The US citizenship English test: speaking, reading and writing

The reading test

• The sentences are questions, but you only read them out loud. You don’t have to answer them.
• You pass if you read one without long pauses, get its meaning across and the officer understands you.
• USCIS’s scoring guidelines say you won’t fail because of your accent.

How the US citizenship writing test is scored

• The officer reads a sentence and you write it down so the officer can read it.
• Write every word in full. Abbreviating a word the officer said is a fail.
• Spelling, capital letters and punctuation mistakes don’t fail you unless they stop the sentence making sense.

Speaking and understanding

There’s no separate speaking test. The officer judges it from how you understand and answer questions during the interview, mostly about your N-400. Officers are told to repeat and rephrase a question until they’re satisfied you understand it or don’t, and they won’t ask you to define words on the form.

Which words and sentences come up?

USCIS says the reading and writing sentences are about civics and history. What it publishes for practice is two word lists, one for reading and one for writing, sorted into groups such as people, civics, places, holidays and verbs. Both lists are dated August 2008 and are still the ones USCIS links as of October 2026.

One way to practice: make short questions from the reading list and read them aloud, then have someone read you sentences built from the writing list while you write them by hand.

Who skips the US citizenship English test?

People who qualify for 50/20, 55/15 or 65/20, and people with an approved medical waiver on Form N-648. If you fail one part of the English test, only that part is tested again, 60 to 90 days later.