Have you been in a situation where you needed to start a conversation, but you didn’t know what to say? Perhaps you were with new friends, at a work party, or waiting for class to start with some fellow classmates. If you need English for your everyday life, then it’s important you get comfortable with starting (and maintaining) conversations.

Because we’re focusing on questions for the rest of this month, and I want you to improve your conversation skills, we’ll be reviewing 3 questions to start a conversation with someone in English.

3 Questions to Start a Conversation in English

1. So how long have you known __(person)__……?

Make a connection to a mutual friend of where you’re at: another colleague, another classmate, the host of the party, etc…

This question uses the present perfect to indicate a time in the past when the relationship started to the present. “How long” is a question for the amount of time.

2. Do you have a favorite restaurant/coffee shop/bar around here?

This is a great question if you’re new in the area and it can definitely lead to even more of a conversation and perhaps a new friend to practice English with!

3. Have you ever been to __(your country/state/city)__?

Sometimes it’s hard to start a conversation because you’re not sure what to say; however, it should be easy to talk about your hometown!

You want to use the present perfect here because you are asking about experience, and if the person has the experience of going to your hometown. You may start a great conversation all about travel and culture!

Practice Makes Perfect

Another important part of maintaining a conversation is asking follow-up questions. Follow-up questions are asked to get additional information about the same initial (first) question.

Can you think of some follow-up questions to add to these conversation starters? Comment them below! Additionally, you can answer these:

1. So, how long have you been following this blog? 🙂
2. Do you have a favorite coffee shop near your house?
3. Have you ever been to California?

I look forward to your responses.

Happy Studying! ♥

Are you ready to finally feel confident and comfortable in your English conversations? Sign up for my monthly training program to learn, practice, and use more natural English and phrasal verbs. The club will review phrasal verbs, pronunciation, and includes various videos, audio files, PDFs, and group conversation calls to start speaking more fluent English. Learn more here: