Grammar Roadmap: What You Should Know at Each Level

How to Use This Roadmap

This guide follows the six CEFR levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. For each level, you’ll find the core grammar concepts you need to acquire — not just know theoretically, but be able to use in real sentences under conversational pressure.

A few important notes before you start:

• Grammar is not a prerequisite for speaking. You start using B1-level grammar while you’re still consolidating A2 structures. Levels overlap in practice.
• Knowing a rule is not the same as having acquired it. Acquisition means using a structure automatically, without consciously recalling the rule. That only comes through lots of exposure and practice, not from studying the rule more.
• This roadmap tells you what to prioritize — not what to study in isolation. Grammar learns best when attached to real sentences and real contexts.

If you’re not sure which level you’re currently at, this guide on tracking your progress includes a practical self-assessment approach that doesn’t require a formal test.

A1 Grammar: The Absolute Essentials

At A1, your goal is to produce simple, correct sentences about yourself, your immediate environment, and your basic needs. The structures you need are limited, but they must be solid.

Core A1 structures

• Present tense (présent) of the most common irregular verbs: être (to be), avoir (to have), aller (to go), faire (to do/make), vouloir (to want), pouvoir (to be able to)
• Present tense of regular -er verbs (parler, aimer, habiter, travailler)
• Definite articles: le, la, les — and their use with nouns
• Indefinite articles: un, une, des
• Partitive articles: du, de la, de l’ — used with food and uncountable nouns
• Negation: ne… pas and the contracted forms in speech (je sais pas)
• Subject pronouns: je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils/elles
• Gender: Every French noun has a gender. Start learning it with every new word.
• Basic questions: Est-ce que…? and rising intonation questions
• Simple adjective agreement: un chat noir, une voiture noire

The single most important thing at A1 is to learn noun gender from the start. Every time you learn a new word, learn it with its article: not table but une table. If you don’t, you’ll spend years guessing and producing errors that are very hard to fix later. Here’s why gender confuses English speakers — and how to build the habit that prevents it becoming a permanent problem.

A2 Grammar: Building Blocks for Real Conversation

At A2, you move from describing the present to describing the past, future, and your abilities. You start forming more complex sentences and handling a wider range of situations.

Core A2 structures

• Passé composé: The main past tense for completed actions. Formation with avoir or être + past participle. Agreement rules for être verbs.
• Imparfait: The past tense for ongoing states, habits, and background descriptions. J’habitais à Paris. (“I used to live in Paris.”)
• Futur proche: aller + infinitive for near future. Je vais partir demain.
• Modal verbs in context: pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, savoir + infinitive
• Possessive adjectives: mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, son, sa, ses…
• Prepositions of place: dans, sur, sous, devant, derrière, entre, à côté de
• Basic adverbs: très, assez, vraiment, souvent, jamais, parfois, déjà
• Comparatives: plus… que, moins… que, aussi… que
• Object pronouns: le, la, les (direct) and lui, leur (indirect) — basic placement

The passé composé vs. imparfait distinction is one of the first grammar points where English speakers regularly struggle. English uses both to translate to either French tense depending on context. This guide to past tenses for English speakers explains the distinction with clear, intuitive examples rather than abstract rules.

B1 Grammar: The Intermediate Leap

B1 grammar is where French starts to feel genuinely flexible. You can express opinions, hypotheses, and complex descriptions. The structures multiply, but the core skill at this level is knowing when to use each tense.

Core B1 structures

• Futur simple: Je partirai demain. Contrasted with futur proche
• Conditionnel présent: For polite requests and hypotheses. Je voudrais… / Si j’avais le temps, je voyagerais.
• Subjonctif présent (introduction): After il faut que, vouloir que, être content que
• Plus-que-parfait: For the past before another past event. Quand il est arrivé, j’avais déjà mangé.
• Pronoun placement rules: Multiple object pronouns, reflexive verbs with pronouns
• Relative clauses with qui, que, dont, où
• Complex negations: ne… plus, ne… rien, ne… personne, ne… jamais
• Passive voice (introduction): La décision a été prise par le directeur.
• Indirect speech: Il m’a dit qu’il viendrait.

B2 Grammar: Nuance and Register

B2 grammar is less about learning new structures and more about using B1 structures with greater precision, consistency, and stylistic variety. The subjunctive moves from occasional to regular. Formal and informal registers begin to diverge noticeably.

Core B2 structures

• Subjonctif présent (extended use): After expressions of doubt, emotion, necessity, and in relative clauses with superlatives
• Subjonctif passé: Je suis content qu’il soit venu.
• Conditionnel passé: For unrealized past hypotheses. Si j’avais su, j’aurais fait autrement.
• Complex conjunctions: bien que + subj, à condition que + subj, bien que + subj, pour que + subj, sans que + subj
• Gérondif: en travaillant, en parlant — simultaneous actions
• Nominalisation: Turning verbs into noun phrases for formal writing
• Double object pronouns: Je le lui ai dit.
• Literary tenses (recognition): Passé simple, imparfait du subjonctif — not for production, but essential for reading

C1–C2 Grammar: Mastery and Stylistic Control

At C1–C2, grammar errors are rare and usually minor. The focus shifts entirely to stylistic control — choosing the right structure not just for correctness but for effect, register, and rhetorical purpose.

C1–C2 priorities

• Passé simple (production): Required for formal and literary writing
• Imparfait du subjonctif: Still used in formal written French, and heard in conservative or formal speech
• Inversion in interrogative and literary contexts: Peut-être est-il parti. / Vint alors le moment où…
• Full register control: Knowing which structures belong to formal writing, spoken informal French, and literary French respectively
• Complex rhetorical structures: Non seulement… mais aussi…, certes… mais…, loin de…
• Stylistic variety in connectors: Moving beyond donc, mais, parce que to partant, cependant, néanmoins, en revanche, dès lors que, dans la mesure où

If you’re preparing for the DALF C1 or C2, these register distinctions are tested explicitly in the writing tasks. This guide to essay connectors for French exams is directly applicable to C1–C2 written production.

Grammar by Level: Quick Reference

The Right Way to Study This Roadmap

Identify your current level honestly — not the level you’ve reached in a course, but the level of French you can produce spontaneously under conversational pressure. That’s your real starting point.

Then work through the structures at your level until they feel automatic, not just correct. The test: can you use this structure mid-sentence in a conversation without having to stop and think about the rule? If not, it’s not acquired yet.

Grammar study works best when it’s reactive — you notice a gap, you find the rule, you find 10 examples, and you practice. Reading this whole page once and feeling informed is not the same thing. Come back to specific sections when you hit a structure in real French that you don’t understand.

For beginners trying to avoid the common trap of studying grammar that’s too advanced for their current level, the biggest mistakes A1–A2 learners make are worth reading before diving into this roadmap.