CEFR — the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages — is the standard scale for describing how much of a language you can actually use. It runs across six levels, from your first words (A1) to reading like a native (C2). When you pick a level, we pitch every sentence, every word choice, and every turn of the plot to match it, so a story never leaves you lost or bored.
Your first foothold. Short, present-tense sentences built from the most common words, with illustrations carrying much of the meaning.
"The baker opens the door. The street is quiet. She smells fresh bread."
Everyday situations and the simple past. You follow familiar scenes — a market, a train, a family dinner — without needing every word.
"Yesterday she walked to the market and bought fruit for the whole week."
A real story you can follow start to finish. Connected paragraphs, a plot with cause and effect, and common idioms in context.
"She hadn't planned to stay, but the town had a way of holding on to people."
Nuance and abstraction. Longer paragraphs, richer vocabulary, and themes that ask you to read between the lines.
"What she called caution, everyone else had long since learned to call fear."
Subtle tone, figurative language, and complex structure. The kind of prose where how something is said matters as much as what is said.
"The light came in sideways, the way it does when a season is quietly deciding to leave."
The full range of the language. Wordplay, irony, and literary voice — reading that feels written for a native, because it is.
"He apologised beautifully, at length, and for everything except the one thing that mattered."
Choose the level where you'd rather be reading than looking things up. If most words come easily and the story pulls you along, you're in the right place. If you're stopping every line, drop down one; if it feels effortless, climb one.
You can order the same story at different levels as you improve, and read the two side by side to see how far you've come.