What is the Common European Framework (CEFR)?
A1? B2? What is the CEFR?
A chart of CEFR levels with very brief summaries.
You may have noticed that many of our blog posts and English classes have strange combinations of letters and numbers on them: B1, C2, A1. These codes can tell you some important information about the level of the class or blog post. They come from a European system called the Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR).
Although the CEFR is “European,” it is used in many countries around the world to talk about language proficiency. Because the CEFR is international, it’s very helpful for language learners and language teachers to talk about levels. There are six levels in the CEFR: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. If you’re familiar with the idea of English language standards, the CEFR is similar.
The CEFR doesn't describe language in terms of number of vocabulary words or grammar structures. The CEFR focuses on what students can do with the language. For example, students at level B1 can give descriptions on a variety of familiar subjects related to their interests. C1 students can give clear, well-structured descriptions of complex subjects. That's why the CEFR can be used for any language, not just English. Learning your CEFR level can be really helpful to you as an English student!
Soon Ginseng will have a placement test that will help you learn your CEFR level, so watch for that!
Want to know your English level? Take the free Ginseng English Test and get an estimated CEFR level from A1 to C2.
CEFR Levels Table
Here is a table with each level in the Common European Framework, along with a description of students at each level.
| Level | Name | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| C2 | Mastery | Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. Can summarise information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation. Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations. |
| C1 | Effective Operational Control | Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices. |
| B2 | Vantage | Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. |
| B1 | Threshold | Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. |
| A2 | Waystage | Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need. |
| A1 | Breakthrough | Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. |
You can read more about the CEFR at the website of the Council of Europe, which developed the framework between 1989 and 1996. There was also a major update to the CEFR in 2020.
How Long Does it Take to Move to the next CEFR Level?
Many students want to know how long it takes to change from one CEFR level to the next. There is no simple answer to this question, and some of the most important factors that affect how quickly you can learn English are individual factors. But there is some valuable research from Cambridge University that we can point to and make some general statements about how long learners of English tend to stay at each CEFR level. You can see this illustrated in the table below.
| Level | Total Hours | Hours From Previous Level |
|---|---|---|
| C2 | 1,030-1,450 | It takes about 300-400 hours to reach C2 from C1. |
| C1 | 730-1,050 | It takes about 200-300 hours to reach C1 from B2. |
| B2 | 530-750 | It takes about 180-260 hours to reach B2 from B2. |
| B1 | 350-490 | It takes about 160-240 hours to reach B1 from A2. |
| A2 | 190-250 | It takes about 100-150 hours to reach A2 from A1. |
| A1 | 90-100 | It takes about 90-100 hours to reach A1. |
Note that the hours each CEFR level in the table above are “Guided Learning Hours”: a combination of classroom study with a teacher, plus guided self-study.
The Most Common English Adjectives
If you want to quickly expand your English vocabulary, adjectives are a great place to start! Adjectives are a really important part of speech. An adjective is a word used to describe a noun.
It is a good idea to focus on the most common ones in the language. Below are lists of the 50 most common words in both American and British English.
