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Citizenship · Writing Test Sentences

The officer dictates: 'Washington is the capital.' Which spelling of the key word is correct?

Reviewed by Jordan Morley, Editorial Lead at 247SimpleTests. Written by the 247SimpleTests Editorial Team from the official source material cited on every question.

Correct answer

capital — meaning the city that is the seat of government (Washington, D.C. is the capital); note 'capitol' with an 'o' refers to the building where Congress meets

  1. A capitel
  2. B capatal
  3. C capitol
  4. D capital — meaning the city that is the seat of government (Washington, D.C. is the capital); note 'capitol' with an 'o' refers to the building where Congress meets

Why this is the answer

CAPITAL (with an 'A') is correct here — it means the city that is the seat of government (Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States). Note the distinction: CAPITAL (city/seat of government) vs CAPITOL (with an 'O' — the building where Congress meets). Memory aid: the CapitOl building has a dОme (both have 'O'). The USCIS writing test may use 'capital'; spelling it correctly (C-A-P-I-T-A-L) demonstrates the required writing ability. This capital/capitol distinction is a common point of confusion.
Source: USCIS Writing Test — Capital

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About this topic: Writing Test Sentences

In the writing test the officer reads a sentence aloud and you must write it so that it has the same meaning; spelling, capitalisation and punctuation errors are tolerated unless they change the meaning. The words come only from the official USCIS writing vocabulary list. This is one of 25 Writing Vocabulary questions on writing test sentences, each with a full explanation on a single study page.

New to this exam? Our Citizenship exam guide explains the format, scoring, and how to prepare.

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