The DELF A2 writing test has two tasks: here is what each one needs

The two-task format: what changed and why it matters

The DELF A2 writing section is scored out of twenty-five and divided into two exercises. The first, écriture, asks you to write a short text about your own experience or situation: a description, a brief account, or a simple opinion. It is worth thirteen points. The second, interaction, asks you to write a message in response to a prompt: a reply to a friend, a note to a neighbour, a short message to an organiser. It is worth twelve points.

This split matters because the two tasks test slightly different competencies. Écriture is about content coverage and sentence construction. Interaction is about register and function: can you write something that actually does what a real message needs to do?

What écriture is testing

The écriture prompt gives you a situation and asks you to write about it. A typical instruction might be: Vous écrivez un texte pour un forum sur Internet. Décrivez votre logement et donnez votre opinion sur le quartier où vous habitez.

Three things lose points here:

Missing elements. If the prompt says "describe your accommodation AND give your opinion on your neighbourhood," two marks exist for those two elements. Skip one and you lose them both.

Very short responses. A response under fifty words usually signals that you covered only part of the task. Sixty to eighty words is the practical target.

Repeated structures. Using j'aime, j'aime, j'aime across three sentences costs lexical range marks. Vary the verb or the sentence structure, even slightly.

What interaction is testing

Interaction puts you in a social situation. You receive a message, a note, or an invitation, and you reply. The scoring looks at whether your response is functionally adequate: did you do what the prompt asked? Did you use an appropriate opening and closing for the relationship described?

At A2, this means distinguishing between writing to a friend (Salut, ..., Bisous) and writing to someone you do not know well (Madame, ..., Cordialement). An otherwise competent response in the wrong register rarely scores above mid-range.

Read the prompt carefully for one thing above all: the relationship. It tells you the register. Then check for any specific information you are asked to include, such as a date, a place, or a reason.

How many words to write

There is no word-count minimum stated in the official instructions, but examiners use a practical threshold. Responses under fifty words are rarely complete. Responses over one hundred words at A2 tend to accumulate errors that would not have appeared in a tighter draft.

The target range of sixty to eighty words per task is sufficient to cover the required elements clearly and to demonstrate a range of simple structures without overextending.

Building a quick pre-writing plan

Spend two to three minutes before writing each task. Read the prompt, underline every point you need to address, and write one keyword beside each. For interaction, add a note on register. Then write.

This habit prevents the most common error at A2: finishing a task and realising you forgot to include something the prompt explicitly asked for. The lost mark is not vocabulary. It is omission.

To see both tasks scored on a real script, work through our corrected DELF A2 sample paper.

Written by

Camille Fournier

Camille teaches French and coaches candidates through DELF preparation. She writes about exam technique: what each task is really marked on, and how to spend your time in the room.