Most people fail the TEF speaking test for reasons unrelated to their French.
They walk in knowing the vocabulary. They know the tenses. Then Section A starts, and they realize they have never actually practiced asking questions for five straight minutes. Answering questions, yes. Asking them, no. Fifteen minutes later, it’s over, and the score sits at NCLC 5.
That’s the gap these sample papers close. Below you’ll find one full Section A advertisement with the questions a strong candidate asks, and one full Section B proposal with a model exchange in French. Both come with notes on what the examiner is listening for.
If you haven’t read how TEF speaking is scored yet, start there and come back. This page assumes you already know the paper format and want to see real materials and samples from the TEF Canada speaking test.
What does the TEF Canada expression orale actually ask you to do?
The TEF Canada speaking test lasts 15 minutes in total with one examiner. Section A runs for 5 minutes: you receive an advertisement and must obtain information by asking questions, using vous. Section B lasts 10 minutes: you receive a proposal and must persuade the examiner to accept it using tu. The paper is scored out of 450.
Both sections are role-plays. You are not being tested on what you know about the topic. You’re being tested on whether you can run a conversation in French with a stranger.
That distinction changes how you prepare. Memorizing facts about housing or transport won’t help. What helps is having thirty question structures so automatic that you can produce them while your brain is busy listening to the answer.
The two sections also demand opposite registers, and this trips up more candidates than anything else. Section A is formal. You’re a member of the public phoning a business. Section B is informal. You’re talking to a friend. Switching between them cleanly, inside fifteen minutes, is part of what’s being measured.
Here’s the structure at a glance, straight from the exam board:
| Section | Time | Task | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 5 minutes | Obtain information from an advertisement | vous, formal |
| B | 10 minutes | Persuade someone to accept a proposal | tu, informal |
The board publishes these timings on its official TEF Canada page, and they haven’t changed. Anyone telling you Section A is 10 minutes is describing a different test.
What does TEF Canada Section A look like in practice?
TEF Canada Section A hands you a short advertisement with most details missing and gives you five minutes to obtain them by questioning the examiner in formal French. A strong candidate asks ten to twelve questions across varied grammatical structures and follows up on every answer.
The advertisement you are handed
Here’s a Section A prompt of the type you’ll meet on exam day. Short, practical, deliberately incomplete.
COLOCATION – SHERBROOKE Grand 4½ meublé, quartier Jacques-Cartier. Chambre disponible à partir du 1er septembre. 550 $/mois. Non-fumeur. Contacter M. Tremblay : 819-555-0142
Read it again and count what’s missing. Are utilities included? How many people live there? Is the room itself furnished, or only the shared space? Is there a lease? A deposit? Laundry?
Every gap is a question. Your job in Section A is to find the gaps fast and turn them into well-formed French.
Ten questions a strong candidate asks
A model Section A opens with a greeting and a reason for calling. Then it moves.
Bonjour Monsieur Tremblay. Je vous appelle au sujet de votre annonce pour la colocation. Est-ce que la chambre est toujours disponible ?
Pourriez-vous me dire si les charges sont comprises dans le loyer de 550 dollars ?
Combien de personnes habitent actuellement dans l’appartement ?
Est-ce que la chambre est meublée elle aussi, ou seulement les espaces communs ?
Y a-t-il une salle de bain privée, ou est-elle partagée ?
Le quartier Jacques-Cartier est-il bien desservi par les transports en commun ?
Faut-il signer un bail, et pour quelle durée minimum ?
Demandez-vous un dépôt de garantie ?
Est-ce que la laveuse et la sécheuse sont sur place ?
Serait-il possible de visiter l’appartement cette semaine ?
Ten questions in five minutes is a comfortable target. Twelve is strong. Six will not get you to NCLC 7 because the examiner cannot hear enough French to grade you properly.
Notice the variety in how those questions are built. Three different structures appear:
- Inversion: Y a-t-il une salle de bain privée ?
- Est-ce que: Est-ce que la chambre est meublée ?
