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EveryLingua Dictionary
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French reading texts by level

57 texts from A1 to C2, 11 323 words in all, with 238 comprehension questions. Each text shows how much of it is explained in this site’s vocabulary — calculated, not claimed.

A1 (14)

A1  ·  159 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Le premier matin

A first day at work, from six o’clock to the first break.

A1  ·  156 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Le marché du samedi

Shopping between eight and ten, with a mistake at the till.

A1  ·  160 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

La maison près de la mer

Viewing a house on an autumn afternoon.

A1  ·  139 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Chercher un appartement

Three flats in one day, and why it is the third.

A1  ·  136 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Être malade

Four days with a cold, from the chemist’s back to work.

A1  ·  140 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Le train pour Lyon

Three hours on the train, with rain at the start and sun in the middle.

A1  ·  142 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

L’appel du dimanche

A phone call with the family, from the weather to the holidays.

A1  ·  86 words  ·  1 min

StoryTravel

Une chambre sous le toit

Paul alone in Nice: a small old hotel, a hot room and a window with a surprise.

A1  ·  92 words  ·  1 min

StoryFood and cooking

La soupe du dimanche

Léa makes soup with her grandmother and asks how it is done.

A1  ·  95 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Le chat de Madame Roux

A neighbour goes to work, her cat stays outside — and Hugo writes a note.

A1  ·  69 words  ·  1 min

DialogueTravel

Au guichet de la gare

Emma buys a ticket to Lyon at the station counter.

A1  ·  82 words  ·  1 min

DialogueFood and cooking

On mange quoi ce soir ?

A brother and sister look round the kitchen and find a dinner.

A1  ·  58 words  ·  1 min

MessageEveryday life

Libre samedi ?

Two friends arrange lunch by chat.

A1  ·  64 words  ·  1 min

EmailEveryday life

Le nouveau voisin

Lucas introduces himself to a neighbour by email and invites her round.

A2 (12)

A2  ·  165 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Le train de sept heures

A journey, a missed connection and a conversation on the platform.

A2  ·  187 words  ·  2 min

StoryEveryday life

La lettre du voisin

A note in the letterbox, and an afternoon that turns out differently.

A2  ·  161 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Le dimanche à la mer

A day trip that starts with rain and ends in sunshine.

A2  ·  143 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Le cours de français

Eight months of a language course, and the day it works for the first time.

A2  ·  144 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

La panne du chauffage

A cold flat, a phone call and a repairman who comes late.

A2  ·  125 words  ·  1 min

StoryTravel

La valise bleue

Clara flies to Rome, but her suitcase does not arrive — and the next morning the wrong one is at the door.

A2  ·  139 words  ·  1 min

StoryFood and cooking

Un plat très épicé

Tom cooks for his girlfriend’s parents for the first time — and it gets hot.

A2  ·  121 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Vingt minutes dans l’ascenseur

A lift gets stuck, and Léo gets to know a neighbour.

A2  ·  121 words  ·  1 min

DialogueTravel

Une nuit de plus

At the hotel reception, one night is missing from the booking.

A2  ·  94 words  ·  1 min

DialogueFood and cooking

Un fromage pour ce soir

Marie buys a cheese for six guests at the market.

A2  ·  90 words  ·  1 min

MessageEveryday life

Quarante minutes de retard

Yanis’s train is late, Camille is already waiting — a chat changes the meeting place.

A2  ·  84 words  ·  1 min

EmailEveryday life

Le cours de mercredi

Julie cannot come to her guitar lesson and writes to her teacher.

B1 (10)

B1  ·  169 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

La panne sur l’autoroute

A breakdown, a tow truck and a garage in a village.

B1  ·  172 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

L’entretien de dix heures

A job interview, from the door to the last question.

B1  ·  165 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Le riz de ma grand-mère

A recipe without a book, in five steps and with a test of patience.

B1  ·  218 words  ·  2 min

StoryTravel

Le dernier bus

Two sisters walk too long in the mountains, miss the last bus and get a lift from a farmer.

B1  ·  203 words  ·  2 min

StoryFood and cooking

Trois heures du matin

Inès starts an apprenticeship in a bakery. The first night is long, the first loaf goes wrong.

B1  ·  215 words  ·  2 min

StoryEveryday life

La guitare du dessus

Every evening a retired man is annoyed by guitar music from the flat above — until he goes upstairs.

B1  ·  178 words  ·  1 min

DialogueTravel

Pas de train ce soir

A strike at the station: a traveller looks for a way home at the ticket desk.

B1  ·  177 words  ·  1 min

DialogueFood and cooking

Le menu des quatre-vingts ans

A brother and sister plan the party meal for their grandfather’s eightieth birthday.

B1  ·  177 words  ·  1 min

MessageEveryday life

La machine à laver

The washing machine in a shared flat is broken — the chat looks for a solution.

B1  ·  140 words  ·  1 min

EmailEveryday life

Une table en mauvais état

A new table top arrives damaged — Martin complains to the furniture shop in writing.

B2 (7)

C1 (7)

C2 (7)

Learning words one at a time and practising grammar one point at a time is work on separate parts. A text is the first thing that needs both at once — and the only exercise where nobody tells you which rule is being tested.

What makes a graded text is a number: how much of it you already know at your level. If it is too low, reading turns into looking things up. Here that number is calculated for every text against this site’s vocabulary and shown with the text — together with the level that follows from it, next to the level on the label.

Every text is written for this site. Click a word to look it up without leaving the page.

What is measured here — and what is not

Coverage tells you about this site’s vocabulary, not about the text. If a text stands at 96 %, four words in a hundred are not explained anywhere here; they are then in the glossary next to the text.

The measured level can be below the stated one, and that is intentional. A set of minutes made up of perfectly ordinary words can be a very hard text — what makes it hard is the sentences they sit in. That is why the average sentence length is shown alongside.

Whether a text is good is measured by nobody here. That is for the reader to decide.