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)
B2 · 320 words · 3 min
StoryTravel
La photo de l’île
An old photo of her mother leads Claire to an island in the Atlantic — to a café that is still there.
B2 · 293 words · 2 min
StoryFood and cooking
Le gâteau de Jeanne
Three siblings try to bake their grandmother’s apple cake again. Something is always missing.
B2 · 306 words · 3 min
StoryEveryday life
La boîte à livres
In a book box on the square there are books with notes in the margin — and someone answers them.
B2 · 218 words · 2 min
DialogueTravel
Au comptoir de location
Returning a hire car, there is a scratch that nobody wants to have made.
B2 · 213 words · 2 min
DialogueFood and cooking
Sans œufs, s’il vous plaît
A guest with an egg allergy orders in a restaurant — and dessert becomes a question.
B2 · 207 words · 2 min
MessageEveryday life
Le colis du troisième
In the residents’ chat, someone is looking for a parcel that ended up with the wrong neighbour.
B2 · 186 words · 2 min
EmailEveryday life
Toujours pas de chauffage
The heating has been cold for three weeks: a tenant writes to the letting agency — factual and firm.
C1 (7)
C1 · 399 words · 3 min
StoryTravel
Le train de nuit
A night in a sleeper, an unexpected stop in the middle of nowhere and a conversation with an old lady on her way to her grandson.
C1 · 346 words · 3 min
StoryFood and cooking
Cuisiner sans le goût
After an illness a chef can no longer taste anything. She keeps cooking — with memory, eyes and the tongue of her youngest cook.
C1 · 337 words · 3 min
StoryEveryday life
L’arbre du jardin partagé
An old tree shades the vegetable beds of a community garden. Cut it down or not? The neighbourhood argues.
C1 · 288 words · 2 min
DialogueTravel
Le train ou l’avion ?
Two friends plan a trip to Lisbon and argue — in a friendly way — about time, money and the climate.
C1 · 288 words · 2 min
DialogueFood and cooking
L’entretien en cuisine
A restaurant owner interviews a cook who comes from a very different kind of kitchen.
C1 · 306 words · 3 min
MessageEveryday life
La façade
In the chat of a flat owners’ association, the topic is an expensive facade renovation — and who can pay for what.
C1 · 246 words · 2 min
EmailEveryday life
Demande de télétravail
An employee asks HR for two days a week working from home and explains her reasons in detail.
C2 (7)
C2 · 423 words · 4 min
StoryTravel
La dernière saison du guide
A mountain guide starts his last season and thinks about a mountain that is disappearing under his feet.
C2 · 384 words · 3 min
StoryFood and cooking
Les oliviers de la colline
Two sisters inherit a hundred olive trees. A developer offers a lot of money — and their first harvest puts the question again.
C2 · 387 words · 3 min
StoryEveryday life
Le soir où la lumière s’est éteinte
A power cut in a big block of flats: three hours without light, and the neighbours meet properly for the first time.
C2 · 362 words · 3 min
DialogueTravel
Trop de visiteurs ?
A radio programme: a mayor and a hotel owner argue about whether a coastal town should limit visitors.
C2 · 278 words · 2 min
DialogueFood and cooking
La viande du dimanche
At Sunday lunch the daughter announces she will stop eating meat. Her father, a butcher’s grandson, takes it personally.
C2 · 291 words · 2 min
MessageEveryday life
Vingt ans après
In the chat of an old school class a reunion is being planned — and an old story comes back up.
C2 · 279 words · 2 min
EmailEveryday life
Lettre de démission
After twelve years an employee resigns — diplomatic, grateful and yet with a clear message between the lines.
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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.