Do spelling and accent mistakes cost points in TCF Canada writing?
Checked November 2, 2026
Yes, but not one by one. Spelling is part of the linguistic criterion for writing, according to France Éducation international (FEI). FEI also says the level comes from assessing a skill, not from “correcting mistakes”, and it publishes no scale per mistake. One slip does not make a level. A mistake that comes back throughout the text shows a rule you have not mastered.
What FEI says in its handbook.
- The writing criteria are linguistic (range of vocabulary, grammar, spelling, sentence building), pragmatic and sociolinguistic.
- Levels come from assessing a skill, not from a “correction d’erreurs”, a count of mistakes. Scripts are not annotated.
- On paper, illegible handwriting can lead to “A1 non atteint”. There is no such rule for spelling mistakes.
What we take from it, which remains our reading.
| Kind of mistake | What it shows the marker |
|---|---|
| An accent missed once (deja) | a typo or a lapse |
| The same agreement missed in every sentence | a rule not mastered, so a language level |
| An accent that changes the meaning (a for à, ou for où) | a wrong sentence, not just a badly spelled one |
| A mistake that gets in the way of reading | a communication problem, heavier than a typo |
A 3-minute reread at the end of each task.
- Every a and à, every ou and où.
- Agreement after que and after the verb être.
- Plurals after des, les and beaucoup de.
- The words your mistake log marks as recurring.
On a computer, accents also depend on the centre’s keyboard. See TCF Canada keyboard and typing accents. To see which mistakes come back in your own texts, have one corrected on NCLC Prep, which flags each mistake with its rule.