DALF C2 Vocabulary: The Language of Literary and Philosophical French
DALF C2 vocabulary belongs to French intellectuals, academics, and writers — terms you will rarely meet below C1 but cannot avoid at C2. This page groups the literary, philosophical, and analytical vocabulary you need, each term explained rather than just glossed.
Rhetorical and Literary Vocabulary for C2
Figures of speech: l'allégorie (allegory), la métaphore (metaphor), l'hyperbole (hyperbole), l'antiphrase (antiphrasis/verbal irony), l'euphémisme (euphemism), la litote (litotes/understatement), l'anachronisme (anachronism). Narrative technique: la focalisation (focalisation/point of view), le narrateur omniscient (the omniscient narrator), le flux de conscience (stream of consciousness), l'ironie dramatique (dramatic irony).
Philosophical Vocabulary for C2
Philosophical concepts at C2: l'ontologie (ontology), l'épistémologie (epistemology), la phénoménologie (phenomenology), la dialectique hégélienne (Hegelian dialectics), l'herméneutique (hermeneutics), la déconstruction (deconstruction), le pragmatisme (pragmatism), la métaphysique (metaphysics) — all expected unglossed in a C2 text.
Vocabulary for Literary Criticism and Textual Analysis
For C2 textual analysis: le champ lexical (the lexical/semantic field), le registre de langue (register), l'intertextualité (intertextuality), la polyphonie narrative (narrative polyphony), le point de vue (point of view), la modalisation (modalisation — how a writer signals certainty or doubt), la cohésion textuelle (textual cohesion). Learn these as reading tools, not just as terms to define.
Practice exercises
What is "une litote" in rhetoric?
What is "le champ lexical" of a text?
What does "l'herméneutique" mean as a discipline?
Exam tips
- Learn C2 philosophical vocabulary by reading philosophers directly — Sartre, Camus, Derrida in annotated editions — rather than from vocabulary lists. Watch for false friends like "actuellement" (which means "currently", not "actually") and "ignorer" (which means "not to know", not "to ignore") — they trip up strong readers precisely because the words look transparent.
- C2 rhetorical figures are not decorative extras: examiners ask you to name them and analyse their effect, so practise labelling a figure of speech the moment you notice one.
- Build your literary-criticism vocabulary deliberately: it is essential for the compte-rendu critique, where naming a technique precisely earns more credit than describing it in plain words.
- Le champ lexical is one of the most frequently tested textual-analysis concepts at C2 — practise tracing it through a paragraph before you ever sit the exam.
Prepara el DALF C2 con DelfOnline
Ejercicios interactivos, simulacros reales y preparación completa desde A1 hasta DALF C2.