40 Amazing Conversational English Topics To Kick-Start Discussions In English

Would you like to have conversations in English but don’t know what to talk about?

Don’t panic. 

In this post, I’ll share some of the best conversational English topics that you can discuss with native speakers, teachers, or other learners.

Asking and answering questions is key to having an enjoyable conversation in English. So you’ll find some example questions that you can use for each of these conversational English topics.

These will help you practise your conversational skills and connect with others, so you can improve your speaking and learn from other people too.

Let’s check out these 40 conversational English topics!

1. Travel And Tourism

Discussing travel experiences is a great way to practice English. You can describe places, activities, and cultures. You can talk about holidays, places that you’ve visited and would like to visit. And don’t forget to ask for travel recommendations for your next trip!

Questions:

• What's your favourite place that you've travelled to?
• I’d like to go to___________. Have you ever been there?
• What are your top 3 countries that you’d like to visit?

2. Food And Cuisine

We all love food, don’t we? Talking about food is a universal topic and can lead to discussions about cultures and traditions.

Questions:

• What’s your favourite restaurant?
• What’s a typical dish from your country that I should I try?
• In my country, we have a typical dish called________. Have you ever tried it? 

3. Music

There's music you hate, music you love and music you don’t care about. Talk about it. You can learn a lot about someone's personality and interests, and you might even discover some new artists that you’ll love.

Questions:

• Do you like Ed Sheeran? 
• What music do you not like?
• Can you play a musical instrument?

4. Movies And TV Shows

Humans love stories because we think in stories. Movies and TV series tell stories so these make the perfect topic for conversation, especially if you’re a movie enthusiast. TV shows are also worth discussing.

Questions:

• Have you ever watched ________?
• Can you recommend some great TV series?
• Who’s your favorite movie star?

5. Education

Don’t tell me you’ve always liked going to school. This could be a great topic of discussion because you might have some great stories to tell about this topic.

Questions:

• Tell me about your first day in school.
• How many hours of English do students have?
• Did you / do you like going to school?

6. Hobbies

Everyone has a hobby. For example, I love learning languages, as you probably know!. I can talk to you about this for hours and I bet you love discussing your hobbies too.

Questions:

• What do you like to do in your free time?
• What are your hobbies and passions?
• Do you have any hobbies that are unique to your culture?

7. Family

I love my family and I hope you love yours too. Let’s have a conversation about it.

Questions:

• Would you like to start a family one day?
• How big is your family?
• How do you spend time with your family members?

8. Sports

Maybe you’re a football fan or a tennis player. Or maybe you don’t do sport but you like watching it on TV. A friend of mine can talk about his favourite football team all night. Can you do that too?

Questions:

• Are you into sports at all?
• What sports are people crazy about in your country?
• Do you prefer watching sports or doing sports?

9. Technology

Technology is everywhere and we all have our own opinions about it. Some people hate it, some people are addicted to it. This is why technology is a topic that can make anyone talk.

Questions:

• What’s your relationship with technology?
• Will the world be dominated by robots one day?
• What are the disadvantages of technology?

10. Books

We’ve all read at least one book in our life and you don’t need to be an avid reader to discuss books (although here at StoryLearning we're a bunch of book lovers!).

By the way, if you like reading, check out these book recommendations for English learners.

Questions:

• Please give me some book recommendations. 
• Do you ever read books in English?
• What book changed your life?

11. Fashion

I have a friend who dislikes the world of fashion but when he buys a new pair of shoes, he’s always keen to talk about them. So, it doesn’t matter if you don’t follow fashion trends. You can always talk about the clothes you like wearing.

Questions:

• What’s the latest fashion item you bought?
• Do you follow any fashion influencers?
• Who’s your favourite fashion designer?

12. Environment

We should do more to protect our planet. So why not start talking about how we could pollute less?

Questions:

• Do you think you live in a “green” area?
• What do you think of environmental activists like Greta Thunberg?
• How “green” are you?

13. Culture And Customs

Traditions, celebrations, national events, religion, special days. You can talk about culture and customs for hours.

Questions:

• Have you ever experienced culture shock?
• What’s your favourite national holiday?
• How is your culture unique?

14. Career And Work

This is a topic that is relevant to most adult learners of English. You can talk about jobs you’ve done, jobs you wouldn’t like to do, and weird jobs that are unique to your country.

Questions

• Have you ever had a mean boss?
• Is there a job you wouldn’t like to do?
• Is it easy to find a job where you live?

15. Health And Fitness

I bet you care about your health. I care about mine a lot! So let’s have a conversation about what we do to stay healthy. Be careful though. Asking about someone else’s health might not be polite in some cultures.

Questions:

• Do you think diets are useful or not?
• What do you usually eat?
• How much do you exercise?

16. Personal Growth And Development

Personal growth and development is a motivational and inspiring topic. Once I even discovered something new about myself simply by talking about this topic.

Questions:

• What are your life goals?
• What do you do to develop as a person?
• Do you think helping others makes us grow?

