General questions
What is your name
Where do you live?
Where are you from?
Where were you born?
What do you do?
What do you study?
Describe yourself in three words.
Tell me about yourself.
Who is your favourite person in the world and why?
What do you want to do when you’re older?
What type of house do you live in?
Family and home
How many people are in your family?
Do you have any brothers or sisters?
What does your dad do?
What does your mum do?
Describe your brother/sister.
Are you married?
Do you have any pets?
Do you want any pets?
Do you want any children?
Do you have any children?
Describe your house.
Describe your city or town.
Hobbies and free time
What do you like to do in your free time?
What sport do you do?
Do you prefer winter sports or summer sports?
What is your favourite sport?
Do you like listening to music?
Do you like reading books?
What was the last book you read
What was the last movie you watched?
What type of music do you like listening to?
What type of movies do you like to watch?
Do you prefer arts or sports?
Do you like art?
What do you like to do to relax?
What do you think of modern art?
Do you prefer team games or individual games?
Food and drink
What is your favourite type of food?
What is your favourite type of drink?
Do you like to cook?
Do you think you’re a good cook?
what was the last meal you cooked?
Do you think you’re a healthy person?
Are you a vegetarian?
Do you prefer tea or coffee?
Which country has the best food?
Do you prefer pasta or rice?
Do you like spicy food?
Who cooks in your house?
Holidays
Where is the best place you’ve ever been on holiday?
Where was the last place you went on holiday?
Do you prefer beaches or mountains?
Do you like to travel alone or in a group?
Do you prefer to eat in the hotel or at local restaurants?
Do you prefer to use the local currency or pay for everything
on card?
Do you prefer to use a map or an app?
Do you prefer to plan your holiday or leave everything to
chance?
Do you prefer to stay in a hotel or an air bnb?
Do you like to learn the language of the country you’re in or
use English?
Leisure and activities
What type of films do you usually like to watch?
What types of books do you usually like to read?
What type of series do you like to watch?
What do you do in your spare time?
What sports do you like to do?
Do you go running in your free time?
Who do you like to spend your free time with?
How much free time do you get each week?
Do you think you get enough free time?
Would you like more free time?
Do you think you could be busier?
How do you like to organise your time?
What sweets and drinks do you like to order at the cinema?
Do you do different activities with your girl friends to with your
boy friends?
Leisure and activities – past tense
When was the last time you went to the cinema?
What was the last film you saw?
What was the last book you read?
What did you do to relax yesterday?
What was the last sport you did?
Who was the last friend you saw? What did you do?
Leisure and activities – the conditional tense
If you could play any sport, what sport would you play?
If you could be good at any musical instrument, which one
would you like to play?
If you could speak any language with no effort, which
language would you speak?
If you had free time right now what would you want to do?
If you could have written any book what would you want to
have written?
If you could star in any movie, which movie would you like to
star in?
If you could be good at any activity what would you want to be
good at?
If you could win any competition, which competition would you
like to win?
Love and romance
Where did you go on the last date you went on?
Where do you like to go on a date?
Do you think it’s better if the man pays for the date or the
woman?
Who was the last person you went on a date with and how did
it go?
Tell me about your last date?
What would be your ideal date?
Have you ever dated more than one person at the same time?
How did it go?
What do you look for in a romantic partner?
What is a major turn off from a potential partner?
How long do you think you should wait before you kiss
someone on a date?
How long do you think you should wait before you sleep with
someone on a date?
Do you prefer to be drunk or sober on a date?
Have you dated people from other countries? Do they do
anything differently to the men/women in your country?
If you could go on a date with any famous person, who would
you like to go with?
Do you prefer to receive/give flowers or chocolates?
Do you like to celebrate valentine’s day or do you think it’s
corny?
Would you like to get married? If so/not then why/ why not?
Holidays
Where do you usually go on holiday?
What is the best holiday you’ve ever gone on?
Where would you like to go on holiday?
If you could visit any country in the world where would you go?
Where are you going on your next holiday?
Do you prefer hotels or air bnbs?
Do you prefer the beach or the mountains?
Do you prefer the city or the countryside?
Do you like to organise your own activities or book through a
tour company?
What do you usually do on holiday?
Do you prefer to relax or do activities when you’re on holiday?
