a quarter of the paper immune to reading practice alone.
Almost no preparation material treats this block seriously, which is why so many strong readers stall here without understanding why.
Sample items with answers
Choisissez le mot ou l’expression qui convient.
1. Il a réussi son examen ______ il avait très peu révisé. A. bien que B. malgré C. même si D. pourtant
2. Nous vous prions de bien vouloir nous faire ______ votre décision avant le 15 mars. A. savoir B. connaître C. part de D. comprendre
3. ______ de la pluie, la cérémonie a été reportée. A. À cause B. Grâce C. En raison D. Par suite
4. Ce dossier doit être traité ______ urgence. A. avec B. en C. dans D. sous
5. Si j’avais su, je ne ______ pas venu. A. serais B. serai C. suis D. sois
Answers: 1. C. Même si takes the indicative and fits a factual concession, while bien que would need the subjunctive and malgré needs a noun. 2. C. Faire part de is the fixed expression. 3. C. En raison de is the correct formal causal phrase, and à cause would need de to complete it as written. 4. B. En urgence is the collocation. 5. A. The third conditional needs serais venu.
The five grammar points that dominate this block
Across a large number of past papers, the same structures recur.
Connectors of concession and cause. Bien que, quoique, même si, malgré, en raison de, à cause de, grâce à. The distinction that matters most is which take the subjunctive, which take the indicative, and which take a noun rather than a clause.
Fixed prepositional phrases. En urgence, par écrit, à temps, sous huitaine, au sujet de, en cas de. These cannot be worked out logically. They have to be known.
Verb plus preposition. Penser à versus penser de, manquer à versus manquer de, décider de versus se décider à. High-frequency and heavily tested.
Conditional sequences. Si plus imparfait then conditional. Si plus-que-parfait, then conditionnel passé. This one appears in nearly every paper.
Register-appropriate vocabulary. Administrative French prefers « nous vous prions de », « veuillez trouver ci-joint », « dans les meilleurs délais ». The gapped-text items often appear in formal correspondence, so everyday synonyms read as incorrect.
Reading French novels will not fix these. I have taught candidates who read Le Monde every morning and still lost seven of these ten marks, because nothing in their reading habit ever forced them to choose between bien que and même si. Targeted grammar work fixes it, which is why students who plateau in reading often need an intervention different from the one they expect, and why our TEF Canada coaching batches diagnose the block before prescribing anything.
Block 3: rapid reading of texts and graphs
Five questions, and the clue is in the name. You are not meant to read closely here. You are meant to find one piece of information fast.
Graph and table items ask you to compare figures, identify trends, or spot outliers.
Selon le graphique, quelle région a connu la plus forte hausse entre 2023 et 2025 ?
The skill is reading the axis labels and the legend before looking at the data. Candidates who dive at the bars first often answer the wrong question because they misread what is being measured.
For text items in this block, the technique is écrémage and repérage: skim for structure, then scan for the specific term. Read the question first, identify the keyword, then hunt for it. Do not read the passage end to end. There is no time, and there is no need.
The target is five marks in roughly five minutes. Anything longer, and you are borrowing time from the press articles, which need it far more.
Blocks 4 and 5: administrative documents and press articles
Eighteen questions between them, and this is where the paper decides your band.
A full-length passage
Depuis une dizaine d’années, plusieurs petites villes canadiennes misent sur l’immigration pour enrayer leur déclin démographique. Le phénomène n’a rien d’anecdotique : dans certaines régions rurales du Manitoba et du Nouveau-Brunswick, la population avait reculé de façon continue depuis les années 1990.
Les programs provinciaux qui ciblent les zones peu peuplées ont modifié cette trajectoire. À Steinbach comme à Dieppe, l’arrivée de familles a permis de rouvrir des classes, de relancer des commerces et, dans quelques cas, de sauver des services de santé menacés de fermeture.
Le tableau n’est pourtant pas uniforme. Plusieurs municipalités constatent qu’une proportion importante des nouveaux arrivants quitte la région dans les trois ans, attirée par les grands centers urbains. Les raisons invoquées reviennent avec régularité : difficulté à faire reconnaître les diplômes, absence de réseau communautaire, offre culturelle limitée.