| No. | Adjective |
|---|---|
| 1 | OTHER |
| 2 | NEW |
| 3 | GOOD |
| 4 | AMERICAN |
| 5 | GREAT |
| 6 | BIG |
| 7 | HIGH |
| 8 | OLD |
| 9 | DIFFERENT |
| 10 | NATIONAL |
| 11 | SMALL |
| 12 | LITTLE |
| 13 | BLACK |
| 14 | IMPORTANT |
| 15 | POLITICAL |
| 16 | SOCIAL |
| 17 | LONG |
| 18 | YOUNG |
| 19 | RIGHT |
| 20 | BEST |
| 21 | REAL |
| 22 | WHITE |
| 23 | PUBLIC |
| 24 | SURE |
| 25 | ONLY |
| 26 | LARGE |
| 27 | ABLE |
| 28 | HUMAN |
| 29 | LOCAL |
| 30 | EARLY |
| 31 | BAD |
| 32 | BETTER |
| 33 | ECONOMIC |
| 34 | FREE |
| 35 | POSSIBLE |
| 36 | WHOLE |
| 37 | MAJOR |
| 38 | MILITARY |
| 39 | FEDERAL |
| 40 | INTERNATIONAL |
| 41 | TRUE |
| 42 | FULL |
| 43 | HARD |
| 44 | SPECIAL |
| 45 | RECENT |
| 46 | RED |
| 47 | OPEN |
| 48 | PERSONAL |
| 49 | GENERAL |
| 50 | CLEAR |
| No. | Adjective |
|---|---|
| 1 | OTHER |
| 2 | NEW |
| 3 | GOOD |
| 4 | OLD |
| 5 | DIFFERENT |
| 6 | LOCAL |
| 7 | GREAT |
| 8 | SMALL |
| 9 | SOCIAL |
| 10 | IMPORTANT |
| 11 | NATIONAL |
| 12 | HIGH |
| 13 | BRITISH |
| 14 | POSSIBLE |
| 15 | LARGE |
| 16 | RIGHT |
| 17 | LONG |
| 18 | LITTLE |
| 19 | YOUNG |
| 20 | POLITICAL |
| 21 | ABLE |
| 22 | GENERAL |
| 23 | ONLY |
| 24 | PUBLIC |
| 25 | AVAILABLE |
| 26 | FULL |
| 27 | EARLY |
| 28 | BEST |
| 29 | BIG |
| 30 | MAIN |
| 31 | MAJOR |
| 32 | ECONOMIC |
| 33 | SURE |
| 34 | REAL |
| 35 | LIKELY |
| 36 | BLACK |
| 37 | PARTICULAR |
| 38 | INTERNATIONAL |
| 39 | SPECIAL |
| 40 | DIFFICULT |
| 41 | CERTAIN |
| 42 | CLEAR |
| 43 | WHOLE |
| 44 | FURTHER |
| 45 | WHITE |
| 46 | OPEN |
| 47 | EUROPEAN |
| 48 | FREE |
| 49 | CENTRAL |
| 50 | SIMILAR |
Most of the most common adjectives are the same in the US and the UK (78% of the top 50 and 92% of the top 25 words appear in both lists). Notice that American is the 4th most common adjective in American English and British is the 13th most common adjective in British English. We shouldn't read too much into these simple lists, but it is interesting to note that military, federal, and personal all appear in the American list. Do you notice any other patterns?
That's all for now! Start studying!
If you're looking for something similar, check out the most common verbs in English.
Sources: The primary sources for compiling this article were the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the British National Corpus.
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C-V-C Words
The C-V-C Pattern
One of the craziest things about learning English is the relationship between spelling and pronunciation. We don't even need to talk about ought, enough, through, etc, right?
But there are some patterns to learn that can make English a little less crazy. Today let's talk about one of the most important ones: C-V-C words.
But what does C-V-C mean???
I'll tell you. C-V-C means consonant-vowel-consonant. A C-V-C word is a three-letter word that follows the spelling pattern of a consonant, then a vowel, and then another consonant. Remember, vowels are the letters A, E, I, O, U (sometimes Y!), and consonants are all the other letters. For example, top. T is a consonant. O is a vowel. P is a consonant. C-V-C.
Here are some more examples of C-V-C words:
| c | a | t |
| c | v | c |
| r | e | d |
| c | v | c |
| b | i | g |
| c | v | c |
| h | o | p |
| c | v | c |
| b | u | n |
| c | v | c |
Can you see the pattern?
Now, why is this important? It is important because if you can recognize a C-V-C word, you can almost certainly pronounce it, even if it's a new word for you! That's because in C-V-C words, the vowel is almost always a "short" vowel.
Check out the list of the short vowel sounds with examples in the chart.
Double Consonants and C-V-C Words
There is another reason that consonant-vowel-consonant words are important. This one is a little more difficult.
Maybe you know that in English, we sometimes need to double a letter when we add a suffix like -er, -ed, -ing, and -est. This is important for comparative and superlative adjectives, the simple past tense, and the present progressive. For example mad becomes madder, nap becomes napped, win becomes winning, and big becomes biggest. For these words we have double consonants, but not always: nicer, hoped, mining, poorest. At first, this can be very confusing. When do we double the consonant!? How do we know!? C-V-C words!!! You generally need to double the last consonant when adding a suffix to a C-V-C word. There are some exceptions: generally we do not double the consonants W, X, or Y.
