95 get to know you questions to ask anyone

Easy questions for a first meeting (15)

Safe with anyone: a classmate, a new colleague, someone at a party.

1. Where are you from?
2. What do you do?
3. How do you know [the host]?
4. Have you lived here long?
5. What do you do for fun?
6. How was your weekend?
7. Are you working on anything interesting at the moment?
8. What kind of music do you like?
9. Do you have any brothers or sisters?
10. What’s your favourite way to spend a Sunday?
11. Have you travelled anywhere nice recently?
12. What are you reading or watching right now?
13. Are you a morning person or a night person?
14. What’s the best place to eat around here?
15. What made you choose your job or your course?

Questions to ask your friends (15)

For friends you already know, to learn something new about them.

1. What’s a memory of us that always makes you laugh?
2. What’s something you’ve never told me?
3. What would your perfect day look like?
4. Who was your first best friend?
5. What’s the best advice anyone has given you?
6. What are you looking forward to this year?
7. What’s a habit you want to start?
8. What song reminds you of school?
9. If you could live in any city for a year, which would it be?
10. What’s something small that makes you happy?
11. What were you obsessed with as a kid?
12. What’s a skill you’d love to have?
13. Who do you admire, and why?
14. What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve done?
15. What’s one thing you’d change about your daily routine?

Fun and random questions (15)

Light questions that make people laugh and tell stories.

1. What’s the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
2. If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?
3. What’s your most useless talent?
4. What would you name a pet dragon?
5. What’s the worst film you’ve ever seen?
6. If you could have dinner with any famous person, who would it be?
7. What’s your go-to karaoke song?
8. What’s the funniest thing that happened to you this year?
9. What app could you not live without?
10. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
11. What’s the most embarrassing thing on your phone?
12. Which fictional world would you like to live in?
13. What would your superhero name be?
14. What’s the weirdest gift you’ve ever received?
15. If animals could talk, which would be the rudest?

Deep questions to ask (15)

For close friends or long conversations. Share your own answer too.

1. What are you most proud of?
2. What does a good life mean to you?
3. What’s something you believed as a child that you don’t believe now?
4. What are you most afraid of?
5. When do you feel most like yourself?
6. What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever made?
7. Who has changed your life the most?
8. What do you wish more people understood about you?
9. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?
10. What’s a mistake that taught you something important?
11. How do you want people to remember you?
12. What makes a friendship last?
13. What would you tell your younger self?
14. What do you need more of in your life right now?
15. When was the last time you changed your mind about something big?

Questions for colleagues and team-building (15)

Friendly but professional: nothing too personal.

1. How did you get into this field?
2. What does a normal day look like for you?
3. What’s the best project you’ve worked on?
4. What’s your favourite part of the job?
5. What did you want to be when you were a child?
6. What’s one tool or app that saves you time?
7. Do you prefer working from home or in the office?
8. What’s the best thing you learned in your first job?
9. How do you switch off after work?
10. What’s a skill you’re learning at the moment?
11. Who was the best manager you’ve had, and why?
12. What’s something people don’t know about your role?
13. Coffee, tea or neither?
14. What would you do if you weren’t doing this job?
15. What’s your favourite way to celebrate a win?

Questions for students and English classes (10)

Simple grammar, good for A2–B1 speaking practice.

1. What’s your favourite subject, and why?
2. What do you usually do after school or work?
3. What’s your favourite food?
4. Where would you like to travel?
5. What’s your dream job?
6. What do you like doing at the weekend?
7. What’s your favourite season?
8. Who is your favourite person in your family?
9. What’s your favourite film or series?
10. What sport do you like?

Questions for a first date (10)

Curious, not an interview: ask, listen, then share.

1. What’s been the highlight of your week?
2. What are you passionate about?
3. What’s your idea of a perfect weekend?
4. Where’s the best place you’ve ever travelled?
5. What’s something you’re really good at?
6. Are you close to your family?
7. What made you laugh recently?
8. What’s on your bucket list?
9. What’s your favourite thing about where you live?
10. What’s something you’d like to learn this year?

How to follow up (the part most people skip)

A good conversation is one question and then three follow-ups. Listen for a detail in the answer and ask about it.

Useful reactions between questions: “Really?”, “No way!”, “That sounds amazing.”, “I didn’t know that.”, “Same here.” For more, see how to keep a conversation going.

Practise answering: a random question with a timer

Being asked is half the conversation. Press start for a random question from this page, take 5 seconds to think, and answer out loud for 45 seconds. It records you so you can listen back.

A good answer has an answer, a reason and a detail: “What do you do for fun?” → “I play badminton. It’s the only time I don’t look at my phone. We play every Thursday after work.”

Grammar mistakes learners make in these questions

Questions to avoid with people you’ve just met

• Money: “How much do you earn?” or “How much was your house?”
• Age and weight, unless the person brings it up.
• Relationship pressure: “Why aren’t you married?” or “When are you having kids?”
• Religion and politics in a first conversation, especially at work.

More conversation practice

For quick two-choice questions, try this or that questions. For topics by level, see English conversation topics; for the first minutes with a stranger, small talk; and to get the word order right, wh questions.