Self-assessment · seven levels · A1 to C2
What is my English level? A1 to C2 explained
English courses, exams and job adverts all describe levels as A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 or C2. Those codes come from the CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference, and most schools split them into seven teaching levels from Beginner to Proficiency.
This page shows what you can do at each level, the grammar and vocabulary that belong to it, and a set of questions you can try on yourself. Start at the top and keep going until the questions stop being easy. That is your level.
Be honest Knowing a lot of words is not the same as having a level. Someone who knows hundreds of words but still says yesterday I go is Elementary, not Intermediate. Levels are judged on the grammar you control while speaking, not on what you recognise on a page. This page is a self-check, not an official test.
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Work through the seven levels, tick what you can actually do, and stop at the one where it gets hard. That is where your lessons should start.
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Level 1 of 7
A1 – Beginner
0-60 study hours · 500-800 words
At A1 you can read and write the alphabet, spell your own name out loud, greet people and reply, give basic details about yourself - name, age, nationality, job - count, and follow very slow, simple speech when it is repeated. You speak in single words and phrases you have learned whole, rather than sentences you build yourself. You need to hear something before you can say it.
Grammar at A1
- Verb to be - full forms, questions, negatives
- Subject pronouns and possessive adjectives
- Articles a / an / the
- Regular plurals and common irregulars
- This / that / these / those
- Have got
- Present simple - positive first, then do / does
- Imperatives
- There is / there are
- Can for ability
- Prepositions of place - in, on, under, next to
- Question words - what, where, who, how old
Vocabulary at A1
- The alphabet - letter names, letter sounds, spelling out loud
- Numbers 0-100, days, months, dates
- Colours, classroom and everyday objects
- Family members
- Countries, nationalities, languages
- Jobs
- Food and drink basics
- Telling the time
- Core adjectives - big, small, hot, cold, good, bad
- Core verbs - go, have, like, live, work, eat
Check yourself - tick what you could do right now
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Where to go next
Start speaking before you feel ready.
At this level progress comes from using a small number of sentences until they are automatic - not from working through more grammar tables. Lessons build the handful of structures you actually need first.
See beginner lessonsNo test, no application. Just a first lesson.
You are not at A1 yet ifYou cannot write your own name when someone spells it, cannot say I am from... unless someone starts the sentence for you, or answer every question in your own language. Start with the alphabet and everyday phrases.
Level 2 of 7
A2 – Elementary
60-180 study hours · 1,000-1,500 words
At A2 you can handle short everyday exchanges, talk about your daily routine, describe things that happened in simple sentences, go shopping, order food, ask for and follow directions, fill in basic forms, and write a postcard or a short email. You still need the other person to be patient, and longer answers start to fall apart.
Grammar at A2
- Present simple in full, plus adverbs of frequency
- Present continuous, then simple vs continuous
- Past simple - was / were, regular verbs, common irregulars
- Countable and uncountable, some, any, much, many
- Comparatives and superlatives
- Going to for plans, will for quick decisions
- Would like
- Object pronouns, possessive 's, possessive pronouns
- Prepositions of time - at, in, on
- There was / there were
- Must, have to, should - first look
- Adverbs of manner
- Like / love / hate + -ing
Vocabulary at A2
- House, rooms, furniture
- Town, buildings, giving directions
- Shops, money, prices
- Clothes and shopping
- Weather and seasons
- Transport and travel
- Free time and hobbies
- Parts of the body, simple illness
- Food, menus, restaurant language
- Feelings and simple personality adjectives
- Common pairs - make / do, take / have
Check yourself - tick what you could do right now
Could you answer these?
Could you do these?
You ticked 0 of 10.
Where to go next
Start speaking before you feel ready.
At this level progress comes from using a small number of sentences until they are automatic - not from working through more grammar tables. Lessons build the handful of structures you actually need first.
See beginner lessonsNo test, no application. Just a first lesson.
You are not at A2 yet ifYour questions still come out as You like coffee?, you tell past events in the present, or every answer is one word. Go back to A1 grammar before you add new topics.
Level 3 of 7
A2-B1 – Pre-Intermediate
180-350 study hours · 2,000-2,500 words
At Pre-Intermediate you can keep a longer conversation going with someone who is willing to help, tell a simple story, talk about your experiences and your plans, give an opinion and a reason for it, cope with most travel situations, and write a short informal letter or description. You still hesitate a lot, but people understand you.
Grammar at this level
- Present perfect - ever, never, just, already, yet
- For and since
- Present perfect vs past simple
- Past continuous vs past simple
- Future forms - will, going to, present continuous
- Zero and first conditionals; second introduced
- Modals - should, must, have to, don't have to, might
- Used to
- Gerunds and infinitives after common verbs
- (Not) as ... as, too, enough
- Relative clauses - who, which, that
- Quantifiers and articles revisited
- Verb + preposition patterns
Vocabulary at this level
- Everyday phrasal verbs - get up, look for, turn on
- Work and study
- Technology and the internet
- Relationships
- Personality adjectives
- Describing places and appearance
- Sport and fitness
- Media and entertainment
- Environment and social issues - first look
- Everyday idioms and fixed phrases
- Word building - un-, -er, -ful
Check yourself - tick what you could do right now
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This is the one that matters
You know the grammar. You still cannot say what you mean.
This is where most learners stop for years. It is not vocabulary and it is not confidence - it is the gap between English you have studied and English you can speak. I have a formal English degree, and closing that gap was still separate work I had to do deliberately. That is exactly what I teach.
Fix the fluency gapMost people arrive here. Most people stay here. You do not have to.
You are not at this level yet ifYou say I have been there last year or I am living here since 2019, or you tell every story in past simple only. The present perfect is the gate to this level - without it you are still A2.
Level 4 of 7
B1 – Intermediate
350-500 study hours · 3,000-4,000 words
At B1 you can follow the main points of clear speech on familiar topics, write text that hangs together rather than a string of separate sentences, describe your experiences, hopes and plans, explain your reasons, deal with most situations while travelling, and write a straightforward essay or report. This is the first level where you manage without a patient listener.
Grammar at B1
- Present perfect simple vs continuous
- Past perfect and story tenses
- Passive - present simple, past simple, present perfect
- Reported speech - statements, questions, commands
- Second and third conditionals
- Modals for guessing - must be, might be, can't be
- Defining vs non-defining relative clauses
- Question tags
- Gerund vs infinitive where the meaning changes - stop, remember, try
- Future continuous - introduced
- So / such / too / enough
- Articles in more detail
- Verb + object + infinitive patterns
Vocabulary at B1
- Wider phrasal verbs, including less literal ones
- Preposition pairs - interested in, good at, depend on
- Word families - decide / decision / decisive
- Crime and law
- Education
- Health and medicine
- Money and finance
- Abstract nouns and opinion language
- Linking words - however, although, in addition
- Common idioms
- Word partners - strong coffee, heavy rain, make a decision
Check yourself - tick what you could do right now
Could you answer these?
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You ticked 0 of 10.
This is the one that matters
You know the grammar. You still cannot say what you mean.
This is where most learners stop for years. It is not vocabulary and it is not confidence - it is the gap between English you have studied and English you can speak. I have a formal English degree, and closing that gap was still separate work I had to do deliberately. That is exactly what I teach.
Fix the fluency gapMost people arrive here. Most people stay here. You do not have to.
You are not at B1 yet ifYou say He said me that... or He said he is tired, tell long stories with no past perfect anywhere, or your third conditionals turn into second conditionals. These are things you learn at B1, not proof you are there.
Level 5 of 7
B2 – Upper-Intermediate
500-700 study hours · 4,000-6,000 words
At B2 you can understand complex texts and the main ideas of a technical discussion in your own field, talk with real fluency and without long pauses, argue a point and back it up with detail, follow films and lectures without subtitles, and write clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects. You still make mistakes, but they rarely stop people understanding you. B2 is the level most universities and employers ask for.
Grammar at B2
- All the perfect tenses compared
- Future perfect and future continuous
- Mixed conditionals
- Unreal past - wish, if only, it's time, I'd rather
- Passives in every tense
- Passive reporting - It is said that... / He is thought to...
- Causative - have / get something done
- Participle clauses
- Guessing about the past - must have, might have, needn't have
- Relative clauses with prepositions - the person to whom...
- Cleft sentences - What I need is...
- Emphasis and inversion - first look
- Determiners; linking and cohesion
Vocabulary at B2
- Figurative and multi-word phrasal verbs
- Register - formal, informal, neutral
- Choosing precisely - small / tiny / minor / slight
- Softening language
- Idioms and metaphor
- Academic Word List - first exposure
- Politics and government
- Science and research
- Culture and the arts
- Business and work culture
- Ethics and argument
- Word partners and near-synonyms
Check yourself - tick what you could do right now
Could you answer these?
Could you do these?
You ticked 0 of 10.
This is the one that matters
You know the grammar. You still cannot say what you mean.
This is where most learners stop for years. It is not vocabulary and it is not confidence - it is the gap between English you have studied and English you can speak. I have a formal English degree, and closing that gap was still separate work I had to do deliberately. That is exactly what I teach.
Fix the fluency gapMost people arrive here. Most people stay here. You do not have to.
You are not at B2 yet ifYou say I wish I would have known, or I cut my hair yesterday when a barber did it, or you state opinions flatly with no softening and never concede a point. Being fluent but blunt usually means strong B1, not B2.
Level 6 of 7
C1 – Advanced
700-1,000 study hours · 8,000+ words
At C1 you can understand long, demanding texts and pick up what is meant but not said, speak fluently without visibly searching for words, use English flexibly for social, academic and professional purposes, and write clear, well-organised, detailed text. The work at this level is style rather than survival: choosing the right word, not finding any word.
Grammar at C1 - polish, not new tenses
- Inversion after negative adverbials - Never had I..., Not only...
- Cleft sentences - It was John who..., What happened was...
- Ellipsis and substitution
- Subjunctive and formal unreal forms - I suggest he be..., Were I to...
- Turning verbs into nouns for formal writing
- Advanced reporting verbs and complex passives
- Word order for emphasis
- Complex and mixed conditionals
- Fine degrees of certainty
- Cohesion, punctuation and sentence complexity
Vocabulary at C1
- Idiomatic and colloquial range
- Connotation - what a word suggests, not just means
- Which grammar a word demands
- Precise word partners
- Metaphor and figurative use
- Specialised, academic and professional vocabulary
- Journalistic and literary style
- Irony, understatement and humour
- Regional and cultural reference
Check yourself - tick what you could do right now
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Where to go next
The work now is precision, not progress.
Nothing is missing at this level. The gains come from register, nuance, and saying the exact thing you mean while someone is interrupting you - the things a course cannot drill and only conversation can build.
See advanced coachingFor people who are already fluent and want to be exact.
You are not at C1 yet ifYou are fluent and accurate, but everything you say sounds the same however formal the situation, you use the same handful of idioms every time, and you answer questions about nuance with a dictionary definition. That is strong B2 - work on flexibility, not accuracy.
Level 7 of 7
C2 – Proficiency
1,000-1,400+ study hours · 16,000+ words
At C2 you understand almost everything you hear or read without effort, can summarise information from several spoken and written sources and rebuild the argument coherently, and express yourself fluently and precisely, separating fine shades of meaning even in complicated situations. C2 is not the same as being a native speaker - it is trained precision, and plenty of native speakers would not pass a C2 exam.
Grammar at C2 - control and choice
- Grammar used deliberately for effect
- Old-fashioned, literary and very formal structures
- Long, complex sentences that still hold together
- Unusual word order for emphasis
- Near-identical structures compared for meaning
- Full control of tense, modality and voice
- Genre grammar - legal, academic, journalistic, creative
- There are no new tenses here. If you are still learning structures you are C1; C2 is choosing between structures you already own
Vocabulary at C2
- Full idiomatic range, including dated and regional phrases
- Rare and specialised vocabulary
- Word origins and how words are built
- Wordplay, puns, allusion
- Cultural, literary and historical reference
- Switching register quickly
- Precision at the level of a well-educated native speaker
Check yourself - tick what you could do right now
Could you answer these?
Could you do these?
You ticked 0 of 10.
Where to go next
The work now is precision, not progress.
Nothing is missing at this level. The gains come from register, nuance, and saying the exact thing you mean while someone is interrupting you - the things a course cannot drill and only conversation can build.
See advanced coachingFor people who are already fluent and want to be exact.
You are not at C2 yet ifEverything you say is accurate and idiomatic, but you miss what is implied, read irony literally, or summarise by listing content instead of rebuilding the argument. At this level understanding, not speaking, is the ceiling - and that is C1.
English level questions people ask
- How long does it take to go from A1 to B2?
- Roughly 500 to 700 hours of guided study, which is two to three years of evening classes or under a year of intensive full-time study. The jump from B1 to B2 is the slowest part, because it is the point where you stop learning new tenses and start learning to use everything precisely.
- What is the difference between B1 and B2?
- B1 gets the meaning across; B2 controls how the meaning lands. At B1 you can explain what happened. At B2 you can argue a case, soften a claim, concede a point and still disagree, and be understood by someone who is not making allowances for you. In grammar terms, the dividing line is usually the unreal past (I wish I had known), the causative (I had it repaired) and passive reporting.
- Is C2 the same as being a native speaker?
- No. C2 describes trained precision in a language - the ability to handle fine shades of meaning, switch register and reconstruct complex arguments. Many native speakers would not pass a C2 exam, and many C2 learners still have an accent or the occasional gap. Native speaker status is about where you learned the language, not how well you use it.
- What English level do universities and employers ask for?
- B2 is the usual minimum for undergraduate study and most professional roles. C1 is common for postgraduate courses, and for jobs where you write reports or present to clients. Below B1, most academic and professional requirements are not met. Always check the specific institution, because requirements are set individually.
- How do CEFR levels compare to IELTS scores?
- Roughly, as a guide only - each exam board publishes its own mapping and boundaries move:
CEFR Approximate IELTS band B1 4.0 - 5.0 B2 5.5 - 6.5 C1 7.0 - 8.0 C2 8.5 - 9.0 - Can I be different levels in speaking and writing?
- Yes, and most people are. It is common to read at B2 while speaking at B1, especially if you have studied from books rather than in conversation. Your working level is usually the lowest of the four skills, because that is the one that limits what you can actually do.