Longer C-V-C words
Above we defined C-V-C words as 3-letter words. That makes sense: C + V + C = 3 letters, right? But actually, there are more C-V-C words. It is really about the end of the words. Any one-syllable word that ends in C-V-C also follows the pattern above. Here are some other examples:
| s | t | r | a | p |
| c | v | c |
| s | h | r | e | d |
| c | v | c |
| c | l | i | p |
| c | v | c |
| d | r | o | p |
| c | v | c |
| s | m | u | g |
| c | v | c |
There is one other type of C-V-C word. All of the C-V-C words so far have been one syllable, and most C-V-C words are only one syllable. But some two-syllable words also follow this pattern. Two-syllable words ending in C-V-C, with the stress on the second syllable also follow the C-V-C pattern. The stress is very important here. There are not many words like this, and most are just a prefix added to a shorter word. Most two syllable words have stress on the first syllable. But when you do find a two-syllable word ending in C-V-C, with the stress on the second syllable, you know that you should double the consonant when adding -ed, -ing, -er, or -est.
| en | t | r | a | p |
| c | v | c |
| r | e | g | r | e | t |
| c | v | c |
| s | u | b | m | i | t |
| c | v | c |
| d | e | f | o | g | |
| c | v | c |
| d | e | b | u | g |
| c | v | c |
Complete list of C-V-C Words
Below is a complete list of words that follow the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern.
C-V-C Words with A
bad, bag, bam, ban, bat, cab, cad, cam, can, cap, cat, cav, dab, dad, dam, dap, fab, fad, fan, fat, fax, gab, gag, gal, gap, gas, gat, had, hag, ham, has, hat, jab, jam, lab, lad, lag, lap, mad, mag, man, mat, max, nab, nag, nap, pad, pal, pan, pat, rad, rag, ram, ran, rap, rat, sac, sad, sag, sap, sat, sax, tab, tad, tag, tan, tap, tar, tat, tax, vac, van, vat, wad, wag, wan, war, was, wax, yak, yam, yap, zag, zap
C-V-C Words with E
bed, beg, bet, cel, den, fed, fen, fez, gel, gem, get, hem, hen, hex, jet, keg, led, leg, let, med, men, met, net, peg, pen, pep, pet, red, rep, rex, set, sex, ten, veg, vet, vex, wed, wet, yen, yet, zed, zen
C-V-C Words with I
bib, bid, big, bin, bit, did, dig, dim, din, dip, fib, dig, fit, fix, gig, gin, hid, him, hip, his, hit, jig, kid, kin, kit, lid, lip, lit, mix, nib, nil, nip, nix, pig, pin, pit, rib, rid, rig, rim, rip, sib, sim, sin, sip, sis, sit, six, tin, tip, wig, win, wit, wiz, yip, zig, zip, zit
C-V-C Words with O
bob, bod, bog, bon, bot, box, cob, cod, cog, com, con, cop, cot, coz, dog, dom, don, dot, fob, fog, fox, god, got, hob, hog, hop, hot, job, jog, jot, lob, log, lop, lot, lox, mob, mod, mom, mop, nod, nog, nor, not, pod, pom, pop, pot, pox, rob, rod, rot, sob, sod, sog, son, sop, sot, tom, ton, top, tot, won
C-V-C Words with U
bud, bug, bun, bus, but, cub, cup, cut, dub, dud, dug, fun, gun, gut, hub, hug, hum, hun, hut, jug, jut, lug, mud, mug, mum, nub, nut, pub, pug, pun, pup, pus, put, rub, rug, rum, run, rut, sub, sud, sum, sun, sup, tub, tug, tut, tux, yum, yup
Exceptions
Some words look like C-V-C words, but aren't exactly. For example words that end in -AY and -AW are not really C-V-C words, because the -AY and -AW actually combine into a new vowel sound. The same is true for -OY words and -OW words.
Words ending in vowel-R often follow the spelling patterns of other C-V-C words, but R changes the pronunciation of the vowel before it, creating a sound that is not exactly a short vowel. We call these new vowel sounds R-colored vowels.
