DELF B2 2027: Format, Marks, Dates, Words

Facts last checked on 15 October 2026 against France Éducation international's official pages. Session dates for 2027 are set by each exam centre; check yours before you plan.

French B2 used to be mainly the level for a French university. Since 2026 it is also the level for French nationality. If you are weighing up a DELF B2 2027 session, this post covers the format paper by paper, how the pass mark really works, how the diploma differs from the TCF IRN and TEF IRN, what we can and cannot tell you about fees and dates, and the French that decides the writing and speaking papers. We finish with a study plan built from a real card count.

Who needs French B2 now

• French nationality. The required level rose from B1 to B2 on 1 January 2026, and the DELF B2 is one of the accepted proofs. Our post on French nationality now needing B2 covers the rules.
• Canada. Express Entry and other programmes score French by CLB level, and CLB 7 is roughly B2. IRCC accepts TCF Canada or TEF Canada, not the DELF; our post on CLB 7 in the TCF and TEF explains the conversion.
• Universities. Many French programmes taught in French ask for B2.
• Work. Some employers and regulated professions set B2 as the bar.

The rest of this post is about the DELF itself.

The DELF B2 format: four papers

The DELF B2 tests the four skills in four papers, each marked out of 25. The three collective papers, listening, reading and writing, take two and a half hours between them. The fourth, production orale, is a face-to-face exchange with the examiners, and because it is the only individual paper, centres often hold it at a different time or on a different day from the other three.

Two things stand out. Both production papers are argumentative: you take a position and defend it, once in writing and once aloud to someone who will push back. The comprehension papers draw on the same kind of material: press articles and recordings that mix facts with opinions. The words you need to follow an argued article are largely the words you need to write one, so one well-chosen vocabulary list serves all four papers.

The DELF B2 pass mark

The rule has two parts. You need 50 of 100 overall, and at least 5 of 25 in every paper. Miss either and there is no diploma.

The floor of 5 is low. It does not ask you to be equally good at everything; it only stops you passing on three papers with the fourth left almost blank. So the total does most of the work, and a strong paper can carry a weaker one. A candidate with 18 in listening, 16 in reading, 9 in writing and 8 in speaking has 51 and passes. A candidate with 20, 18, 9 and 4 also has 51 but fails, because 4 is under the floor.

DELF B2 versus TCF IRN and TEF IRN

For nationality you can also show B2 with one of two level tests: the TCF IRN from France Éducation international or the TEF IRN from Le français des affaires, the testing arm of CCI Paris Île-de-France. They rest on a different idea.

A test reports where you are on the day. There is nothing to fail, but there is no averaging either: if one required skill comes out at B1, you have not shown B2 in it, however strong the others are. The DELF gives a yes or no on the level as a whole, lets the papers make up for each other, and leaves you with a diploma for life rather than a result with a shelf life. Which suits you depends on your weakest skill and on how often you expect to need the proof.

DELF B2 fees, sessions and registration

We would like to give you a price and a calendar for 2027, but there is no single one. France Éducation international manages the exam for the French Ministry of Education, which issues the diploma; the centres that hold the sessions, such as Alliance Française branches, Instituts français and universities, set their own fees and dates, usually several sessions a year. Two centres in one country can differ on both.

1. On france-education-international.fr, open the DELF DALF section and search the exam centres (Centres d'examen) near you.
2. On each centre's own page, check the 2027 session dates, the closing date for registration and the fee.
3. Plan backwards from the closing date, not from the exam date.

The words that decide production écrite

The writing paper asks for about 250 argued words, and the grid looks at organisation and register as well as accuracy. One criterion catches people out: le respect de la consigne, keeping to the task as set. A well-written text of the wrong type, or addressed to the wrong reader, loses points. The examples below are real cards from our kit, with the point each note makes.

Connectors with a rule attached

• Pourtant ("and yet") stresses surprise more strongly than cependant and often follows et: "Le médicament est efficace, et pourtant peu de médecins le prescrivent" (the medicine works, and yet few doctors prescribe it). In an essay, mais pourtant is a pleonasm.
• Cependant ("however") can sit inside the clause, straight after the verb, which mais never can: "le salaire proposé était cependant inférieur au minimum du secteur" (the salary offered, however, was below the industry minimum).
• En revanche ("on the other hand") contrasts two parallel things with no surprise: the young get their news mostly from social media, the over-sixties prefer print. Par contre means the same but is often judged too spoken, so en revanche is the safe choice.
• Bien que ("although") always takes the subjunctive, even for a real fact: "Bien que le musée soit gratuit le premier dimanche du mois, peu de familles en profitent" (although the museum is free on the first Sunday of the month, few families take advantage of it). The note calls bien que with the indicative one of the most frequent mood errors in B2 essays. A second card adds the other trap: never put mais in the main clause, because the concession is already in bien que.

