DELF A1 listening: five short exercises, each recording played twice
DELF A1 listening is five very short exercises and twenty-one questions in about twenty minutes, and every recording is played twice. No answer has to be written out: you tick an option, tick a picture, or pair a dialogue with an image. This page describes the multiple-choice format, the one this site prepares. Older papers and books still show short written answers. The paper asks you to catch one plain piece of information at a time: a name, a day, a time, a place, an object. Practice A1 listening one exercise at a time.
Updated 10 October 2026
Five exercises, twenty-one questions, about twenty minutes
| Exercise | Documents | Questions | Question format | Plays | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CO-Ex1 | 1 audio document | 4 | Multiple choice, three options | 2 | 4 |
| CO-Ex2 | 1 audio document | 4 | Multiple choice, three options, Multiple choice with images | 2 | 4 |
| CO-Ex3 | 1 audio document | 4 | Multiple choice, three options | 2 | 4 |
| CO-Ex4 | 4 audio documents | 4 | Matching | 2 | 8 |
| CO-Ex5 | 1 mixed document | 5 | Yes or no | 2 | 5 |
| Total | 20 min | 21 | 25 |
Source · the official DELF A1 tout public format.
Messages, announcements, instructions: what you will hear
The first three exercises are one voice talking to you. The first is a voicemail message that announces an event and gives a few everyday instructions. The second is an announcement in a public place, such as a shop, a station or an airport, or else a radio news flash or advert. The third is a set of simple recorded instructions left by one person: a colleague, a relative, a service.
Each of those recordings is about fifty words long, which is a handful of sentences. The fourth exercise changes the sound: four mini-dialogues between two people, each in a different situation and shorter still. The fifth returns to a single voice, with a spoken message that names objects. That makes eight recordings in all. None of them asks you to follow an argument or an opinion.
The questions stay just as concrete. In the practice set on this site they ask who is calling, what the occasion is, when and where to meet, what to bring. Two exercises rest entirely on pictures: the fourth, where you match scenes, and the fifth, which shows objects. The second also has two questions whose options are images.
Exercise 4 carries the most points
In the official sample paper for this format, seventeen questions are worth one point each. The four answers of exercise 4 are worth two each. That one exercise holds eight of the paper’s twenty-five points, more than any other.
Exercise 4 is also built differently. You hear four short dialogues and you see six pictures, so two pictures belong to no dialogue. Each match counts as one answer, paid double. And a picture given to the wrong dialogue is no longer free for the right one, so one slip can turn into two.
One caution about these figures. The official kit calls the value of each question indicative: it is set paper by paper and can vary. The total of each exercise and the total of the paper are stable. Four right matches alone would lift you above the 5/25 floor. That floor and the pass mark sit under the table.
| Exercise | Points | What each question is worth |
|---|---|---|
| CO-Ex1 | 4 | 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 |
| CO-Ex2 | 4 | 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 |
| CO-Ex3 | 4 | 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 |
| CO-Ex4 | 8 | 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 |
| CO-Ex5 | 5 | 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 |
| Total | 25 |
Pass mark: 50 out of 100 across the four papers.
Section floor: under 5 out of 25 in any one paper and the whole exam is failed.
Source · the official DELF A1 tout public format.
A voicemail message and two questions, explained
Excerpt
Bonjour, c’est Sophie. Je t’appelle pour le dîner de samedi. On se retrouve chez moi à 19h30. L’adresse, c’est 12 rue des Lilas, au troisième étage. Apporte du vin si tu veux. Rappelle-moi si tu ne peux pas venir. À bientôt.
1. C’est pour quelle occasion ?
- A Un dîner
- B Un déjeuner
- C Un petit-déjeuner
2. À quelle heure commence le rendez-vous ?
- A 18h30
- B 19h00
- C 19h30
Answer +
Practice message from our own question bank, written for this site. It is not an official exam recording.
