Recent TCF and TEF Canada writing topics, with model outlines

The honest answer first: there is no official, published list of TCF Canada or TEF Canada writing topics, and any page promising you the “real” tef canada writing topics for this month is guessing, the same as everyone else. What is true, and far more useful, is that both exams reuse a small set of task types and rotate through a predictable range of everyday-society themes. You can prepare properly without a leak.

So this is a rolling bank of the prompts that recur, with a model outline for each - not a model essay. A memorised essay is the fastest way to answer the question you wish you had been asked instead of the one on the paper, and examiners have seen every pre-written paragraph there is.

Does anyone publish the real TCF and TEF Canada writing topics?

No. France Éducation International, which runs the TCF, and the CCI Paris Île-de-France, which runs the TEF, keep their live item banks closed. The “sujets récents” you find shared in forums and groups are reconstructions from memory by candidates who sat the test, which makes them useful as themes to rehearse and worthless as a script to learn. Treat every list, including this one, as a rehearsal set. Confirm the current task format against france-education-international.fr for the TCF and lefrancaisdesaffaires.fr for the TEF before you plan around it.

Which themes come up most often?

Across both exams the argument tasks circle the same handful of subjects: how we consume, how technology changes daily life, work, where and how we live, education, and health. They are chosen because an educated adult can hold a view on them without specialist knowledge. The theme is almost never the hard part. The task type is.

How do I outline a TCF Canada tâche 3?

The TCF Canada expression écrite is 60 minutes for three tasks, and tâche 3 is the one candidates most often hand in unfinished, so protect time for it. It gives you two short texts that reach different conclusions on one subject, and asks you to restate both positions in your own words, then give a reasoned point of view, in 120 to 180 words. It is a comparison with a personal conclusion, not a free essay on the theme. Reuse this skeleton:

• One sentence naming the subject and that the two texts disagree.
• Text one's position in your own words, with its single main reason.
• Text two's position in your own words, with its single main reason.
• Your view, stated plainly, supported by one developed reason.
• A one-line close that actually concludes rather than trailing off.

The reformulation is where marks are won: lifting phrases straight out of the source texts is the classic tâche 3 error. The full task breakdown, with worked examples, is on our TCF expression écrite guide.

How do I outline a TEF Canada Section B?

The TEF Canada expression écrite is also 60 minutes, split into Section A and Section B. Section B gives you 35 minutes and a 200-word minimum, and asks you to express and defend an opinion, usually as a letter or an article aimed at a stated reader. The marker is looking for an argument built on paper, so the order matters more than any single clever sentence:

• Open by naming your position in the first two lines. No slow warm-up.
• Reason one, developed with a concrete example, not a second abstract claim.
• Reason two, and a connector that does real work - en revanche, c'est pourquoi - rather than a decorative de plus.
• One honest concession, then answer it. This reads as an adult argument.
• A close that restates the position in different words and stops.

Match the register to the reader the instruction names. The step-by-step version, including Section A, is on our TEF expression écrite guide.

A rolling topic bank to practise this week

Pick one, set a timer, and write it in the target format. These are rehearsal prompts in the recurring themes, not predictions:

• Should second-hand clothing be promoted over new? Two friends disagree.
• Are cars in city centres a problem worth restricting, or not?
• Should remote work be a right, an option, or an exception?
• Is a phone ban in schools protection or overreach?
• Does moving out of the city improve life, or only change its problems?
• Should local shops be favoured over large online retailers?
• Is homework useful past a certain age, or counterproductive?

How do I use these without wasting them?

Write under the real clock, in one pass, then check your length before you check anything else - an under-length TEF Section B or an over-running TCF tâche 1 loses marks no vocabulary can win back. Our word counter shows the count and the time you took, so you learn what 180 disciplined words feels like in your own handwriting speed. Do not memorise these outlines as text. Internalise the moves - restate fairly, state a position early, concede once - so you can run them on a prompt you have never seen. That is the skill the exam is actually paying for.