Citizenship Reading Test Vocabulary

In the reading part of the English test, the officer shows you three sentences and you read one of them aloud correctly. Every sentence is built from the fixed vocabulary list below — there are no surprises outside it.

The 64 reading words

Grouped the way USCIS groups them. Words joined by a slash are the forms you may see, so lives/lived means either form can appear in a sentence.

People

Abraham Lincoln
George Washington

Civics

American flag
Bill of Rights
capital
citizen
city
Congress
country
Father of Our Country
government
President
right
Senators
state/states
White House

Places

America
United States
U.S.

Holidays

Presidents’ Day
Memorial Day
Flag Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Thanksgiving

Question words

How
What
When
Where
Who
Why

Verbs

can
come
do/does
elects
have/has
is/are/was/be
lives/lived
meet
name
pay
vote
want

Other function words

a
for
here
in
of
on
the
to
we

Practice sentences

Read each sentence aloud, or use the speaker icon to hear a model reading first. These are examples built only from the words above — USCIS does not publish the sentences it uses, so treat this as practice with the same vocabulary, not a script.

George Washington was the Father of Our Country.
Abraham Lincoln was President.
The President lives in the White House.
The Senators meet in Congress.
A citizen can vote for the President.
People vote for the President.
What is the capital of the United States?
Who lives in the White House?
When do we vote?
Where is the White House?
Why do people come to America?
How many Senators are in Congress?
The American flag has colors.
The United States is a country.
Many people lived in the city.

Source: USCIS Reading Vocabulary for the Naturalization Test, revision 07/14. Official PDF.

Next: practice the writing part by typing sentences you hear. The civics questions are on the 2025 question list.