The DELF A2 oral: an interview, a monologue, a role play
The speaking paper of the DELF A2 lasts six to eight minutes with the examiner and has three parts. You answer questions about yourself, you speak alone on a familiar subject, then you play an everyday scene to its end. Ten minutes of preparation come first, and they cover the monologue and the role play only. The grid gives each part the same weight and judges your French once, over the whole oral. Below: the format, the grid, a practice subject and a timed A2 speaking exercise.
Updated 10 October 2026
Three parts and one shared preparation
| Part | Time | Trigger document | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preparation, for parts 2 and 3 only | 10 min | ||
| Guided interview | about 1 min 30 | None | 4 |
| Monologue on a familiar subject | about 2 min | None | 4 |
| Interaction exercise, a role play | 3 to 4 min | None | 4 |
| Language, across the 3 parts | 13 | ||
| Total | 8 min | 25 |
Source · the official DELF A2 tout public format.
From talking about yourself to solving a small problem
Part 1 is the entretien dirigé, a guided interview, and nothing is prepared for it. You introduce yourself, then the examiner asks simple questions about your daily surroundings: family, work or studies, home, free time. At the level, the grid describes short, simple statements completed by details and examples.
Part 2 is the monologue suivi: you speak alone on a familiar subject. In our practice bank: a trip that stayed with you, an activity you are about to start learning. The descriptor asks for two things: speak on the subject in simple sentences, and explain briefly why you like or dislike something.
Part 3 is the exercice en interaction, a role play, and it is the longest of the three. The card sets an everyday situation and the examiner plays the other person. You have something to obtain or to settle: an appointment, a price, a piece of information. The grid marks whether you carry the task through with the right acts of speech, taking an active part. So the oral moves from what you know best to what you cannot predict.
Six criteria: three for the tasks, three for the language
Three lines of the grid mark the tasks, one per part, and all three carry the same maximum. Each line is read across four columns, and the one that describes A2 is the third. The last column describes a candidate a little above the level. Ticked at the level on every line, you are already far above the 5/25 floor.
The other three lines mark your French over the three parts together: lexique, morphosyntaxe and maîtrise du système phonologique, which is pronunciation. Lexique is the heaviest line of the six. At the level, it asks for words and expressions adequate to the needs of the tasks. The pronunciation descriptor accepts that the examiner may need to ask you to repeat certain words.
Our grader applies this grid by looking at communication, not by counting mistakes. An article in the wrong gender, a verb ending that slips or one word borrowed from English costs nothing if the message stays clear. It takes points away when an error blocks understanding, or when control of the present and the past tenses is lost. At A2 it expects neither the subjunctive, nor the conditional, nor elaborate connectors.
| Criterion | Maximum |
|---|---|
| Réalisation de la tâche 1 : entretien dirigé (1 min 30 environ)Task 1: guided interview | 4 |
| Réalisation de la tâche 2 : monologue suivi (2 minutes environ)Task 2: sustained monologue | 4 |
| Réalisation de la tâche 3 : exercice en interaction (3 à 4 minutes)Task 3: interaction exercise | 4 |
| Lexique (pour les trois parties de l’épreuve)Vocabulary | 5 |
| Morphosyntaxe (pour les trois parties de l’épreuve)Morphosyntax (grammar) | 4 |
| Maîtrise du système phonologique (pour les trois parties de l’épreuve)Phonological control | 4 |
| Total | 25 |
Source · the current harmonised DELF A2 marking grid.
A role-play card and the exchange it calls for
The subject card
Vous êtes à Lausanne. Vous appelez un salon de coiffure pour prendre un rendez-vous samedi matin. Vous demandez le prix d’une coupe et les horaires du salon. L’examinateur joue le rôle de la coiffeuse.
Practice subject from our own bank, written for this site. It is not an official exam subject.