Who do you usually go on holiday with?
Do you prefer holidays to hot countries or to cold countries?
When you’re on holiday do you like to eat the local food or do
you prefer to find tourist restaurants?
If you could go on holiday with anyone who would you go
with?
Do you like to speak the local language when you go on
holiday?
Do you prefer all inclusive or self catered?
What’s the furthest away county that you’ve ever visited?
What has been your best holiday?
What has been your worst holiday?
Past Simple
What did you eat yesterday?
What did you do yesterday?
Where was the last place you went on holiday?
What was the last film you saw?
What was the last book you read?
What was the last TV series you watched?
When did you learn to drive a car?
What was the last concert you went to?
How did you feel when you graduated from University?
What did you do on the aeroplane?
Where did you visit in China?
When was the last time you did exercise?
How far did you run yesterday?
How did you feel when you realised you were pregnant?
What was the first book you read?
What was the first nightmare you had?
Past Progressive
The past progressive is used for ongoing or repeated actions in the past,
such as: I was eating.
Here are some questions that you can use to practise the past
progressive:
What were you doing when you heard about 9/11?
What were you doing while your mum was on the phone?
What was your partner doing while you were at work?
What were you doing when you found out Princess Diana had
died?
What were you children doing while you were in the bath
yesterday?
What were you doing at 5 o’clock yesterday?
What were you thinking about when you found out you were
pregnant?
What were you doing at 8 o’clock this morning?
What were you doing when your first tooth fell out?
What were you doing while you were waiting at the doctor’s
office?
Past perfect
The past perfect is for actions completed in the past, a good example of
this would be: ‘I had eaten.’
What had you done before you showered this morning?
What had you done before breakfast yesterday?
What had you studied before your exam?
What had you drank to make you that dunk?
What had you eaten to make you so sick?
What had you seen that made you not want to go?
What had you done to deserve that?
What had you taken from the shop?
What had you broken to make you run away?
Here are some questions that you can use to practise the past perfect:
Past perfect progressive
The past perfect progressive is used for for an action that is ongoing or
repeated in the past up until another action. So basically it’s a blend of the
past perfect and the past progressive. It might be easier to see it written
down: ‘I had been eating.’ So up until a specific point in the past, I had
been eating.
Here are some questions that you can use to practise the past perfect
progressive:
What had you been eating before dinner was interrupted?
What had you been doing when you found out you’d gotten the
job you’d interviewed for?
What had you been doing when you found out your wife was
having an affair?
What had you been drinking when you choked?
What had you been doing when you fell off the bed?
What had you been doing when your dad stopped you?
The immediate Future
What are you going to have for dinner?
What time will you finish work today?
What are your plans for tomorrow?
What are your plans for the weekend?
When is the next time you are going to see friends?
When is the next date you have?
When is the next time you plan on doing some exercise?
What is the next book you would like to read?
What is the next film you would like to see?
What is the next series you would like to watch?
When are you next going to the cinema?
When is the next time you’ll be going to a restaurant?
Long term future
What would you like to achieve before you’re forty?
What would you like to achieve before you’re fifty?
What would you like to achieve before you die?
Do you want to climb a mountain at some point in your life?
When do you want to buy your first house?
What kind of house do you want to live in when you’re older?
What skills would you like to develop as your get older?
How much money would you like when you’re older?
Do you want to have a simple life or an expensive life?
Career Future
What would you like to do when you’re older?
Where do you see yourself in five years time?
What age do you want to retire at?
Do you want to manage a team?
How do you plan on getting to where you want to go in your
career?
Do you want to work for yourself or for somebody else?
Are there any skills you will have to learn for your career in the
future?
How do you see your industry changing in the future with new
technologies?
Is your job at risk as the world moves to be more technology
based?
What is the highest position you can achieve in your chosen
profession?
Family and relationship future
Do you want to get married?
When will you get married?
Do you want to have a big wedding or a small wedding?
Who will be at your wedding
Do you want a traditional wedding or a more modern wedding?
Do you want to have a religious or a non religious wedding?
Do you want to have children?
When will you have children?
Will you raise your children to be religious?
How many children do you want to have?
Will you send your children to private school or state school?
Travel and personal goals future
What is the next country you want to visit?
What is the next holiday you have booked?
