Reference
CEFR levels explained, A1 to C2
Six labels that appear on every course and exam, and one persistent misunderstanding about what they actually measure.
The Common European Framework of Reference is the scale behind almost every language qualification you will meet: six levels from A1 to C2, grouped into basic, independent and proficient users.
It is genuinely useful, and it is routinely described wrongly. The framework does not define how many words you need or how many hours it takes — those numbers come from elsewhere, and knowing that changes how much weight to put on them.
The six levels
| Level | Name | What you can do | Vocabulary |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Breakthrough | Introduce yourself, ask and answer basic personal questions, handle very slow, clear speech. | ~500–600 |
| A2 | Waystage | Handle routine exchanges: shopping, directions, ordering. Describe your background in simple terms. | ~1,000–1,500 |
| B1 | Threshold | Manage most situations while travelling, describe experiences, give brief reasons and opinions. | ~2,500–3,000 |
| B2 | Vantage | Follow and take part in extended discussion, understand most TV and film, work in the language. | ~4,000–6,000 |
| C1 | Advanced | Use the language flexibly for social, academic and professional purposes; read demanding texts. | ~8,000 |
| C2 | Mastery | Understand virtually everything heard or read, and express yourself precisely in complex situations. | 16,000+ |
A1 and A2 are "basic user", B1 and B2 "independent user", C1 and C2 "proficient user". The vocabulary column is discussed below, and is not part of the framework.
What the CEFR actually defines
The framework is built from "can do" statements. A level is a description of what a learner is able to accomplish — hold this kind of conversation, read this kind of text, write this kind of letter — and nothing else.
Those additions are still useful. Vocabulary estimates draw on corpus research, including Paul Nation's work on word families, and the figures in the table above are the commonly cited ranges. Hour estimates generally trace back to Cambridge English course planning, where roughly 200 guided hours per level and 500 to 600 cumulative hours to B2 are the usual benchmarks.
Treat both as orientation rather than specification. They vary by source, they were largely derived for English, and two learners at the same level can differ substantially in vocabulary size depending on how they got there.
Which level is "fluent"
The framework never uses the word, which is why the question is asked so often and answered so inconsistently.
In practice, B2 is what most people mean by fluent: you can follow an extended discussion, watch a film without subtitles most of the time, and work in the language without it being exhausting. It is also the level most university and employment requirements settle on.
C1 and C2 are not "more fluent" so much as more precise and wider-ranging. C2 in particular is often misread as native-level, which it is not — it describes a very high standard of use, and plenty of native speakers would not meet its written criteria.
What the levels do not tell you
- How fast you speak. Levels describe what you can accomplish, not how smoothly. Hesitant B2 and confident B2 are the same level.
- Your accent. Comprehensibility matters to the descriptors; sounding native does not.
- Which words you know. A B2 who learned through business meetings and a B2 who learned through novels have very different vocabularies.
- Whether skills are balanced. Many learners read a level above what they can speak, especially in languages learned largely from text.
Using the levels without being ruled by them
The levels are most useful as a map of what comes next. The jump that catches people is B1 to B2, because the vocabulary requirement roughly doubles while each new word appears less often than the last — which is what makes progress feel slower even when it has not stopped. We looked at that curve in how many words you need to speak a language.
They also say nothing about how long the journey takes in a given language, which depends far more on which language you picked: see how long it takes to learn a language for the hour estimates by difficulty category.
Whatever level you are working towards, the vocabulary underneath it only counts if it stays. That is the job Glancealot does: packs for Spanish, French, Japanese and others, or your own list from whatever course you are taking, kept in front of you on your lock screen between study sessions.
Sources and caveats
Level descriptions summarise the Council of Europe's CEFR descriptors. Vocabulary ranges and hour benchmarks are the commonly cited third-party estimates described above, checked in August 2026, and are not official parts of the framework. Where sources disagree — and on vocabulary size they disagree considerably — the table gives a range rather than a single figure.
Frequently asked questions
B1 is the lower intermediate level, described by the CEFR as "threshold". At B1 you can handle most situations that arise while travelling, describe experiences and events, and give short reasons for your opinions, provided the language is standard and reasonably clear.
The framework never uses the word fluent, which is part of why the question keeps being asked. In practice B2 is the level most people mean: you can take part in extended discussion, follow films, and work in the language without constant strain. C1 and C2 describe increasing precision and range beyond that.
Commonly cited estimates run from roughly 500 to 600 word families at A1 to around 8,000 at C1 and 16,000 or more at C2, drawing on corpus research such as Paul Nation's. These figures are not part of the CEFR itself, which describes what a learner can do rather than how much vocabulary they hold.
Cambridge English course-planning figures commonly suggest roughly 200 guided hours per level, with about 500 to 600 cumulative hours to reach B2. Those are planning benchmarks for English rather than rules, and the time varies enormously with the language, the learner, and how close it is to languages they already speak.
No. The Common European Framework of Reference describes competences as "can do" statements — what a learner is able to accomplish at each level. Word counts and hour estimates are added by publishers, exam boards and researchers, and are useful as rough guides rather than official definitions.
It was designed as a language-neutral framework and is used across European languages and increasingly beyond, though the depth of official mapping varies. Some languages have well-developed level descriptions and exams; others rely on looser equivalences.