- Polite conditional: Pourriez-vous me dire si… / Serait-il possible de…
Using only est-ce que for ten questions caps your grammar score. The examiner is listening for range, and question formation is the easiest place on the whole paper to show it.
Why vous is non-negotiable here
Section A is always formal. Always. You are a stranger contacting a business or a private advertiser you’ve never met.
One slip into tu is survivable. A pattern of it is not, because register control is an explicit criterion. And here’s the practical problem: Section B comes ten minutes later and demands tu. Candidates who haven’t drilled the switch tend to leak one register into the other.
The fix is mechanical. Practice Section A and Section B back-to-back, in that order, every single time. Never practice one without the other. Your mouth learns the switch faster than your brain does.
What separates an NCLC 6 from an NCLC 8 answer
Both candidates ask ten questions. Both are grammatically fine. So what moves the score?
Reacting to the answer. The weak candidate fires questions from a mental list, ignoring what comes back. The strong candidate listens and follows up.
Examinateur: Non, les charges ne sont pas comprises.
Faible: D’accord. Combien de personnes habitent dans l’appartement ?
Fort: Ah, elles ne sont pas comprises. Vous auriez une idée du montant mensuel moyen pour l’électricité et le chauffage ?
That follow-up costs four seconds and demonstrates real comprehension. String five of those across the section, and you’ve moved a band.
Sounding like a person. Small conversational markers make an enormous difference: D’accord, Je vois, Très bien, Parfait, Ah bon? They cost nothing, and they signal fluency.
Closing properly. Weak candidates stop when they run out of questions. Strong ones close: Je vous remercie beaucoup pour ces informations. Je vais y réfléchir et je vous rappellerai avant vendredi. Bonne journée, Monsieur.
When students at our center record their own Section A and listen back, the follow-up gap is the first thing they hear. Most of them fix it within two sessions after they notice it.
Sample Paper 2: Section B, persuading your listener
The proposal on your card
Section B doubles the time and changes everything else.
SECTION B Votre ami(e) va au travail en voiture tous les jours. Le trajet dure quarante minutes et coûte cher en essence et en stationnement. Vous êtes convaincu(e) que le transport en commun serait une meilleure solution. Convainquez-le/la de changer.
You have ten minutes. The examiner will resist. That resistance is the task, not an obstacle to it.
A full model response in French
Here’s how a strong exchange runs. Note that the candidate speaks most of the time, but keeps handing the conversation back.
Candidat: Écoute, je voulais te parler de quelque chose. Tu te plains tout le temps du trafic le matin, non ?
Examinateur: Oui, c’est vrai, c’est pénible.
Candidat: Alors pourquoi tu ne prends pas le bus ? Franchement, je pense que ça changerait ta vie. D’abord, tu économiserais énormément. Entre l’essence, le stationnement et l’entretien, tu dois dépenser combien par mois ?
Examinateur: Je ne sais pas, peut-être trois cents dollars.
Candidat: Trois cents dollars ! Une passe mensuelle coûte moins de cent dollars. Tu économiserais deux cents dollars par mois, donc plus de deux mille par an. Imagine ce que tu pourrais faire avec cet argent.
Examinateur: Oui, mais le bus met plus de temps.
Candidat: Peut-être dix minutes de plus, d’accord. Mais réfléchis : dans le bus, tu ne conduis pas. Tu peux lire, répondre à tes courriels, écouter un podcast, ou simplement te reposer. En voiture, ces quarante minutes sont complètement perdues. En bus, tu les récupères.
Examinateur: Je n’aime pas trop attendre dehors en hiver.
Candidat: Je comprends, l’hiver est difficile. Mais l’arrêt est à trois minutes de chez toi, et il y a un bus toutes les dix minutes aux heures de pointe. Et honnêtement, tu préfères attendre cinq minutes à l’arrêt ou passer vingt minutes à déneiger ta voiture ?
Examinateur: Ça, c’est vrai.
