The last lesson of the course. No new grammar — there is none left to teach. This is about proving what you now know, and then about keeping it.
One thing here genuinely is new material rather than revision: the synthèse de documents. It is a taught French genre with a fixed method, it is half of the DALF C1 written paper, and nobody produces a good one by instinct.
| Feature | DALF C1 | DALF C2 |
|---|---|---|
| Skills tested | 4 separate papers | 2 papers (oral, written), each integrated |
| Written paper | synthèse + essai argumenté (2h30) | one long integrated task (3h30) |
| Oral paper | exposé from a dossier + discussion | compte rendu of a recording, then debate |
| Options | lettres et sciences humaines or sciences | same two options |
| Pass mark | 50/100 overall | 50/100 overall |
| Note Ă©liminatoire | below 5/25 in any one paper fails you | below 10/50 in either paper fails you |
| Validity | for life | for life |
You can score well overall and still fail on one weak paper. Since the four C1 papers are separately eliminating, the rational preparation strategy is to raise your weakest skill, not to polish your strongest. Most candidates do the opposite because it is more enjoyable.
You receive two or three documents on one theme, roughly 1000 to 1200 words in total, and produce a single coherent text of about 220 words (C1) that presents what they collectively say. Three absolute rules:
| Step | Time | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Read for the shared question | 10 min | What single issue are all the documents about? |
| 2. Build a grid | 15 min | Themes down the side, documents across the top. Fill the cells. |
| 3. Order the themes | 5 min | Two or three themes, in a logical order — that is your plan |
| 4. Write | 30 min | Intro (the theme and the sources), body by theme, short close |
| 5. Check | 10 min | Word count, no opinion, no lifted phrases, agreements |
The grid is the whole technique. Once the cells are filled, the convergences and disagreements between the documents are visible on the page, and you write across the rows rather than down the columns.
| French | Pronunciation | Use in a synthèse |
|---|---|---|
| les documents portent sur | lay do-kĂĽ-mahn port sĂĽr | the documents deal with |
| les auteurs s’accordent à reconnaître que | lay zoh-tuhr sah-kord ah ruh-ko-NETR kuh | the writers agree that |
| tandis que le second insiste sur | tahn-dee kuh luh suh-gohn an-seest sĂĽr | whereas the second stresses |
| lĂ oĂą X voit une chance, Y voit un risque | lah oo eeks vwah ĂĽn SHAHNS | where X sees an opportunity, Y sees a risk |
| cette divergence porte moins sur… que sur… | set dee-vair-zhahns port mwan sür kuh sür | this disagreement is less about… than about… |
| aucun des trois textes n’aborde | oh-kuhn day trwah text nah-BORD | none of the three texts addresses |
The second half of the C1 written paper: around 250 words stating and defending a position, usually addressed to a specific reader (a newspaper, a committee, a director). It is the dissertation of lesson 16 in miniature, plus a register requirement.
| Do | Don’t |
|---|---|
| Announce a clear position early | Balance both sides and never commit |
| Concede then rebut (lesson 4) | Ignore the opposing case |
| Match the register to the named reader | Write the same register for a minister and a friend |
| Use two or three well-developed arguments | List six shallow ones |
| Respect the word count within 10 per cent | Write 400 words because you had more to say |
| Stage | C1 |
|---|---|
| Preparation | 1 hour with a dossier of documents |
| Exposé | 8–10 minutes, structured, on a problématique you formulate |
| Discussion | the examiner challenges your position for 15–20 minutes |
Two things matter more than content. The plan is visible — announce it and signal each transition aloud, exactly as in a written dissertation. And defend without rigidity: when the examiner presses you, conceding a genuine point and then qualifying it scores better than either collapsing or repeating yourself. That is lesson 4 and lesson 19 being examined directly.
| French | Pronunciation | Use |
|---|---|---|
| je structurerai mon propos en trois temps | zhuh strĂĽk-tĂĽ-ruh-ray mohn pro-poh ahn trwah TAHN | announcing the plan |
| j’en viens à mon deuxième point | zhahn vyan ah mohn duh-zyem PWAN | signalling a transition |
| vous avez raison sur ce point, mais | voo zah-vay ray-zohn sĂĽr suh PWAN may | conceding then qualifying |
| je nuancerais votre formulation | zhuh nĂĽ-ahns-ray votr for-mĂĽ-lah-SYOHN | pushing back politely |
| si je comprends bien votre question | see zhuh kohn-prahn byan votr kes-TYOHN | buying a second to think |
| pour conclure sur ce point | poor kohn-klĂĽr sĂĽr suh PWAN | closing a section |
| Paper | Tactic |
|---|---|
| Compréhension orale | Read the questions first. Take notes in the gaps, not while a key sentence is being spoken. |
| Compréhension écrite | Locate the answer, then read that paragraph closely. Do not read the whole text twice. |
| Production écrite | Split the 2h30 deliberately: 1h10 synthèse, 1h10 essai, 10 min final check. Never leave one unfinished. |
| Production orale | Spend the first 20 of your 60 preparation minutes on the problématique and plan, not on notes. |
| All papers | Answer something for every task. An unattempted section is where the note Ă©liminatoire comes from. |
The exam is a milestone, not a destination. Mastery is a maintenance problem: a language you do not use degrades, and it degrades from the top — the soutenu register and the rare vocabulary go first.
| Frequency | Practice |
|---|---|
| Daily | 15 minutes of real reading — press, a novel, anything not written for learners |
| Daily | Something in your ears: a podcast, the radio, a series without subtitles |
| Weekly | Write 300 words that someone will read — a comment, a letter, a review |
| Weekly | One real conversation, ideally one where you have to argue |
| Monthly | One difficult text you would not normally choose — a legal document, a poem, a philosophy essay |
| Quarterly | Reread this tier's cheat sheet and check the can-do list for slippage |
| Yearly | Something long and ambitious: a novel in a register you find hard, or a course in French on a subject that is not French |
Use French for something that is not French. Follow a subject you care about — cooking, law, astronomy, football tactics — in French because that is where the good sources are. Language studied as a subject plateaus; language used as a tool does not.
Seventy-eight lessons ago, this course opened with bonjour. Since then you have built the sentence (A1–A2), the paragraph and the argument (B1–B2), and in this tier the register, the variety and the precision (C1–C2). You can read a nineteenth-century novel and scan its verse. You can follow a Québécois news bulletin, an Ivorian song and a Swiss referendum debate. You can write a mise en demeure, a synthèse, a compte rendu and a joke.
The remaining work is not upward — there is no C3. It is outward, and it is the enjoyable part: more books, more places, more people, more of the language's enormous back catalogue. You are no longer learning French. You are using it.
Bonne route, et bon vent.
The DALF is administered by France Éducation international through the Institut français and Alliance française network, and a C1 is the standard language requirement for French university admission — often accepted in place of the TCF. It is valid for life, which the TCF and TEF are not. Registration is per-session and per-centre, so check dates several months ahead.
For Canadian immigration purposes the DALF is generally not the test that counts: IRCC requires the TEF Canada or TCF Canada, scored on the NCLC scale rather than the CEFR, and those results expire after two years. Québec's own programmes accept a range of proofs including the TEFAQ. If your goal is Canada, take the DALF for yourself and the TEF for the file — and note that the TEF's oral is a quite different format from the DALF's exposé, so it needs its own practice.
Write oui or non.
1. A synthèse de documents must:
2. Given the note Ă©liminatoire, the best preparation strategy is:
3. For Canadian immigration, the DALF is: