Jusqu’à la maîtrise

A complete CEFR C1–C2 French course — from France and Québec to Brussels, Geneva, Abidjan and Port-au-Prince

← Back to the Intermediate course (B1–B2) · Beginner course (A1–A2)

🌟 What This Tier Covers

Twenty-four lessons take you from the end of B2 to genuine C2 mastery. The grammar is essentially finished, and that changes what a lesson is for. The thirteen C1 lessons work on the things a fluent speaker still gets wrong: the subjunctive as a choice, the long sentence, nominal style, the full connective inventory, pronouns and prepositions at the limit, the hard agreements — and then the two systems no textbook teaches, liaison and prosody and the grammar of spoken French.

The eleven C2 lessons are register work on a finished grammar: word history, expert orthography and typography, the French academic genres, legal and business French, rhetoric and langue de bois, literary prose, versification, translation, the politics of the language — and the DALF.

This tier also opens the course out. Québec had its own deep dive at B2; here you meet Belgium and Switzerland, then Africa, the Maghreb and the creole world, where most French speakers now live.

Built in: audio on every word · a third separate spaced-repetition deck · flashcards · self-check quizzes · 96 written exercise groups · a learning journal · progress tracking.

🟣 C1 — Effective Operational Proficiency

Lessons 1–13. Mood as a choice, the architecture of the long sentence, nominal style, the connective inventory, pronouns and prepositions at their limits, the hard agreements, liaison and prosody, spoken grammar, politeness and implicitness — and the francophone world beyond Québec.

1 C1 Le Subjonctif sans Limites B2 taught you when the subjunctive is required. This is where it becomes a choice that changes the meaning. 📍 Relative clauses · quoi que / quel que / où que · le fait que · fût-il 2 C1 La Phrase Longue & la Mise en Relief Forty-six words, one main verb. How to take a French sentence apart — and then build one. 📍 c’est… qui / que · ce que… c’est · dislocation · inversion après aussi 3 C1 Le Style Nominal & l’Abstraction The single most visible difference between a good B2 text and a C1 one — and it is learnable in an afternoon. 📍 la mise en œuvre de · nominalisation · le fait que · en quoi 4 C1 Les Connecteurs Logiques à C1 One syllable long, almost never used by learners, and the hinge of French argument: or. 📍 or · il n’en demeure pas moins que · d’autant que · le registre 5 C1 Les Pronoms à la Limite Where je le lui donne runs out: the causative, the neuter le, soi, and the fossilised y and en. 📍 L’ordre des pronoms · le neutre · celui de / qui · s’y faire 6 C1 Régime Prépositionnel & Collocations At C1 your errors change species: every word correct, no sentence quite French. 📍 sensible à · prendre une décision · par le biais de · un cruel manque 7 C1 Les Accords Difficiles The long tail of French agreement — the material of every dictée, and finite. 📍 tout · même · quel que · demi · ci-joint · quatre-vingts · fait 8 C1 Liaison, Enchaînement & Prosodie There is a reason French sounds like one long word. Here is the system that makes it so. 📍 Obligatoire / interdite / facultative · h aspiré · e caduc · le rythme 9 C1 La Grammaire du Français Parlé Spoken French is not written French pronounced badly. It has its own consistent grammar. 📍 chuis / t’as / y’a · questions in situ · ne-drop · du coup · quoi 10 C1 Atténuation, Implicite & Politesse French politeness is grammar, not please. And ce n’est pas mal is a compliment. 📍 La litote · le conditionnel · refuser · reprocher · tu / vous à C1 11 C1 La Francophonie Européenne Between Paris and Montréal: Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg — and the French of the EU institutions. 📍 septante · nonante · huitante · belgicismes · helvétismes · le souper 12 C1 Francophonie Africaine, Maghrébine & Créole Most French speakers are African. That fact reorganises everything you think about this language. 📍 Nouchi · camfranglais · diglossie · créole haïtien · chiac · norme endogène 13 C1 Humour, Jeux de Mots & Second Degré The last thing to arrive in a foreign language — and genuinely a language skill. 📍 Second degré · calembour · contrepèterie · la vanne · la satire

🟦 C2 — Mastery

Lessons 14–24. Register work on a finished grammar: the history inside the words, expert orthography and typography, the French academic genres, legal, administrative and business French, rhetoric and its abuses, literary prose and verse, translation, the politics of the language — and the DALF.

