Choose the correctly spelled place: The capital of the United States is ____.

WASHINGTON (as a place, Washington, D.C.) is on the USCIS WRITING VOCABULARY list under PLACES. The correct spelling is 'W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N.' A common dictation sentence is 'Washington, D.C., is the capital' or 'The capital is Washington, D.C.' The writing test requires the applicant to write one dictated sentence correctly out of up to three. Because Washington appears as both a person and a place on the vocabulary lists, applicants practice spelling it for either use. Correct spelling of place names is part of the writing-test vocabulary.