Both answers sit in the first three sentences, in the order of the questions. Sophie says she is calling about Saturday’s dinner: that single word, “dîner”, settles the first question. The next sentence gives the meeting time, half past seven in the evening, and settles the second. Nothing has to be inferred.
The wrong options tempt because they belong to the same family as the right one. “Déjeuner” and “petit-déjeuner” are the two other meals, and the second contains the first. The three times stand half an hour apart. “Dix-huit heures trente” ends like the right answer, and “dix-neuf heures” begins like it. The second play is where you check the exact word.
Where the twenty minutes go
Official timing
- CO-Ex1 · Played twice4 points
- CO-Ex2 · Played twice4 points
- CO-Ex3 · Played twice4 points
- CO-Ex4 · Played twice8 points
- CO-Ex5 · Played twice5 points
Source · the official DELF A1 tout public format.
A workable split
- CO-Ex13 min
- CO-Ex22 min
- CO-Ex32 min
- CO-Ex45 min
- CO-Ex53 min
- Checking your answers5 min
One split that works. It is our arithmetic rather than an official figure, and the free lesson below proposes another.
Training your ear for slow, clear French
At this level the difficulty is rarely the vocabulary. It is recognising words you already know when they arrive as sound, run together, with no text to look at. In our practice set, numbers, times, days and places come back in question after question. Train them by ear instead of from a list: hear a time, write it down, check it.
A word on what our practice is. The recordings are machine-generated, like the questions, and each exercise goes through a second automated check before it is published. None of it is a past paper. Your listening score here is a count of right answers, marked automatically. It is not an official result. And on exam day the recording sets the pace: it plays and moves on without waiting for you.
- 1Learn the five exercises before you train your ear. The free lesson on the A1 listening paper goes through them one by one.
- 2Before each recording, read the questions or study the pictures. Decide what each question wants: a person, a place, a time, an object.
- 3On the first play, answer what you are sure of and do not stop on a gap. A detail you missed comes round again on the second play.
- 4In exercise 4, treat your first matches as provisional and settle them only on the second play. Two of the six pictures should end up with no dialogue.
- 5Answer every question: a blank earns no more than a mistake. Then sit the paper inside a full timed exam. Start a full A1 mock.
Keep going with the free A1 listening lesson
Free lesson · study guide
The DELF A1 listening paper game plan
Twenty minutes, five exercises, 25 points, and every recording played twice. What each exercise asks, and how to use the two plays.
A1 listening: what beginners ask
Do you hear each A1 recording twice?+
Yes. All five exercises play their recordings twice, the four mini-dialogues included. The same is true at A2 and B1. So no answer depends on a single pass: what escapes you the first time comes back. Use the first play to answer, and the second to check and to fill the gaps.
How fast do the speakers talk in the A1 recordings?+
The official format describes the recordings by their kind, not by a speed. What it does set is short and simple: a voicemail message, a public announcement, recorded instructions, mini-dialogues. None runs much beyond fifty words. The subjects come from daily life.
What are the picture exercises in A1 listening?+
Two exercises rest entirely on pictures. In exercise 4 you match four mini-dialogues with pictures of situations, and two of the six pictures stay unused. In exercise 5 you hear a message that names objects, and under each of five pictures you tick yes or no. Exercise 2 also has two questions whose options are images.
Are all A1 listening questions worth the same?+
No. In the official sample paper every question is worth one point, except in exercise 4, where each of the four matches is worth two. The points table on this page shows it. These values are indicative and can vary from paper to paper.
How is A1 listening different from A2 listening?+
A2 is longer and more varied. It runs twenty-five minutes, with four exercises and fourteen recordings against five exercises and eight recordings at A1. The yes-or-no picture exercise disappears. The matching exercise stays, but you match dialogues with what the speakers are doing, not with pictures. And the question weights become uneven in the official sample paper. The A2 listening page sets that format out.
Keep reading
The other A1 pages
Ready to find your A1 level?
Take a full mock or practice one section at a time. See your predicted score before exam day.