You reply to a personal or semi-formal email – the telc B1 “letter” – covering four guide points. Here’s how to build it step by step.
As of 2026 · Built to the official exam format
Practice the same format you’ll see on exam day, get your score against official criteria, and see where you still need work.
Free to try · No account needed
Key takeaways
In this part you produce text yourself: a personal or semi-formal email. You get a short situation and four guide points and have 30 minutes. telc prescribes no word count. It tests whether you handle the writing situation appropriately – not whether you write error-free.
Three criteria decide it: I Aufgabenbewältigung (all four guide points covered appropriately), II Kommunikative Gestaltung (text logic, connectors, register, vocabulary – salutation and sign-off belong here) and III Formale Richtigkeit (grammar, spelling, punctuation). Each criterion gets A, B, C or D, worth 5, 3, 1 or 0 points, and the sum is multiplied by three. Example: A/A/B is 13 points, times three = 39 out of 45.
The most common point losses: a guide point is missing or doesn’t fit the situation, the register wobbles between “du” and “Sie”, or the guide points sit side by side with nothing linking them. If you plan briefly first, tick off all four points and use fixed phrases, you write confidently and completely.
Read the situation and decide: “du” or “Sie”?
Note a keyword for each of the four guide points so you forget none.
Start with the salutation and a short opening (the reason for writing).
In the body, deal with each guide point sensibly and understandably – one sentence can be enough – and use suitable phrases.
Close with an appropriate sign-off.
Check at the end: all four guide points covered, one consistent register, salutation and closing there?
A short example in the same format: the task and a model letter that covers all guide points (the model letter is in German).
A friend, Anna, has invited you to her birthday party. Write a reply. Guide points: (1) Thank her for the invitation. (2) Say whether you’re coming. (3) Ask whether you should bring something. (4) Suggest a joint present for another friend.
Model letter (excerpt):
Why? The reply covers all four guide points: thank (1), accept (2), ask about bringing something (3), suggest a present (4) – some of them in a single sentence, and that is enough. The register is personal throughout (“Liebe Anna”, “du”, “viele Grüße”) – right for a friend.
You reply to a friend’s private invitation to a barbecue.
Which salutation and closing fit?
Try this section in the real exam format and find out how confident you are before exam day.
Free to try · No account needed
All four points must appear. Tick them off one by one after writing – every missing point drops Criterion I a whole band.
Don’t switch between “du” and “Sie”. Decide at the start and stick with it – a wobbling register rules out an A in Kommunikative Gestaltung.
There is no minimum word count. A guide point already counts as covered if you deal with it sensibly and understandably in one, possibly short, sentence – two guide points may even share one sentence. Shortness only becomes a problem when a point isn’t covered at all, or isn’t understandable.
The topic alone isn’t enough: writing an invitation when you were asked to answer one misses the situation – that is a D in Criterion I. Read the task closely.
If the salutation and sign-off are missing, or the guide points sit side by side with nothing linking them, an A in Kommunikative Gestaltung is out of reach. Classic letter elements such as sender address, date or a subject line are not required by telc.
telc sets no word count. What matters is that all four guide points are covered appropriately – a guide point already counts as covered if you deal with it sensibly in one, possibly short, sentence. The 30 minutes cap the length by themselves.
Yes. Criterion I measures exactly that: four points covered appropriately give an A (5 points), three a B (3), two a C (1), one or none a D (0). Tick off each point individually after writing.
The situation decides: “du” to friends/acquaintances, “Sie” to companies/authorities/unknown people. Stay with one form throughout.
The official PDF answer key doesn’t grade writing. At Prepliq a mock checks your email automatically, and its assessment is modelled on the published telc assessment criteria – Aufgabenbewältigung, Kommunikative Gestaltung and Formale Richtigkeit. Prepliq is independent of telc gGmbH: the automatic assessment is a practice assessment, not an official telc exam assessment – in the real exam two licensed telc raters mark your text.
Learn 600+ of the most important telc German B1 words interactively with flashcards.
Preview and download the official telc German B1 practice test – with answers and study material.
Practice this exam part in the official format and see what needs more attention before the real test.
Free to try · No account needed