Candidat: Et puis il y a l’autre côté. Une voiture en moins sur la route, c’est moins de pollution. Tu me disais l’année dernière que tu voulais réduire ton empreinte carbone. Voilà une occasion concrète.
Examinateur: Oui, mais si j’ai besoin de la voiture pour une urgence ?
Candidat: Tu gardes ta voiture ! Personne ne te demande de la vendre. Tu la gardes pour les fins de semaine et les urgences, et tu prends le bus du lundi au vendredi. Tu as le meilleur des deux.
Examinateur: Hmm.
Candidat: Écoute, fais un essai. Achète une passe pour un mois seulement. Un mois, ça ne t’engage à rien. Si tu détestes, tu reprends ta voiture et je ne t’en parle plus jamais. Mais je suis presque sûr qu’après trois semaines, tu ne voudras plus revenir en arrière. Qu’est-ce que tu en dis ?
Handling the objection the examiner throws back
Every objection in that exchange got the same four-move treatment:
- Acknowledge it. Je comprends, peut-être, c’est vrai, d’accord
- Limit it. Peut-être dix minutes de plus, not ça ne prend pas plus de temps
- Reframe it. Turn the cost into a benefit: lost driving time becomes recovered reading time
- Hand it back. Finish with a question so the conversation keeps moving
Candidates who argue flatly against the objection lose marks. Candidates who accept it and then reframe it gain from it, because that’s what real persuasion sounds like.
The other thing worth copying from that model is the ending. It closes with a small, low-risk ask: try it for one month. Examiners consistently reward candidates who land on something concrete rather than trailing off.
Getting comfortable with this takes a live partner who pushes back. Reading a script won’t build it. That’s the single biggest argument for structured TEF coaching in Noida or an equivalent live setup, because Section B simply cannot be rehearsed alone.
How are Section A and Section B scored differently?
Both sections contribute to a single speaking score out of 450, but they weigh different skills. Section A rewards question formation, register control, and information gathering over a 5-minute period. Section B rewards a sustained argument, responses to objections, and persuasive structure over 10 minutes. Section B has more speaking time, so it has a greater impact on the final band score.
Think of it this way. Section A is a test of accuracy under a narrow task. Section B is a test of range under a wide one.
A candidate who’s excellent at Section A and weak at Section B usually lands around NCLC 6, because ten of the fifteen minutes exposed the weakness. The reverse pattern tends to score higher, which is why we push students hard on Section B.
Four criteria run across both sections:
- Task completion. Did you actually do what was asked?
- Range. How varied is your vocabulary and grammar?
- Accuracy. How often do errors block comprehension?
- Fluency and interaction. Do you keep the conversation alive?
That last one is where Indian candidates most often surprise themselves. Grammar is usually solid. Interaction is usually the gap.
Which score do you need on the speaking paper?
For NCLC 7 in speaking, your certificate must show 456 or above on the 699 scale. But IRCC does not accept that number in an Express Entry profile. IRCC uses the Équivalence ancien score column, where NCLC 7 speaking is 310-348. Entering the wrong column can lead to your application being refused.
This catches people out all the time, so it’s worth spelling out.
Your TEF attestation shows two sets of numbers. One column is headed “Score / 699.” The other is the équivalence ancien score. The exam board grades you on the first. IRCC reads the second.
| Where you’re reading | NCLC 7 speaking |
|---|---|
| Your TEF certificate, /699 column | 456 to 493 |
| Your Express Entry profile | 310 to 348 |
IRCC states this directly on its Express Entry language test page, including the warning that entering /699 scores may lead to refusal. Review your attestation carefully before typing anything into your profile.
Speaking also has the highest NCLC 7 threshold among the four TEF papers. Reading: 434, listening: 434, writing: 428. Speaking needs 456. Plan your study time accordingly.
If you are working across the whole exam, the TEF reading question breakdown and our TEF listening samples with transcripts cover both receptive papers in the same level of detail.
