Free interactive practice
Is it a real English word? Decide Yes or No before the five-second timer runs out, one word at a time, exactly like the real test. The catch is the fake words, which are built to look real. Built to the official 2026 Duolingo English Test format.
Read and Select is a vocabulary question type on the Duolingo English Test (DET). You are shown one word at a time and must decide whether it is a real English word by clicking Yes or No. Per Duolingo's official DET guide, you see 15 to 18 words with about five seconds each, the type is adaptive (get one right and the next is harder), and it feeds your Reading, Literacy, and Comprehension subscores. A skipped word counts as incorrect, so always choose Yes or No.
1. Say the word quietly in your head. Fakes often look right but sound wrong. 2. Only click Yes if you are confident it is real and, ideally, know what it means. Guessing Yes on unfamiliar words is how scores drop. 3. Always answer. A skipped word is marked wrong, and five seconds is enough to read one word.
Real words: substantial ubiquitous generous remarkable. Fake words: substancial unhappiment curiousity brightful.
Read and Select is just one of several question types on the DET. Practice them all:
Deciding between the DET and the TOEFL? Our TOEFL vs DET 2026 comparison covers format, scoring, and which universities accept each. For TOEFL preparation, see the TOEFL 2026 score guide and the free TOEFL practice test.
If you want an expert to help you prepare, Epic Exam Prep has prepared students for English proficiency exams since 2010.
Read and Select shows you words one at a time and asks whether each is a real English word. You have about 5 seconds per word. The task measures vocabulary breadth and appears early in the test. It counts toward your Reading, Literacy, and Comprehension subscores.
Each Read and Select set contains 15 to 18 words. The mix of real and fake words is adaptive, meaning the difficulty adjusts based on your responses.
The fake words are pseudo-words: invented words that look and sound like real English but do not exist. They use common English prefixes, suffixes, and letter patterns to create visual and morphological traps. For example, a fake might combine a real prefix with a plausible but non-existent root.