Language levels explained. From A1 to C2, plus Business.
Each story at Paupi has a level from A1 to C2 and within that level a stage: easy, medium, or hard. Here’s what that means, how many words you roughly need at each stage, and where the numbers come from.
Where the levels come from
The six levels come from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). It describes not what grammar you know, but what you can do with the language: introduce yourself, reserve a room, justify a complaint. Exams like Goethe, DELE, Cambridge, or the Polish Certyfikat are based on this, and textbooks sort their chapters accordingly.
How many words per level?
There are measurements for this. Milton and Alexiou tested learners in English, French, and Greek in 2009 and counted vocabulary per level. The Goethe exams publish word lists that are somewhat smaller because they only contain what's necessary for the exam. Together, these give these estimates.
| Level | What you can do | Known words | At Paupi |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Introduce yourself, order, ask for directions, numbers and time, short sentences in the present, first past tense. | under 1,500 measured, about 650 in the Goethe list | 30 lessons plus 12 basic stories result in about 600 to 800 words. |
| A2 | Manage everyday life, tell about yesterday, make plans, compare, simple subordinate clauses, doctor, shopping, traveling. | 1,500 to 2,500 measured, about 1,300 in the Goethe list | Second course with 30 lessons and 12 basic stories, target 1,300 to 1,600. |
| B1 | Tell coherently, justify an opinion, complaint, application, all kinds of subordinate clauses, polite forms. | 2,750 to 3,250 measured, about 2,400 in the Goethe list | Stories with twists, lots of dialogue, high vocabulary diversity. Target 2,500 to 3,000. |
| B2 | Abstract topics, irony and register, complex sentence structures, specialized texts in your field. | 3,250 to 3,750 in the test, realistically more like 4,000 to 5,000 | Longer stories with two levels, satire of everyday life. |
| C1 | Administration, satire, indirect speech, long periods, rare words. | over 4,500 in the test, realistically 6,000 to 8,000 | Essays, protocols, speeches, negotiations. |
| C2 | Literary register, period sentences, ambiguity as a stylistic device. | over 8,000 | So far only English. |
| Business | No specific level. Negotiation, meeting, contract, just like it's spoken in the office. | B2 or C1 plus about 500 specialized words | Topic labels on B2 and C1 Stories. |
Easy, medium, hard: the levels within a proficiency
A1 is broad. Someone who just finished the first four lessons understands something different than someone close to A2. That's why Paupi divides each level into three stages, and each Story knows from which lesson of the course you can read it.
- Easy: from lesson 1 to 10. About 70 percent of the words you know from the lessons, the rest is just a click away. You should notice that you can already do something.
- Medium: from lesson 11 to 20. About half is familiar. This is where your vocabulary grows the fastest, because the new words are in sentences you understand.
- Hard: from lesson 21 to 30. About 40 percent familiar words and all the grammar of the level, including the past.
Basic Stories and Bonus Stories
Lessons alone aren't enough for a level. 30 lessons bring about 300 words and sentences into your vocabulary, A1 needs 600 to 800. The gap is filled by the Basic Stories: twelve per level, the same scenes in every language, each with 25 to 40 new words. Lessons plus Basic Stories make up the level. Everything beyond that is bonus, for reading because it's fun.
Why not just read difficult texts?
Because reading falls apart when too many words are missing. Schmitt, Jiang, and Grabe measured in 2011: If you know 90 percent of the words in a text, you understand about half. At 95 percent, it's 60 percent, and at 98 percent, around 70. Paupi can go deeper because every word is clickable, but not infinitely deep. Below 40 percent known words, a text is no longer a story, but a vocabulary list with punctuation.
Sources
Milton and Alexiou (2009), Vocabulary size and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Schmitt, Jiang, and Grabe (2011), The Percentage of Words Known in a Text and Reading Comprehension, Modern Language Journal. Hu and Nation (2000), Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension. Goethe-Institut, Word lists for Goethe-Zertifikat A1, A2, and B1.