The English Test: Reading, Writing, and Speaking

Three parts, only two of them exercises

The English requirement covers speaking, reading, and writing. Two of them are short, discrete tasks. The third is not a task at all.

Speaking is not a separate test. In this site's own words, your speaking English is tested naturally through the conversation you have with the officer while your application is reviewed. There is no speaking exam to sit and no list of prompts to memorise - which is a relief, but it also means you cannot revise for it as a discrete task.

The reading and writing tasks are discrete. USCIS describes each as reading, or writing, one of up to three sentences correctly, so a stumble on the first sentence is not the end of the task. Both draw on published vocabulary lists, and that is the fact that should change how you prepare.

• Speaking - observed during the interview conversation, not tested separately.
• Reading - read one of up to three sentences correctly, aloud.
• Writing - write one of up to three sentences correctly, from the officer's dictation.
• Both reading and writing sentences are built from official published vocabulary lists.

Why the published word lists matter so much

USCIS publishes the vocabulary used in the reading and writing tasks, and groups it by category. Both lists share categories for people, civics terms, places, holidays, verbs, and other common words. The reading list adds question words, since a reading sentence is often a question; the writing list adds the months of the year, since a dictated sentence can carry a date.

That makes this portion finite in a way almost nothing else in the process is. You cannot know which civics questions the officer will pick from a hundred, but you can work through the entire pool of words you might be asked to read or write. Once every word on both lists is comfortable, there is very little left for the task to surprise you with.

HundredCivics publishes both lists grouped as USCIS groups them, plus practice sentences built only from those words, so nothing you practise on is out of scope. The two lists overlap heavily, so working through both is far less than twice the work of one.

The sentences overlap what you are already studying

A quiet advantage of the vocabulary lists is that they are civics vocabulary. The words are the words of the questions you are learning anyway - the branches of government, the country's founding, its symbols and holidays - so the reading and writing practice is not a second subject bolted onto the first.

Several of the practice sentences on this site are, in substance, civics questions you already have to answer out loud. These two are the ones the reading practice most obviously rehearses, and studying them once serves both portions of the test:

How to practise reading

Read the words aloud, not silently. The task is to read a sentence aloud so that the officer can tell you understood it, so silent recognition is not the skill being trained.

Work through the reading list category by category and mark the words that make you hesitate. Those are the ones worth repeating - for most people it is a small handful, often the longer civics terms and place names, rather than the list as a whole.

Then move to complete sentences. Reading a whole sentence at a natural pace is different from reading a column of isolated words, and it is what the task actually asks for. You do not need a perfect accent; you need the sentence to be understandable.

How to practise writing

Writing is dictated, so practising it alone requires a small amount of setup: have someone read sentences to you, or record yourself reading practice sentences and play them back later when you have half-forgotten them.

The most common avoidable mistake is trying to write while the sentence is still being spoken. Listen to the whole sentence, hold it, then write. If you miss part of it, ask for it to be repeated - that is a normal thing to do and not a mark against you.

Practise by writing rather than typing. A keyboard with autocorrect quietly repairs the exact gaps you are trying to find, and you want those gaps to show up now rather than in the interview room.

Aim to spell each word on the list correctly from dictation, and write a complete sentence rather than a string of words. USCIS sets the standard the officer applies, so do not calibrate your preparation against anything you read here - target clean, correct sentences and check the current requirements at uscis.gov.

Practising speaking without a tutor

Because speaking is assessed through the interview conversation, the best practice is to talk about the things the interview covers: your application. Say your address out loud. Describe your trips outside the United States and roughly when they were. Explain in a sentence why you want to become a citizen.

This does double work - it rehearses your English and it rehearses the N-400 review at the same time, which is the part of the interview most applicants find longest. Doing it out loud, in English, in full sentences is the whole technique.

It also helps with civics, since those questions are asked and answered out loud too. If your entire preparation happens silently on a screen, the first time you say any of this aloud will be in the interview room.

Who does not have to take it

Not everyone has to take this portion. USCIS recognises exemptions from the English requirement based on an applicant's age together with the number of years they have held lawful permanent residence - the pairings usually written as 50/20 and 55/15. An applicant who qualifies may be tested on civics in a language other than English, normally through an interpreter.

USCIS runs a separate exception process as well, for applicants with a physical or developmental disability or a mental impairment, resting on a certification by a licensed medical professional. And under the 65/20 special consideration, an older long-term resident studies a shorter civics list - a different provision again, and one that does not turn on English.

Every one of these carries conditions that only USCIS can apply to your situation. Read the current rules at uscis.gov, or ask a licensed immigration attorney, rather than working from a study guide - and if you are relying on an exemption, raise it at the interview rather than assuming the officer already knows.

Frequently asked questions