Question Words and Function Words: Practice Questions & Explanations

USCIS reading test questions begin with QUESTION WORDS. The vocabulary list includes: HOW, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHO, WHY. Sample reading test sentences in QUESTION form: 'Who was the first President?' 'When do we celebrate Independence Day?' 'Where does the President live?' 'What is the capital of the United States?' 'Why do people come to America?' 'How many states are there?' These questions test the applicant's ability to recognize question words and read them with appropriate intonation (rising intonation on yes/no questions, falling intonation on wh-questions in standard American English, though both patterns are accepted). VERBS on the USCIS reading list include: 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.

Numbers: one, first, second, third, etc., plus 50. The reading test draws sentences from these vocabulary words to make simple, predictable test items. Practice reading aloud with proper pronunciation; many of these words have simple, regular pronunciations.

QUESTION WORDS are essential vocabulary on the USCIS Reading Test. Recognizing them helps the applicant read questions with proper intonation. Question words on the USCIS list: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, HOW. Sample questions on the reading test: 'WHERE is the White House?' (Question word + linking verb + noun phrase) — Answer: in Washington, D.C. 'WHO was George Washington?' Answer: The first President. 'WHEN do we celebrate Independence Day?' Answer: July 4. 'WHAT is the capital of the United States?' Answer: Washington. 'WHY do people come to America?' Answer: For freedom, for a better life, etc. 'HOW many states are there?' Answer: 50. In English, WH-questions typically use FALLING intonation (going down at the end), unlike yes/no questions which use RISING intonation (going up at the end). For example, 'Where is Washington?' starts higher on 'Where' and falls toward the end. The reading test evaluates whether the applicant reads with intelligibility, not perfect native-speaker pronunciation. Most applicants who study the vocabulary can pass.

Sample reading test question: 'Who is the first President?' Answer: GEORGE WASHINGTON. This is a common question pattern on the USCIS reading test: a WH-QUESTION word + a sentence asking about a fact from the civics curriculum. Other similar question patterns: 'WHEN is Independence Day?' → July 4. 'WHERE does the President live?' → The White House. 'WHAT is the capital of the United States?' → Washington, D.C. 'WHO was George Washington?' → The first President. 'WHO was Abraham Lincoln?' → The 16th President (or: The President who freed the slaves). The reading test combines vocabulary from multiple categories: PEOPLE (Washington, Lincoln), CIVICS (President), PLACES (Washington, the capital), HOLIDAYS, QUESTION WORDS, and VERBS. Note: Benjamin Franklin, although a famous Founding Father, was NEVER President. He played key roles in: drafting the Declaration of Independence; representing the U.S. as ambassador to France; helping negotiate the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War; serving as President of Pennsylvania (a state-level office). Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President (1861-1865). Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd President (1801-1809) and wrote most of the Declaration of Independence.

The USCIS reading vocabulary includes a set of QUESTION WORDS that frequently begin test sentences: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, and the phrase 'How many.' For example, a reading sentence might be 'When do we vote for President?' or 'Where is the White House?' Recognizing these question words helps the applicant read the sentence correctly and understand it. Words like 'because,' 'quickly,' and 'beautiful' are not on the reading vocabulary list and do not appear as the question words the test uses. Knowing the question words is part of preparing for the reading test.

On the USCIS reading test, the question word 'Who' is used to ask about a person. In the sentence 'Who was the first President?', 'Who' signals that the answer is a person (George Washington). The reading vocabulary's question words each point to a type of answer: 'Who' asks about a person, 'Where' about a place, 'When' about a time, and 'Why' about a reason. Recognizing what each question word is asking helps the applicant read and understand the sentence. This comprehension of question words is part of the reading-test skills.