TCF Canada Writing Task 2: 120–150 Words

What is Task 2?

Task 2 is the middle writing task: 120 to 150 words. You are asked to react to a situation by writing a message or short text — for example, telling friends how your first week at a new job went. It tests your ability to tell events in order, describe and share feelings in correct, varied French.

Remember the full writing test is 60 minutes for three tasks, so keep Task 2 to roughly 20 minutes.

A 3-part structure that always works

1. Introduction — greet, and say what you are going to tell (one or two sentences).
2. Development — 2 or 3 short paragraphs: what happened, where, with whom, how you felt. Answer every point in the prompt.
3. Conclusion — a personal comment, a wish or an invitation, then a sign-off.

Passé composé or imparfait?

A simple rule: what happened = passé composé; how things were = imparfait.

Model answer (about 145 words)

Prompt: You have just started a new job. Write to your friends to tell them about your first week (the company, your tasks, your colleagues, your impressions).

Why it works: three clear parts, every point of the prompt covered (company, tasks, colleagues, feelings), passé composé for events and imparfait for descriptions, connectors like lundi, pendant la semaine, au début, mais, and a friendly conclusion.

Common mistakes in Task 2

• Only using the present tense — tell the story in the past.
• Forgetting a requested point — check the prompt before you finish.
• One big paragraph — split ideas into short paragraphs.
• Wrong length — under 120 words is incomplete, over 150 is wasted time.
• Repeating "et puis" — vary with ensuite, après, pendant, finalement.

A 20-minute method

1. 2 min — read the prompt and note the points to cover.
2. 15 min — write with the 3-part structure.
3. 3 min — check tenses, agreements, accents and word count.

Next, learn how to defend a point of view in Task 3, and refine your sentences with our sentence structure guide.

Frequently asked questions