Exam practice · Compréhension de l'oral
DELF listening practice, on real exam documents
The DELF listening paper is one of four, marked out of 25, and the diploma needs at least 5 out of 25 in it whatever your total elsewhere. Every recording is played twice with no rewind, and the questions follow the order of what you hear. You can sit a real A2 or B1 document here, free, and see why each answer is the answer.
Both are marked on the spot, two listenings and no rewind, with every answer explained.
Four rules that decide the paper
None of them is about your French. They are about how the recording is given to you, and candidates lose points to all four every session.
Twice, and no rewind
Every recording is played twice and that is all. There is no going back over a sentence you missed, which is why practising on a podcast you can scrub teaches the wrong habit.
Time to read first, and not the same everywhere
You are given time to read the questions before the first listening: thirty seconds on a B1 document, fifteen before the shorter A2 exercises. Candidates who skip it spend the first listening finding out what they were supposed to be listening for.
The gap is for writing, not waiting
Between the two listenings there is a pause, three minutes on a B1 document. Answer what you are sure of straight away, so the second listening is spent on the two or three you are not.
The answers come in order
The questions follow the order of the recording. If you are hunting for question 4 while the recording is already past it, you have lost question 5 as well.
The listening paper, level by level
Every level is marked out of 25, and what changes is the length of the recordings and how much detail the questions go after. The last column is what you can practise on this site today.
The two levels built here are A2 and B1, both read off the official sample papers, and the A2 is not the B1 made easier. An A2 paper is four exercises over fourteen short recordings, six public announcements, three radio extracts, an answerphone message and four dialogues to match against six situations, worth 6, 6, 6 and 7 and marked in halves. A B1 paper is three longer documents instead: a phone conversation worth 6 points, a radio interview about working life worth 8, and a two-voice radio report worth 11.
| Level | Time | Marks | Practise |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | About 20 minutes | 25 | The A1 checklist |
| A2 | About 25 minutes | 25 | Sit an exercise free |
| B1 | About 25 minutes | 25 | Sit a document free |
| B2 | About 30 minutes | 25 | The B2 checklist |
The DELF is awarded by the French Ministry of Education and never expires. Each of the four papers is marked out of 25 for a total of 100, you need 50/100 overall to pass, and at least 5/25 in every single paper.
Two real documents, free, and why each answer is the answer
Not excerpts and not samples: one complete unit of a paper at each level, with its instructions in French, its questions and its full correction. Both were written and recorded here, so you have not heard them before, which is the only condition under which a mock document tells you anything. Nothing to download and no account.
A2 · 6 of 25 points
The answerphone message
The one exercise of the four that carries 6 questions on a single recording, so it shows the whole marking machinery on one file. Played twice at exam speed, marked in halves as the official scheme marks it.
Sit the exerciseB1 · 11 of 25 points
The two-voice radio report
The hardest of the three document types on a real paper, and the least imitable by a free podcast. 6 multiple-choice questions, and for each one you miss, the exact second of the recording where the answer was.
Sit the documentWhen one document stops being enough
Each pack is five complete papers end to end, sat in one go as in the exam room, with every answer explained in French and in English: the sentence that held it, quoted word for word, and a button that plays those few seconds back on their own. Full transcripts underneath. One offline HTML file each, no app, no account and no connection.
And every recording is original. The official sample papers are a handful, they are free, and by the week of the exam you have met them: a document you have already heard measures nothing. These were written and recorded for these files, so they exist in no textbook, on no YouTube channel and in no other course. Only the format is borrowed.
DELF A2 Compréhension Orale
Five complete A2 papers
5 full papers · 70 recordings · 110 questions · 21 min of audio
Four exercises per paper and marked in halves, as the official scheme marks them. The announcements, the radio extracts and the matching exercise are the three forms the free one does not give you.
See the pack · $29DELF B1 Compréhension Orale
Five complete B1 papers
5 full papers · 15 documents · 80 questions · 21 min of audio
Three documents per paper, worth 6, 8 and 11. The phone conversation and the radio interview are the two document types the free one does not give you.
See the pack · $29What to listen to on the other days
Exam documents train the format. They do not build the ear, and ten minutes of French every day does. Sitting one paper a week and listening daily in between is the combination that moves a listening mark.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the DELF listening paper work?
- Compréhension de l'oral is the first of the four DELF papers and it is marked out of 25, like the other three. Each recording is played twice with no rewind, you are given time to read the questions before the first listening, and the questions follow the order of the recording. You need 50 out of 100 overall to be awarded the diploma, and at least 5 out of 25 in every paper, listening included.
- Can I practise a real DELF listening document for free?
- Yes, at two levels. The free A2 exercise is the answerphone message, the one exercise of four that carries 6 questions on a single recording, worth 6 of the 25 points. The free B1 document is the two-voice radio report, the hardest of the three document types, worth 11 of 25, with 6 questions. Both are played twice at exam speed, marked on the spot, and every answer is explained in French and in English with the exact second of the recording where it was.
- Is the DELF A2 listening paper just a shorter B1 paper?
- No, the two are built differently. An A2 paper is four exercises over fourteen short recordings: six public announcements with one question each, three radio extracts with two each, an answerphone message with six, and four dialogues to match against six situations. The points are spread 6, 6, 6 and 7 and awarded in halves. A B1 paper is three longer documents instead, worth 6, 8 and 11, with three options per question throughout.
- Which level of DELF listening practice is available here?
- A2 and B1: at each level, one free unit of a real paper and a pack of five complete papers. A1 and B2 have their full checklists on the site, but no recorded papers yet.
- Are these the official DELF past papers?
- No, they are original papers built to the official format. France Éducation international publishes a handful of sample papers, they are free, and by the time you sit the exam you have met them, which is exactly what makes them useless as a measure: a recording you have already heard tests your memory, not your listening. Everything here was written and recorded for this site, so it exists in no textbook, on no YouTube channel and in no other course. Only the format is borrowed, down to the spread of the points and the half marks at A2.
- Is listening to podcasts enough to prepare for the DELF?
- It builds the ear, and it is the right daily habit, but it does not train the paper. A podcast has no questions, no two-listening limit and no marks, and you can rewind it. The exam gives you a recording twice and asks you to have caught a specific detail. Both matter: podcasts for volume, exam documents for the format.
- Why is the listening paper the one people underestimate?
- Because it is the only one where you cannot work at your own pace. Reading and writing wait for you, listening does not, and most candidates discover in the exam room that understanding a recording and answering a question about it are two different skills. It is also the paper where a single missed minimum of 5 out of 25 can cost the whole diploma.
Listening is one paper of four
A listening mark on its own does not tell you whether you are ready. These two do.