Who will you go on holiday with next?
Do you have any plans to visit South America?
Do you want to visit Africa in the future?
Do you want to visit Europe?
What country do you want to visit before you die?
Do you have any long term trips planned?
What skills do you want to learn when you have more time?
What foreign languages do you want to learn in the future?
Do you want to learn how to play a musical instrument?
Do you want to start doing a new sport?
Do you want to change your diet and lifestyle in the future?
Do you want to do more to help the environment in the future?
What car do you want to buy when you have more money?
What kind of things do you want to do when you have more
money?
Fantasy questions
If you could live in any country where would you live?
If you could do any job what would you do?
If you could be an animal which animal would you be?
If you could live in any period of time when would you live?
If you could have any super power what would you have?
If you could speak one language which one would you speak?
If you were a man/woman for the day what would you do?
If you could meet any famous person who would you want to
meet?
If you could save a person from Game of Thrones who would
you save?
If you could be someone else for one day who would you be?
Hypothetical situations
What would you do if you found your husband/wife in bed with
someone else?
What would you do if you got home and realised you didn’t
have your keys?
What would you do if your mother stole from you?
What would you do if you forgot your partner’s birthday?
What would you do if your partner forgot your birthday?
What would you do if your brother was kidnapped?
What would you do if someone stole your identity?
What would you do if you got home and there was a bear in
the living room?
What would you save in a fire?
What would you do if you woke up one day and couldn’t
speak?
How questions
How would you get rid of a wasps nest?
How would you trap a monkey?
How would you rob a bank?
How would you climb a mountain?
How would you train for a marathon?
How would you kill a bear?
How would you design a rocket shape?
How would you make ice cream?
How would you react if your partner bought you a puppy?
How would you steal a car?
How would you steal someone’s identity?
How would you survive in the wilderness?
Either or questions
Would you prefer to be a cat or a dog?
Would you prefer to live in a hot country or a cold country?
Would you prefer to live in the mountains or on the beach?
Would you prefer to live in Asia or in Europe?
Would you prefer to be a man or a woman?
Would you prefer to have a dragon or a unicorn?
Would you prefer to visit Mars or the Moon?
Would you prefer to marry Marilyn Monroe or Jennifer
Lawrence?
Would you prefer to be able to breath under water or to fly?
Would you rather meet the Queen of England or King of
Spain?
Conditional with will
What will you do if it rains tomorrow?
What will you do if you fail your exams?
What will you do if you don’t get better?
What will you do if you don’t graduate from University?
What will you do if you get fired from your job?
What will you do if you don’t get home in time for dinner?
Questions about work – general
What do you do for work?
What would you like to be when you’re older?
What do you do on a day to day basis in work?
How many people do you work with?
How many people are in your team?
Are you responsible for anyone else?
Do you like your boss?
Do you ever take sick days?
Do you find interviews easy or difficult?
What is the most difficult thing about your job?
What is the easiest thing about your job?
Do you regret your career choice? Would you like to change
it?
Do you tend to get stressed at work or are you more relaxed?
What industry do you work in?
Do you ever want to quit your job and travel the world?
Either or questions about work
Do you prefer to move about at work or stay at a desk?
Do you prefer to work in the morning or the afternoon?
Do you prefer to be managed or work alone?
Do you prefer to travel for work or stay in your own country?
Do you prefer to work in a small team or a big team?
Do you prefer to wear smart clothes to work or casual clothes
to work?
Questions about work in the past tense
Tell me about the worst boss you’ve ever had?
Tell me about the best boss you’ve ever had?
When was the last time you took a sick day?
What was the last job interview you had for? How did it go?
How many job interviews have you had?
What was your worst interview?
Who is the best person you’ve ever worked with? Do you miss
them? Do you still talk to them?
What did you do in work yesterday?
When has been the busiest you’ve ever been in work?
When has been the most stressed you’ve ever been in work?
Questions about work using the conditional tense
If you could do any job in the world what would you do?
If you could work in any country in the world where would you
work?
If you could have any boss in the world who would you want to
have as your boss?
If you could work in any industry, which industry would you like
to work in?
If you could change one thing about your job what would it be?
If you could fire anyone in your office is there anyone you
would want to fire?
Questions about education in general
What are you studying?
What is your favourite subject?
What is your least favourite subject?
Who is your favourite teacher?
Who is your least favourite teacher?
Tell me about your school day.
What time do you start and finish school?
Do you have many exams?
Do you have much coursework?
Do you like homework?
Do you study languages at school? If so then which ones?
How do you get to school?
What do you think of private schools?
What type of school do you go to?
How many students are in your class?
How many students are in your year group?
How many teachers do you have?
How long do you usually have for break and lunch time?
What are your parents thoughts on the importance of
education?
Are you on any sports teams at school?
Does your school specialise in any subject in particular?
How many weeks do you get off for holidays?
Do you do any after school clubs?
Do you have any famous alumni from your school?
Either or questions about education
Do you prefer coursework or exams?
Do you prefer to study alone or in a group?
Do you prefer words based subjects or number based
subjects?
Do you do your homework straight away or do you leave it
until the last minute?
Do you prefer to take the bus or walk to school?
Do you find exams stressful or easy?
Do you prefer to ask the teachers questions or work things out
for yourself?
Do you prefer mixed schools or same sex schools?
Do you prefer lectures or seminars?
Do you prefer large class sizes or small class sizes?
Do you prefer private schools or state schools?
Do you parents help you with your homework or let you do it
yourself?
Questions about education using the past tense
Have you ever had a detention?
What was the last detention you had for?
What was the last exams you had?
When was the last time you did something in school that you
were proud of?
What was the last exam you took? How did it go?
What did you study yesterday in school?
When was the last time you had PE? What sport did you do?
Questions about education using the conditional
tense
If could study any subject in the world what would you like to
study?
If you could be good at any subject in the world what would
you be good at?
If you could study any foreign language which language would
you like to study?
Would you like to go to a private school?
Would you like to go to university?
If you could study in any country in the world where would you
like to study?
Realistic questions
If you could have any job in the world what would it be?
What are you career goals?
What are your educational goals?
What are your personal goals?
What are your relationship goals?
Where would you like to live?
How many children would you like to have?
What would you like to do when you’re older?
What countries would you like to visit?
What pets would you like?
What would you like to study?
Describe your dream house?
What goals do you currently have in your career or education?
Would you like to design and build your own house or would
you rather buy one already made?
If you were rich would you like to choose your own clothes or
would you like to hire a personal shopper to dress you?
What languages would you like to learn?
What kind of car would you like to have?
Would you like to win the lottery or would you rather earn your
money?
What is the biggest goal you have in your life?
Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
What does a goal mean to you?
what goals have you managed to achieve in your life?
Are there any goals you feel you have failed or given up on? If
so then why?
Which type of goals do you think are the most important?
Financial, educational, work or personal? And why?
What financial goals do you have?
How are you planning financially for your future?
By when would you like to retire?
How would you define a goal?
Do you think there is any difference between a goal and a
dream? If so what is the difference?
How do you think people can go about finding out what their
goals are?
How do you think people can go about achieving their goals?
If you had to write a bucket list of all the things you wanted to
do before you died what would be on the bucket list?
Questions you can ask someone to help them
realise what their goals are
Work
What do you like doing in your free time?
When you’re in work and you imagine yourself doing
something else, what is it that you’re imagining?
Do you prefer to work alone or in a team?
Do you prefer to receive instruction from someone or to do
your own thing?
Do you like to work with your hands or do you prefer using
computers?
Do you think of yourself as more of a logical person or as a
creative person?
Are you a morning person or an evening person?
What kind of management style do you prefer?
Are you someone who seeks praise from others or feels praise
from yourself when you know you’ve done a good job?
Relationships
Do you prefer to be single or in a relationship?
What kind of qualities do you think are important in a partner?
When you are in a relationship do you like to do everything
with that person or do you prefer to spend more time by
yourself?
Do you want to have children? If so how many?
How would you feel if your partner didn’t want to have
children?
If your partner had to move to a foreign country for work would
you consider going with them?
Do you see yourself getting married some day or do you not
believe in marriage?
Financial goals
What does being financially secure mean to you?
How important do you think it is to be financially secure?
How important do you think it is to save for a pension?
Would you like to own your own house or are you happy
renting a house?
Could you see yourself investing in stocks and shares or
would you prefer to save your money in a bank account?
How do you feel about having a passive income?
How would you go about achieving a passive income?
When do you think you should start saving for your future?
Do you think it’s ever too early or too late to start saving
money?
What would you spend your rainy day fund on?
How much money do you think people should have in their
rainy day fund?
What does being financially independent mean to you?
Fantasy questions
Maybe these ESL conversation questions don’t count as hopes and
dreams, but it’s always fun to add a little fantasy to a language exchange.
What would you do with $1,000,000?
Would you prefer to be rich or famous?
If you could live anywhere in the world where would you like to
live?
Would you prefer to make a difference in the world or would
you prefer to be adored?
Would you rather have a unicorn or a dragon?
Would you rather fight a troll or an ogre?
Would you rather be able to fly or have super strength?
If you could solve one problem in the world what would you
like to solve?
Would you rather be a prince/princess or a knight?
English Technology Questions
What has been the most useful technological advance in the
past 100 years?
What has been the biggest technological change in your
lifetime?
Which piece of technology do you find most useful in your day
to day life?
How will technology help to make our lives easier in the next
ten years?
If you had to give up all technology from your life apart from
one thing, what would you choose to keep?
If you could upload your memories to the cloud, would you?
What jobs will be lost due to technological advances?
Do you think there are any jobs that could never be replaced
by robotics?
What are some of the disadvantages of computers and the
internet?
What are some of the advantages of mobile phones?
Do you think young people spend too much time on their
phones and in the house compared to earlier generations?
Could technology be causing a rise in obesity? If so how? And
how can we combat that?
English Robots and AI Questions
Do you think robots will cause the loss of jobs?
Do you think robots and machines have caused the loss of
jobs?
How do you feel about robots that look like humans?
Do you think there could be any problems with developing AI?
Would you trust a self driving car or self driving bus?
Do you think one day robots will be able to perform surgery
better than humans?
Do you think AI will ever be advanced enough that the robots
will be able to think and feel for themselves?
English Space Questions
If you had the opportunity to travel into space would you?
Do you think space travel will ever be available commercially?
Do you believe that there is life in our solar system?
Do you believe that there is life in the universe?
Do you think people will be able to inhabit and populate Mars?
If you had the opportunity to go to Mars, would you go?
Do you think space travel will ever be commercially viable?
What is it that makes space travel so expensive currently?
English Time travel Questions
Do you think time travel will ever be possible?
Do you think travelling back in time could have negative
effects on the future?
If you could travel to any stage in time where would you go?
What are some of the benefits of being able to travel in time?
If you could travel forward in time to see how you died, would
you do it or would you rather not know?
What are some of the risks of time travel?
English Medicine Questions
Do you think one day we will be able to cure cancer?
Do you think one day we will be able to merge two sperms, or
two eggs to form a baby? Or do you think we will necessarily
need an egg and a sperm?
What has been the biggest medicinal advance?
Do you think people should be allowed to choose the sex or
race of their baby before it’s born?
Do you think people should be able to choose physical
characteristics of their baby before it’s born, such as eye and
hair colour, or height?
Do you think we will ever have technology that allows us to live
forever?
Do you think we will ever have technology to stop ourselves
from aging?
Do you think medicine will ever be able to extend a woman’s
fertility indefinitely?
If you could choose any disease to cure which would it be and
why?
Do you think it’s fair that some countries have better access to
medicinal advances than other countries? How can we fix
this?
English Animals Questions
Do you think we should be able to clone animals?
Do you think we should bring back animals like dinosaurs and
the wooly mammoth?
Do you think we should interbreed animals such a the liger
(lion + tiger)?
If you could bring your pet back from the dead would you?
English Food Questions
Do you think we have sufficient technology to end world
hunger? If so, why haven’t we done it yet?
Would you eat GMO meat or vegetables?
What issues do you think there are with GMO meat and
vegetables?
Would you eat meat that was grown in a laboratory and didn’t
come from an animal?
What do you think the future of farming looks like?
How will robots and machinery be able to help farming in the
future?
English Gaming Questions
How do you see the world of gaming changing with advanced
in technology?
Do you think one day it will be possible for us all to play in a
virtual reality like in ready player one?
Do you think the world of gaming will move completely online
and people will no longer play single player games?
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