Frames for the letter and the argument

• Je vous écris afin de … ("I am writing to you in order to …") states the purpose in the first line. Afin de takes an infinitive when the subject stays the same and becomes afin que plus the subjunctive when it changes. It is more formal than pour.
• Certes, …, mais … ("Admittedly …, but …"): "Certes, la voiture électrique pollue moins en ville, mais sa batterie pose d'autres problèmes" (admittedly, electric cars pollute less in town, but their batteries raise other problems). The part after mais is the one you defend, and the verb stays in the indicative, unlike after bien que.
• En définitive, … ("Ultimately, …") opens the conclusion. It is a fixed feminine form, never en définitif, and the conclusion should answer the question your introduction asked.

Collocations

This is where English leaks into French. Prendre une décision is "to make a decision"; faire une décision is an anglicism that costs points. Prendre des mesures ("to take action") is usually plural, with contre plus a noun or pour plus an infinitive. Prendre conscience de ("to become aware of") gives you la prise de conscience, a strong noun for an introduction.

The phrases that carry production orale

The speaking paper gives you 30 minutes with a short document, then 20 minutes to present a point of view and defend it. Have the frame of the talk ready, so the preparation time goes on ideas, not sentence openings:

• Le document dont je vais vous parler … ("The document I am going to talk about …"). Dont is needed because the verb is parler de; que je parle is wrong, and getting it right in your first sentence makes a strong impression.
• Il s'agit d'un article paru dans … ("It is an article published in …"). Il s'agit de is always impersonal, so l'article s'agit de is a classic error.
• Je vais d'abord …, avant de … ("I will first …, before …"): "Je vais d'abord résumer le point de vue de l'auteur, avant de présenter mon opinion" (I will first summarise the author's point of view before presenting my opinion). With a new subject, avant de becomes avant que plus the subjunctive.
• L'auteur soutient que … ("The author argues that …"). Give the author's view first, then yours: the examiner checks that you can tell them apart.
• Pour conclure, je dirais que … ("To conclude, I would say that …"). The conditional je dirais softens the conclusion politely; the verb after que stays in the indicative.

Read the notes together and one pattern repeats: mood. Bien que, afin que and avant que take the subjunctive; certes … mais and je dirais que do not. That is why we put these phrases on cards inside full sentences rather than in a list. The mood travels with the phrase, so you stop working it out under time pressure.

A DELF B2 study plan from 3,799 cards

Our French B2 kit has 3,799 cards in 18 decks. Twelve are topic decks of 237 to 261 cards each, from identité et relations, travail and santé to médias and sentiments et opinions. Six follow the exam: production écrite (111 cards), production orale (100), connecteurs (120), collocations (256), grammaire en contexte (158) and exam day and naturalisation (81).

The arithmetic for a plan is short:

1. Subtract what you know. If you are solidly B1, you probably know most of the 1,308 cards from A1 to B1. Call it 1,300, which leaves about 2,500 new cards, phrases as well as single words.
2. Divide by the days you have, minus one week. Keep the last week for review only.
3. Add review time. A new card takes about 25 seconds the first time and about 8 seconds per review after that, with roughly three reviews a day for every new card in the early weeks.

With 20 weeks to go, that is about 19 new cards a day, or roughly 16 minutes. With 12 weeks it is about 33 a day and 27 minutes.

With less than two months, do not try to cover everything. Start with the production écrite, production orale, connecteurs and collocations decks, 587 cards between them, because they feed the two papers where phrasing wins marks. Then add the topic decks you are weakest in.

The French B2 Exam Kit

We built the French B2 Exam Kit from this count. Each card has an example sentence, a translation, a short French definition and a note like the ones quoted above, with audio in natural-sounding French text-to-speech voices. The explanations come in two versions, one in English and one entirely in French, so you can switch to the French notes once they no longer slow you down. The DELF B2 page sets out the papers, the pass rule and where to register.

The first 20 cards are free, and the vocabulary check estimates how many of the words you already know, which is the number for step one of the plan. The selection, sentences and notes are our own work, checked by two independent AI review passes.

Words on Repeat is not affiliated with France Éducation international, the Alliance Française or the Institut français.

Frequently Asked Questions