Read the card as a list of things to do. It names three: get an appointment for Saturday morning, ask what a cut costs, ask when the salon is open. Add what any phone call needs: a greeting at the start, a confirmation and a thank-you at the end. That makes six acts of speech, in order. They are what the grid calls « les actes de parole adéquats ».
Open with « Bonjour madame, je voudrais prendre rendez-vous pour samedi matin, s’il vous plaît ». Ask « Combien coûte une coupe ? » and « Vous êtes ouverts jusqu’à quelle heure ? » as two separate questions. Close with « Très bien, samedi à dix heures. Merci beaucoup, au revoir ». These are our suggestions, not an official answer. The examiner’s replies are not on the card, so prepare your requests and expect to adapt: Saturday morning may be full. Politeness counts too: the descriptor at the level names « les formes de politesse les plus fréquentes ».
Ten minutes to prepare two parts
Official timing
- Preparation, for parts 2 and 3 only10 min
- Guided interview4 points
- Monologue on a familiar subject4 points
- Interaction exercise, a role play4 points
- Language, across the 3 parts13 points
Source · the official DELF A2 tout public format.
A workable split
- Monologue on a familiar subject5 min
- Interaction exercise, a role play5 min
A workable split. This is our arithmetic, not an official figure.
Practising the monologue and the role play aloud
None of the three parts can be learned in silence. The interview needs answers you have already said aloud. The monologue needs two minutes of your own voice, and the role play needs a partner or a recording.
In a full A2 mock the oral is spoken: an examiner voice asks the questions and plays the other role, and you answer aloud into your microphone. The free demo does not include this. Mock exams are paid, and every subject is written for this site: none is a past paper.
- 1List ten questions about your family, your home, your work and your weekends. Answer each one aloud in two or three sentences, adding a detail or an example every time.
- 2Take a familiar subject (a trip, a meal, a hobby) and note five keywords, not sentences. Speak from them for two minutes, and give one reason why you liked it or did not.
- 3Write a situation on a card: book a table, buy a train ticket. List what you have to ask and to say, then play the scene with someone.
- 4Run one whole oral against the clock: five minutes of preparation for the monologue, five for the role play, then the three parts without a break. Record yourself.
- 5Listen back once for the tasks and once for the language. Note every moment where you stopped or answered beside the question: those are the scenes for next week.
The free lesson: a game plan for the speaking exam
Free lesson · study guide
The speaking exam game plan
About eight minutes with an examiner, ten minutes of preparation, 25 points. Here is the shape of the A2 oral and where every point comes from.
Production orale A2: what candidates ask
How long does the DELF A2 oral last?+
Six to eight minutes with the examiner, after ten minutes of preparation. The interview takes about a minute and a half, the monologue about two, the role play three to four. Listening, reading and writing are sat apart, in one collective session: see the whole A2 exam.
What are the ten minutes of preparation for?+
For the monologue and the role play, not for the interview. It is one window for two parts, so decide the split before exam day. The timing block above suggests five minutes for each. That is our arithmetic, not an official rule.
Can you choose your subject in the A2 oral?+
Neither the official format nor the grid we work from says how subjects are handed out, so ask your exam centre. The guided interview has no subject to choose: it is about your own life. The monologue and the role play each start from a subject, like the practice subject shown on this page. Prepare to speak on any familiar topic, and to handle any everyday situation.
How much of the speaking mark is for language?+
A little over half. Thirteen of the 25 points go to lexique, morphosyntaxe and pronunciation, judged once across the three parts. The tasks share the rest, in equal parts between the interview, the monologue and the role play. A1 uses the same split: see A1 speaking.
Can an AI score replace an examiner’s mark?+
No. Our grader applies the six lines of the official grid and returns a score with written feedback. But we have no set of examiner-marked recordings to check it against yet. It also works from a transcript, so pronunciation is only estimated indirectly. Of the numbers on this site, a speaking score is the one to trust least. Only an approved exam centre can award the diploma.
Keep reading
The other A2 pages
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