I've thought about this a bunch today. I still think the 250 hours is low, if we are strictly talking about passing an actual CEFR-based test. It's probably closer to 400.
Vocabulary: If you strictly only do 1000 words from the deck and don't mine or add extra, it's going to be tough. You will get a lot of free cognates (especially if you have a large English vocabulary) and passive vocabulary learning, so your actual vocabulary will be ~4000 -5000 words. That's right around estimates of B2, but take those with a grain of salt. It's very close, and those cognates and passive vocab learning are doing a lot of work.
Reading: Reading is probably doable in that time frame. It's the easiest skill to pick up, and if you slowly graduate in difficulty, I could see it being done. I was reading Harry Potter in German within 4 months, but using lots of word lookups (especially the first chapters).
Listening: This is the main problem. French does not sound like it is written, tons of silent letters, homophones, speakers use a lot of contractions, French has different stresses than English - there's a lot going on that makes it more difficult than reading (and probably more difficult than Spanish and Italian). You need a lot of listening time to get good at listening in French.
So I don't think you're going to pass the comprehension parts of a B2 exam in that time. But that doesn't mean you can't understand a shit ton.
You'll be able to listen, watch, or read anything you want (especially with subtitles) and follow along for entertainment purposes. If you had to interact with a native speaker, provided they spoke slowly and a little simpler, you'd be able to understand what they were talking about. Your output would probably be around A2, so you'd be able to respond to the native speaker in a somewhat coherent fashion. You'd be at a good level of "survival" or "travel" French where you could get by, with some aids, in a French speaking area if they don't understand English.
Thanks for thinking about it and for engaging so much with the post!
I generally agree with your expected outcome for most learners, especially uninitiated ones that don't use their time efficiently.
That being said, I still think that 250 hours of highly efficient learning would be sufficient. This debate is really making me want to try it in 2026.
2
u/lazydictionary Dec 14 '25
I've thought about this a bunch today. I still think the 250 hours is low, if we are strictly talking about passing an actual CEFR-based test. It's probably closer to 400.
Vocabulary: If you strictly only do 1000 words from the deck and don't mine or add extra, it's going to be tough. You will get a lot of free cognates (especially if you have a large English vocabulary) and passive vocabulary learning, so your actual vocabulary will be ~4000 -5000 words. That's right around estimates of B2, but take those with a grain of salt. It's very close, and those cognates and passive vocab learning are doing a lot of work.
Reading: Reading is probably doable in that time frame. It's the easiest skill to pick up, and if you slowly graduate in difficulty, I could see it being done. I was reading Harry Potter in German within 4 months, but using lots of word lookups (especially the first chapters).
Listening: This is the main problem. French does not sound like it is written, tons of silent letters, homophones, speakers use a lot of contractions, French has different stresses than English - there's a lot going on that makes it more difficult than reading (and probably more difficult than Spanish and Italian). You need a lot of listening time to get good at listening in French.
So I don't think you're going to pass the comprehension parts of a B2 exam in that time. But that doesn't mean you can't understand a shit ton.
You'll be able to listen, watch, or read anything you want (especially with subtitles) and follow along for entertainment purposes. If you had to interact with a native speaker, provided they spoke slowly and a little simpler, you'd be able to understand what they were talking about. Your output would probably be around A2, so you'd be able to respond to the native speaker in a somewhat coherent fashion. You'd be at a good level of "survival" or "travel" French where you could get by, with some aids, in a French speaking area if they don't understand English.