CEFR A1 · Foundation

A1 English - Beginner

Your first real sentences in English - to be, the present simple, and the handful of words everything else is built on.

Levels: 8
Grammar points: 59
Active vocabulary: ≈500 words
Certified by: No adult Cambridge exam at this level (A1 Movers is for young learners)

Where A1 counts. The level the UK Home Office asks for on a first partner or spouse visa - speaking and listening only.

What you can do at A1

Introduce yourself and ask someone else the same questions.
Order food, shop, and ask the way.
Understand slow, clearly articulated English about immediate needs.
Write a short note, fill in a form, describe where you live.

Story length

80–200 words · 5 pages

Typical study time

90–100 guided hours

English you meet here

there is · because · I don't

Study-time figures are the guided-hour ranges commonly published by English language schools, counted cumulatively from zero. They describe a classroom average, not a promise.

Why A1 is the level it is

A1 is the level where English stops being a wall of sound and starts being a system. Almost all of it is one job: getting be, have, do and can so far into your hands that you never have to assemble them consciously again. Every tense, every question and every negative from A2 upward is built on those four, and learners who rush this level pay for it twice.

The second job is word order, and it is stricter than most learners expect. English lost its case endings, so position is what tells you who did what: the dog bit the man and the man bit the dog use identical words and mean opposite things. Languages that mark the object with a particle or an ending let you move things around; English does not. Questions invert, negatives take do, and adjectives go before the noun - none of it optional.

Then there are the articles. If your first language has none - Japanese, Korean, Russian, Mandarin, Polish - a and the will be the most persistent error in your English for years, and no rule will fix it, because the choice depends on what the listener already knows rather than on the noun itself. The only method that works is meeting each noun enough times, inside enough sentences, that the wrong article starts to sound broken. That is an argument for reading, not for flashcards.

The A1 curriculum, unit by unit

8 levels and 59 grammar points, in the order Leo teaches them. Each unit lists its must-know forms with a real example - the supporting points are covered inside the stories.

A1.1 To Be & Introductions 7 points

Present simple: be (am/is/are) — affirmative, negative, questions

I am a student. | She isn't here. | Are you ready?

Tenses

Subject pronouns

I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Pronouns

Object pronouns

me, you, him, her, it, us, them — Give it to me.

Pronouns

Possessive adjectives

my, your, his, her, its, our, their — my book, her car

Pronouns
A1.2 Present Simple & Daily Routines 8 points

Present simple: other verbs — affirmative

I work in an office. | She lives in Tokyo.

Tenses

Present simple: negative with don't/doesn't

I don't like coffee. | He doesn't speak French.

Tenses

Present simple: yes/no questions with do/does

Do you like music? | Does she work here?

Tenses

Present simple: wh-questions

Where do you live? | What does he do?

Tenses
A1.3 Present Continuous & Actions Now 7 points

Present continuous: be + -ing for actions happening now

I'm eating lunch. | They're playing football.

Tenses

Present continuous: negative and questions

She isn't working. | Are you listening?

Tenses

Imperative: affirmative and negative

Sit down. | Don't touch that. | Please open your books.

Tenses

Spelling rules: -ing forms

making (drop e), running (double consonant), lying (ie→y)

Tenses
A1.4 Nouns, Articles & Determiners 8 points

Singular and plural nouns: regular -s/-es

books, boxes, watches, cities

Nouns

Common irregular plurals

children, people, men, women, teeth, feet

Nouns

a/an with singular countable nouns

a book, an apple, a university, an hour

Articles

The: basic definite article

the door, the sun, Close the window.

Articles
A1.5 Pronouns & Possession 7 points

Possessive pronouns (basic)

mine, yours, his, hers — This is mine.

Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns

this, that — What's this? I don't like that.

Pronouns

some/any (basic)

I have some money. | I don't have any money. | Do you have any questions?

Determiners

a lot of / lots of

a lot of people, lots of money

Determiners
A1.6 Modals & Functional Language 7 points

Can: ability

I can swim. | She can't drive. | Can you speak English?

Modals

Can: permission (basic)

Can I go to the toilet? | You can sit here.

Modals

Would like

I'd like a coffee. | Would you like some water?

Modals
A1.7 Questions & Short Answers 8 points

Yes/no questions with do/does

Do you like pizza? | Does he work?