14 C2 L’Histoire des Mots Eau and aquatique share no letters and one Latin root. Once you see the seam, thousands of words follow. 📍 Doublets savants · le francique · arabismes · le circonflexe · racines grecques 15 C2 Orthographe, Ponctuation & Typographie At C2 what betrays you is the surface: a missing space before a colon, the wrong quotation marks. 📍 La réforme de 1990 · espaces insécables · « » · le point-virgule · relire 16 C2 Le Français Académique A French dissertation is not an English essay in French. An excellent English essay will fail. 📍 La problématique · plan dialectique · l’accroche · commentaire composé 17 C2 La Langue Juridique & Administrative Sooner or later, living in French means signing something. Here is how to read it — and how to complain. 📍 Le bail · nonobstant · ledit · la mise en demeure · le Journal officiel 18 C2 Le Français des Affaires What happens after you are hired: the meeting, the negotiation, and the two written genres that run French working life. 📍 L’ordre du jour · le compte rendu · le rapport · négocier · la hiérarchie 19 C2 Rhétorique, Discours Public & Langue de Bois Build a persuasive French text — and take one apart when it is being used on you. 📍 Anaphore · chiasme · le tricolon · langue de bois · le parti pris de la presse 20 C2 Lire la Littérature : la Prose The difference between reading a novel and reading it critically — with the French to say so. 📍 Focalisation · style indirect libre · champ lexical · archaïsmes · un parcours 21 C2 La Poésie Française : Versification French verse counts syllables — so French metrics is applied phonology, and lesson 8 was the preparation. 📍 L’alexandrin · la césure · enjambement · rime riche / croisée · le sonnet 22 C2 Traduire : les Intraduisibles The C2 skill that exposes everything else — register, restructuring, and where the two languages fail to overlap. 📍 Transposition · modulation · faux amis savants · le dépaysement · le sous-titrage 23 C2 Langue, Identité & Institutions No other major language is argued about like this one. At C2 you are expected to hold a position. 📍 L’Académie · la loi Toubon · écriture inclusive · l’OQLF · l’OIF 24 C2 DALF C1 & C2 + Plan de Maîtrise No new grammar — there is none left. How to prove what you know, and how to keep it. The capstone. 📍 La synthèse de documents · l’essai argumenté · l’exposé · la note éliminatoire

🧰 Practice Tools

Reference and practice that runs across the whole advanced tier.

✓ C1–C2 Can-Do Checklist The CEFR C1 and C2 descriptors as a tickable list, linked to the lesson that teaches each one. 📍 119 can-do statements · Progress bars · Self-assessment 📖 Glossary Every word from all 24 advanced lessons in one searchable place, with audio and links back. 📍 480 words · Search · Filter by lesson · Add to review deck 📋 Mastery Cheat Sheet Every rule, inventory and formula of the tier — agreements, liaison, connectives, metrics, the DALF — formatted to print. 📍 Accords · liaison · connecteurs · rhétorique · versification · DALF 📚 Register Readings Eight C1–C2 pieces — an editorial, a contract clause, a literary page, a meeting, a poem, and French from three continents. 📍 Authentic-style registers · Hide the English · Check your understanding 🔊 Pronunciation Reader Type any French text and hear it read aloud, with silent letters, nasal vowels and liaisons marked. 📍 Text-to-speech · Silent letters · Nasal vowels · Liaison · IPA 📇 Anki Deck The whole advanced vocabulary as two-way Anki cards (French↔English), tagged by lesson. 📍 C1–C2 notes · Two-way cards · Download & import

🎓 Where to Next

There is no C3. Work through the C1–C2 can-do checklist to find what is still soft, sit the DALF if you want the paper, and then build the maintenance plan from lesson 24 into your week. The B1–B2 and A1–A2 courses keep their own separate progress if you want to go back for a refresher.