DELF A1 reading: four exercises, eight short documents
The DELF A1 reading paper lasts thirty minutes and is worth 25 points. You read eight very short documents across four exercises and answer twenty questions, each by ticking one of three options. Nothing is written out. This page describes the multiple-choice format. Older papers and books still show short written answers. Below, you will see what each exercise hands you, where the points sit, and two questions from our free A1 sample paper explained with their traps.
Updated 10 October 2026
Thirty minutes, four exercises, twenty questions
| Exercise | Documents | Questions | Question format | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CE-Ex1 | 1 text | 5 | Multiple choice, three options, Multiple choice with images | 6 |
| CE-Ex2 | 1 mixed document | 5 | Multiple choice with images, Multiple choice, three options | 6 |
| CE-Ex3 | 5 texts | 5 | Multiple choice, three options | 6 |
| CE-Ex4 | 1 mixed document | 5 | Multiple choice, three options, Multiple choice with images | 7 |
| Total | 30 min | 20 | 25 |
Source · the official DELF A1 tout public format.
Emails, signs, small ads: the texts of the A1 paper
Exercise 1 is one short personal text: an email, a message, a postcard, an invitation, or a set of instructions or safety rules. Exercise 2 moves to public life: a poster, a sign, a programme, a convocation or a route to follow. Each runs to sixty or seventy words.
Exercise 3 cuts the reading into five tiny texts, with one question each. They can be instructions, job adverts, programmes, leaflets, rules or emails, of ten to eighteen words apiece. Exercise 4 closes the paper with a short press article adapted to the A1 level. It is the longest text you will read, at seventy to eighty words.
The skill being tested is narrow: finding one piece of information. Some options are pictures instead of words, and you tick the picture that fits. The difficulty is that even a short text holds several days, several people or several objects. A wrong option is often a word that really is in the text, attached to something else.
Six points an exercise, seven for the last
The points are spread almost evenly. The first three exercises carry the same total and the article carries one point more. Five tiny texts weigh as much as the opening message.
Inside an exercise, the questions are not equal. The table below prints what each one is worth in the official sample paper: from one point to two. These values are indicative. They are set paper by paper, so they can shift from one session to the next. The total of each exercise and the length of the paper do not move.
That sets the price of a mistake. In that official sample no question goes above two points, so one wrong tick never sinks the paper. A single exercise answered fully right is already over the 5/25 section floor. Under that floor the exam is failed whatever the total, a rule the DELF A1 overview sets beside the pass mark.
| Exercise | Points | What each question is worth |
|---|---|---|
| CE-Ex1 | 6 | 1 · 1 · 1.5 · 1.5 · 1 |
| CE-Ex2 | 6 | 2 · 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 |
| CE-Ex3 | 6 | 1 · 1 · 1 · 1.5 · 1.5 |
| CE-Ex4 | 7 | 1 · 1 · 1.5 · 2 · 1.5 |
| 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.
An invitation message and two questions, with the traps
Mon anniversaire
Samedi 14 juin, c’est mon anniversaire. Je fais une fête chez moi, au 12 rue des Lilas, à Lyon. La fête commence à 16 heures, dans le jardin.
Tu peux apporter un gâteau ou des jus de fruits ? Ma sœur apporte la musique.
1. La fête commence…
- A à 14 heures.
- B à 16 heures.
- C à 18 heures.
2. Marco peut apporter…
- A un gâteau.
- B la musique.
- C des ballons.
Answer +
Trap: 14 is the date (Saturday 14 June), not the time of the party.
Trap: the music is brought by Julie’s sister, not by Marco.
Message and questions from our A1 sample paper. Both were written for this site.
Both answers are printed in the message, word for word. The first question asks when the party starts, and the text gives the hour directly. The trap sits at the top of the same paragraph: fourteen is the day of the month, and the first option turns it into an hour. The second question turns on who brings what. Three things are named, and only two are asked of Marco. The music is the job of Julie’s sister. As for the balloons of the third option, the message never mentions them.
This is a personal message, the kind of text exercise 1 uses. The page shows two of its paragraphs and two of its five questions. On the exam, some options in this exercise are pictures, which our example does not show. Nor does it show the poster, the five short texts or the article of the other exercises. The date, the hour and the address are invented for the exercise.
Half an hour for four exercises
Official timing
- CE-Ex16 points
- CE-Ex26 points
- CE-Ex36 points
- CE-Ex47 points
Source · the official DELF A1 tout public format.
A workable split
- CE-Ex16 min
- CE-Ex26 min
- CE-Ex36 min
- CE-Ex47 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.
Reading practice with the documents of daily life
At A1, reading practice does not need long texts. It needs many short ones, of the kinds the paper uses: a message from a friend, a notice on a door, a timetable, a small ad. On each, repeat one move. Read the question, name what it wants (a time, a place, a person), then find that single item in the text.
All our practice material is written for this site, to the official format. None of it is a past paper. Reading is marked automatically, answer by answer. Our sets cover the multiple-choice format only. If your book or your teacher uses older papers, expect a few short written answers there.
- 1Time a first attempt before you revise anything: practise A1 reading and note which exercise took you longest.
- 2Before each document, read its questions. Say in one word what each of them wants: a day, a time, a place, a person, an object.
- 3For every wrong answer, go back to the text and find the word that drew you. Then find the words that really answered the question.
- 4Collect the small words of real documents as you meet them: days, months, opening hours, prices, street abbreviations, greetings and sign-offs.
- 5When each exercise holds up alone, sit the four in a row: start a full A1 mock.
A free lesson: the game plan for A1 reading
Free lesson · study guide
The DELF A1 reading paper game plan
Thirty minutes, four exercises, 25 points, and every answer is a tick. Here's the shape of the paper and the order of moves that fits the clock.
Questions about the A1 reading paper
How many texts are there in the A1 reading paper?+
Eight, across four exercises, in the multiple-choice format. Three exercises give you a single document each. Exercise 3 gives you five very short ones, with one question for each. All eight are brief: the longest, the article of exercise 4, runs to seventy or eighty words.
What kinds of documents will I have to read?+
Everyday ones. A personal email, a message, a postcard or an invitation. A poster, a sign, a programme, a convocation or a route to follow. Instructions, job adverts, leaflets and rules, in a few lines each. And one short press article adapted to the A1 level.
Are there pictures in the reading paper?+
Yes. In three of the four exercises, at least one question offers three pictures instead of three sentences. You read the text, then tick the picture that matches it.
Is every question worth the same?+
No. In the official sample paper a question is worth one point, one and a half, or two, and the points table above shows which. These weights are indicative: they are set paper by paper. What stays fixed is the total of each exercise and of the paper.
How is A1 reading different from A2 reading?+
The frame is the same: thirty minutes, four exercises, 25 points, everything ticked. A2 opens with a matching exercise: six short documents to pair with people, two of whom get no document. Its last text includes a true or false statement. A2 has more questions and more documents, and its letter is about twice as long as the A1 message. The A2 reading page sets it out.
Keep reading
The other A1 pages
Ready to find your A1 level?
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