Five habits that cost Indian candidates marks
After fifteen years of running TEF oral mocks, the same five patterns show up again and again.
- Translating from English mid-sentence. The pause gives it away, and the resulting French is usually in English word order. Better to say something simple quickly than something perfect slowly.
- Overly formal Section B. Years of formal English training make you feel rude. It isn’t. Section B, with “vous” throughout, reads as a task error.
- Running out of questions in Section A. Five minutes feels short until you’re two minutes in with nothing left. Build a mental checklist that works on any advertisement: price, availability, conditions, location, duration, next step.
- Silence while thinking. French has fillers, and you’re allowed to use them. Alors, eh bien, en fait, comment dire, disons que… Silence reads as a breakdown. Fillers read as thinking.
- Ending flat. Both sections need a close. Section A: thank and confirm next contact. Section B: make one small, specific ask.
None of these are French problems. They’re exam-technique problems, and they respond fast to drilling.
How do you practice TEF speaking in four weeks?
Spend week one drilling question formation on real advertisements, week two on reacting to the answers you get, week three building ten-minute Section B arguments, and week four on full-time simulations with a partner who pushes back. Record every session and listen back the same day.
Here’s a schedule that works if you already sit around B1 and are pushing for NCLC 7.
- Week 1: question formation. Twenty minutes daily. Take any advertisement from a newspaper or a Canadian classifieds site and generate twelve questions in three different structures. Say them aloud. Record yourself.
- Week 2: reaction drills. Same advertisements, but now get a partner to answer, sometimes unhelpfully. Practice the follow-up. Your target is one follow-up per two questions.
- Week 3: Section B structure. Take one proposal per day. Build three arguments plus a response to two objections. Speak for the full ten minutes without stopping. Ten minutes is much longer than it sounds.
- Week 4: full simulations. Section A and Section B back-to-back, timed, with a partner who resists. Three per week minimum. Record everyone and listen back the same day.
Pair this with TEF writing practice topics if you’re preparing all four papers, since the argument structures overlap heavily with Section B of the writing test.
Still deciding which exam to sit for? Our breakdown on choosing between TEF and TCF Canada compares the speaking formats side by side, and the difference is bigger than most people expect.
How LanguageNext covers TEF speaking
You cannot practice Section B alone, even with samples. That is the honest reason a taught course matters more for this paper than for any other.
Our TEF speaking work runs on paired mock orals. A trainer plays the resistant friend and pushes back the way an examiner will, sometimes politely, sometimes stubbornly. Every session is recorded and then replayed, so candidates hear their own hesitations and missed follow-ups. Students consistently say that hearing themselves teaches more than any correction we give.
Section A runs against fresh advertisements each week, so nobody walks in having memorized a set, and we drill the register switch between the two sections back-to-back every single time, because that is where the leak usually happens.
Our TEF Canada preparation course teaches all four papers of the SWIRL method: speaking, writing, interactions, reading, and listening as an integrated whole rather than in isolation. Batches run regularly, fast-track, weekend, crash, one-to-one, and corporate, so a working professional on a December deadline and a student with six months follow different tracks.
Classes run at the Noida center and as live online sessions across India, with full-length mocks scored against the official criteria. Batches are capped at six to ten students, so every candidate speaks in every session rather than watching others speak. If you are building all four skills rather than speaking alone, our live online French batches cover A1 through B2 with the same trainers.
Book a free level check before you pick a test date. Fifteen minutes will tell us where your speaking sits and whether a September or a December exam is realistic. Call or WhatsApp us, or visit the Noida center.
How is this TEF Canada Speaking Sample page verified?
The two section timings on this page, five minutes for Section A and ten for Section B, are published by Le français des affaires, which sets and scores the TEF. The 456 threshold for NCLC 7 speaking comes from the board’s own score correspondence table, while the 310 to 348 range that IRCC actually accepts comes from the Express Entry language test page. Those two figures are not interchangeable, which is why both appear above rather than one standing in for the other.
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.