Questions

Wh-questions: what, where, when, who, how

What is your name? | Where are you from? | How are you?

Questions

How much / how many

How much is this? | How many brothers do you have?

Questions

Short answers

Yes, I do. | No, she doesn't. | Yes, I am.

Questions
A1.8 Prepositions, Conjunctions & Basics Review 7 points

Prepositions of time: at, in, on

at 3 o'clock, in June, on Monday, at night, in the morning

Prepositions

Prepositions of place: in, on, at (basic)

in the room, on the table, at school, at home

Prepositions

and, but, or

I like tea and coffee. | She's nice but shy. | Tea or coffee?

Conjunctions

The app

Leo teaches A1 by reading

The roadmap on this page is not a chart we drew for the article - it is the syllabus the app is built on. Leo takes you from your first sentence to reading the press without a dictionary, one story at a time.

Stories, not drills

Every level is taught through illustrated stories written at that level - short at A1, full pages of natural prose by C1. You learn English the way you learned to read: by reading something you want to finish.

Tap any word

Translation, pronunciation and the grammar behind the form, on the word itself. No dictionary in another tab, no losing the thread of the sentence to look something up.

A real curriculum underneath

51 levels and 395 grammar points from A1 to C1, in the order they build on each other. The stories are ordered by that curriculum, so a form is always introduced before it is used again.

Download on the App Store GET IT ON Google Play

Be told the day it lands

The app is in development. One e-mail, on launch day - that is the whole deal.

One e-mail, on launch day. No newsletter, no drip campaign.

How to actually get through A1

Learn the verb, not the word

Never store go alone. Store go to work, go home (no to), go shopping. English meaning lives in the combination, and retrofitting prepositions onto a few thousand verbs later is the most common regret of intermediate learners.

Listen and read at the same time

English spelling hides a third of what it says: would have comes out as one blurred syllable that no dictionary prints. Following the audio with your eyes on the text is how the written and the spoken version of a word get filed together instead of learned twice.

Do not skip the contractions

Real speech is I’m, don’t, it’s, can’t - almost never the full forms. Beginners who only learn I am and do not spend a year sounding like a textbook and, worse, fail to recognise the contracted form when they hear it.

Ten minutes daily beats ninety on Sunday

At A1 you are building recognition, not knowledge, and recognition is a frequency effect. A short session every day moves you faster than one long one per week, by a wide margin.

A1 English - frequently asked questions

How long does A1 English take?

Cambridge budgets roughly 90 to 100 guided hours to bring an absolute beginner to A1, plus about the same again in independent study. At 20–30 focused minutes a day that is around four to six months. Speakers of Spanish, Portuguese, French or Italian tend to sit at the fast end, because thousands of Latin-derived words are already half-familiar.

Is there an exam at A1?

Not a mainstream adult one. Cambridge starts its adult ladder at A2 Key, and IELTS does not resolve meaningfully below about band 4. A1 does appear in immigration rules - the UK asks for A1 speaking and listening on a spouse or partner visa, taken as an approved Secure English Language Test - so if that is your route, check the approved provider list rather than assuming any certificate counts.

Is English hard at A1?

The start is unusually easy and the middle is not. There are no genders, no case endings and barely any conjugation - I work, you work, he works, and that -s is the whole story. What is hard from day one is spelling, which maps onto sound less reliably than in any other major European language, and articles if your first language does not have them.

Should I learn vocabulary or grammar first at A1?

Neither in isolation. A1 grammar is so small and so load-bearing - four verbs, the present tenses, questions, negatives, articles - that you meet it constantly in even the simplest text, so reading gives you both at once and attaches each word to a context you can recall. Isolated word lists give you the word and nothing that goes with it.

Do I need to choose between British and American English?

Not at A1, and probably not ever. The differences amount to a few hundred words, some spelling conventions and a handful of grammar preferences - none of it blocks comprehension in either direction. Pick whichever you hear more of, stay roughly consistent in writing, and understand both. Exams accept either, as long as you do not mix them inside one piece of writing.

Starting point

A1 is the first level. There is nothing before it.

Next level

A2 - Elementary

The whole roadmap: 51 levels, 395 grammar points

Leo teaches A1 through illustrated stories written at A1. The app is in development - we will write once, on launch day.

One e-mail, on launch day. No newsletter, no drip campaign.

See all five levels, A1 to C1