Certains élus locaux estiment qu’il faudrait conditionner davantage la résidence à une durée minimale. D’autres, plus nombreux, jugent cette approche contre-productive. « On ne retient pas les gens par la contrainte, on les retient en rendant la région vivable », résume la mairesse d’une municipalité manitobaine.
Four questions with worked reasoning
1. Quel problème les petites villes cherchaient-elles à résoudre ?
A. Un manque de logements B. Une baisse de population C. Une pénurie d’écoles D. Un déficit budgétaire
Answer: B. Enrayer leur déclin démographique in the opening line. Options A, C, and D address things mentioned later as consequences, not the original problem.
2. Selon le texte, que se passe-t-il souvent après trois ans ?
A. Les nouveaux arrivants obtiennent la résidence permanente B. Les services de santé ferment C. Une partie des nouveaux arrivants part vers les grandes villes D. Les programs provinciaux prennent fin
Answer: C. Directly stated. Option B inverts the text, which says services were saved.
3. Quelle est l’opinion majoritaire parmi les élus cités ?
A. Il faut imposer une durée de résidence minimale B. Il faut cesser les programs d’immigration C. Il faut rendre la région plus attractive D. Il faut augmenter le nombre d’arrivants
Answer: C. The text says, “D’autres, plus nombreux, jugent cette approche contre-productive,” and the quotation makes the alternative explicit. Option A is the minority view, and this question tests whether you noticed plus nombreux.
4. Quel est le ton général de l’article ?
A. Enthousiaste B. Nuancé C. Critique D. Ironique
Answer: B. The article reports successes, then introduces limits: « Le tableau n’est pourtant pas uniforme. Balanced reporting is the most common answer to tone questions on this paper.
Spotting paraphrase, the skill the paper really tests
Notice that in none of those four questions does the correct answer reuse the wording of the text.
The passage says « enrayer leur déclin démographique ». The answer says « une baisse de population ». The passage says « rendant la région vivable ». The answer says plus attractive.
That is the paper’s core mechanic. Correct options paraphrase. Wrong options are often quoted. A candidate scanning for matching words will be pulled toward the distractor almost every time.
Practical consequence: when two options look plausible, prefer the one that restates the idea in different vocabulary over the one that echoes the text word for word.
The other recurring trap is the quantifier. Plus nombreux, certains, dans quelques cas, une proportion importante. Questions are built on these. Skim past plus nombreux, and question 3 becomes a coin flip.
How should you split 60 minutes across TEF reading?
Allow eight minutes for everyday documents, twelve for gapped sentences, six for rapid reading, sixteen for administrative documents, and thirteen for press articles, keeping five minutes to fill flagged questions. Flag and move rather than stall, because the reading paper lets you return.
Sixty minutes, forty questions, ninety seconds each on average. But the blocks do not deserve equal time.
| Minutes | Block | Target |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 8 | Everyday documents | 7 questions |
| 8 to 20 | Gapped sentences and texts | 10 questions |
| 20 to 26 | Rapid reading and graphs | 5 questions |
| 26 to 42 | Administrative and professional | 10 questions |
| 42 to 55 | Press articles | 8 questions |
| 55 to 60 | Flagged questions and final check | Any gaps |
Two rules hold this together.
Flag and move. The board’s own advice is to note the screen number and come back. Two minutes stuck on one gapped sentence cost you two press-article questions that you would have answered correctly.
Never leave a blank. With no negative marking, an unanswered question and a wrong answer score identically. In the final five minutes, fill every gap even if you are choosing at random.
Candidates who finish early almost always finish early because they skipped the checking pass. Use the time. Reading questions reward a second look far more than listening ones, because the text is still there in front of you.
If you are preparing both receptive papers, our TEF listening practice question banks use the same distractor logic from the listening side, and recognizing the pattern in one paper speeds up the other. On the productive side, the corrected TEF writing models and the timed TEF speaking examples complete the set.
Which reading score does IRCC actually want?
Your TEF certificate shows a reading score of 434 or above, which corresponds to NCLC 7 on the 699 scale. IRCC does not accept that figure. IRCC uses the Équivalence ancien score column, where NCLC 7 reading is 207-232. Entering the /699 number in an Express Entry profile can lead to refusal.
Reading has the widest gap between the two columns of any TEF paper, which makes it the easiest one to get wrong.
| Where you are reading | NCLC 7 reading |
|---|---|
| Your TEF certificate, /699 column | 434 to 461 |
| Your Express Entry profile | 207 to 232 |
IRCC states this explicitly, including an instruction not to enter the /699 results and a warning that incorrect scores may cause refusal.
Check your attestation for both columns before you touch your profile. If the equivalence column is missing, contact your test center rather than converting the numbers yourself.
How does TEF reading differ from TCF reading?
TEF groups its 40 questions into five document blocks and includes a ten-question grammar section. TCF runs 39 questions in ascending difficulty from A1 to C2, with a new text for nearly every item and no separate grammar block. Pacing and abandonment strategies differ completely.
The two papers look similar on a comparison table and behave completely differently in the room.
TEF groups by document type. All the everyday notices sit together, all the gapped sentences sit together, all the press articles sit together. Difficulty varies within blocks, but the paper does not climb steadily.
TCF grades by level. It’s 39 questions that run roughly A1 through C2 in ascending order, with a new text for nearly every question. The last third is genuinely difficult, and the first third is genuinely easy.
Three practical consequences follow.
Pacing differs. In TEF, you can spend your saved time anywhere. In TCF, the final questions are the hardest and need the reserve.
TEF has a grammar block; TCF does not. Those ten gapped items have no equivalent in the TCF paper.
The abandonment strategy differs. Giving up on a TEF question costs one mark from a block where others may be easy. Giving up in the TCF C1 zone means giving up on the marks that separate NCLC 7 from NCLC 9.
Anyone weighing the two should look at how TCF handles reading passages before deciding, because the choice often comes down to whether you prefer grammar accuracy or reading stamina.
How LanguageNext covers TEF reading
Ten of the forty marks are for grammar. Reading practice alone will not move them.
Someone reading Le Monde daily, comfortable with press articles, still loses six or seven of the ten gapped-sentence marks, because nobody told them those items test collocation and connector grammar rather than comprehension.
So our TEF reading work runs a diagnostic first. Students sit a full 40-question paper scored by block rather than as a total, which immediately shows whether the gap is in comprehension, grammar, or pace. The three need different responses, and treating a grammar gap with more reading wastes months. Press-article losses get paraphrase-recognition work instead, until the restating pattern becomes visible under time pressure.
Students whose losses sit in block 2 get grammar-in-context drills mapped to the five structures that dominate it. Those are finite lists, and they respond to drilling in a way that vocabulary breadth does not. Everyone drills the flag-and-return habit and the never-leave-a-blank rule, because both are free marks that candidates routinely give away.
Classes run at the Noida center and as live online sessions across India, in regular, fast-track, weekend, crash, one-to-one, and corporate batches, with block-by-block mock reports rather than a bare total. Group size is capped at six to ten, which allows us to read a diagnostic block by block rather than in aggregate. Anyone still building toward B1 can learn French online with live teachers before technique becomes the bottleneck.
Ask for the reading diagnostic and find out whether grammar is your real gap. One paper, scored block by block, with an honest read on where your marks are going. Call or WhatsApp us, or sit it at the Noida center.
How is this TEF Canada Reading page sample verified?
The five-block breakdown and its question counts are published by Le français des affaires and sum exactly to 40, which is what allows this page to state with confidence that the widely repeated figure of 50 is wrong. The permission to flag a question and return to it later is the board’s own advice to candidates, not a tactic we invented. Score conversions come from IRCC, where the gap between the two reading columns is the widest of any TEF paper.
About the author. Vikash Gupta is a linguist and the founder of LanguageNext, a French and Spanish institute that has taught in Noida and online across India since 2014. He has taught both languages for over fifteen years and prepares candidates for DELF, TEF Canada, and TCF Canada.
Update policy. This page is rechecked whenever either board revises its published test specifications or IRCC changes its conversion tables. The review date at the top moves only when something material has changed, not on a schedule.