17. Teachers

I'm sure you disliked some of the teachers you had but you also have a teacher that has a special place in your heart. Discussing teachers can bring back lovely memories.

Questions:

• Who's the best/worst teacher you've ever had? 
• Would you rather learn from a young teacher or an older teacher?
• Do you think we could learn without teachers?

18. Weekends

People spend their weekends in different ways and weekends are always good topics for conversation. This is especially true at the beginning and end of the working week!

Questions:

• What was the best and worst part of your weekend?
• What's your ideal weekend like?
• How do people spend weekends in your country?

19. News And Current Events

There’s always something newsworthy that you can talk about. I talk about current news events all the time and this is a conversation topic that will never die.

Questions: 

• What's an interesting news story you've recently heard? 
• What topics are often discussed in the news in your country?
• Do you think it’s essential to watch the news every day?

20. Life Experiences

This is a great topic to practice the present perfect in English!

Questions:

• Have you ever seen__________?
• Have you ever eaten______________?
• Have you ever played ______________?

21. Favourite People 

This topic can include any people (celebrities, writers, athletes, singers, etc.).

Questions:

• Who’s your favourite writer?
• Who’s your favourite footballer?
• Who’s your favourite movie director?
• Who’s your least favourite artist?
• Who’s your least favourite chef?

22. Home

A great topic to practise vocabulary for furniture and objects around the house.

Questions:

• Which room is the most important for you in your home?
• What would your ideal house be like?
• Do you prefer to live in a big or a small house?

23. English

Speak in English about English so you can improve your English. It sounds like a slogan, but it’s true!

Questions:

• What’s your favourite English word and why?
• Do you have any English learning strategies?
• What’s your favourite website to learn English?

24. Future

Nobody knows what will happen in the future, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t talk about it. It’s also a great topic to practise future forms.

Questions:

• What life plans do you have for the future?
• Do you think humans will still be around in 1000 years?
• How do you see yourself in 5 years?

25. Would You Rather…?

This is a question that can get anyone to talk. You can make it fun or serious, up to you. Here are some possibilities.

Questions:

• Would you rather travel to the past or the future?
• Would you rather have a dog or a cat?
• Would you rather have more money or more free time?

25. If You Could…?

This is one of my favourite questions. It can be adapted to any topic and it’s especially useful if you want to practise the English conditional tense.

Questions:

• If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
• If you could travel back in time, what era would you visit?
• If you could learn any new skill overnight, what would it be?

26. Friends

A light topic that's useful to practise vocabulary around personality, relationships and activities. You can use it to make new friends too!

Questions:

• Do you make friends easily?
• What do you like doing with your friends?
• What things should friends never do?

27. Apps

I have many apps and I can tell you my top three favourite apps that I like using and why. I’m sure you can do that too. By the way, if you want to learn English with apps, here are the 20 best apps to learn English.

Questions:

• What is your favourite app on your phone and why?
• What is an app that you use frequently, but you feel like not many people know about?
• Have you ever developed your own app? If yes, what was it and if not, what kind of app would you like to develop?

28. Social Media

I have a friend who’s on every social media platform that exists. He would be a great conversation partner for this topic!

Questions:

• How do you use social media in your daily life and which platforms do you use the most?
• What do you think are the positive and negative effects of social media on our society?
• How has social media impacted your personal relationships and connections with others?

29. Personality

We all know what we’re like so we naturally have something to say about our personality. This might be a little hard though because we don’t normally do it, but talking about your own personality can help you discover new things about yourself too.

And it’s the perfect topic to practise advanced English vocabulary to describe characters and personality traits.

Questions:

• How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
• How do you think your personality has changed or evolved over time?
• Are there any aspects of your personality that you would like to change?

30. Emotions

Simply asking “How do you feel today?” might be all you need to have a great conversion. But here are more questions that you could use to talk about emotions.

Questions:

• What is one thing that always makes you feel better when you're feeling sad or stressed?
• How do you deal with difficult emotions like anger or frustration?
• What makes you feel bored?

31. Cities

Once I talked with a friend about what loved about his city and he made me fall in love with it too. I think this is a good reason why we should talk about cities.

Questions:

• What’s your favourite city and why?
• Is your city safe?
• What do you love about your city?

32. Fears

This is a personal topic that can help you make a deeper connection with the person you’re discussing it with.

Questions:

• What is something that scares you, and why do you think you feel that way?
• Have you ever faced a fear and overcome it? How did you do it?
• How do you typically react when you're feeling afraid or anxious?

33. Weather

This is probably one of the most popular conversational English topics. Don’t talk about it for too long though. Some people don’t find it very interesting!

Questions:

• What's your favourite season and why?
• What's your favorite type of weather, and why do you like it?
• Do you prefer sunny or rainy weather, and why?

34. Aliens

This is a controversial topic. A friend of mine always talks about aliens because he believes in them. I’m not sure, but I don’t mind talking about them.

Questions:

• Do you believe in aliens?
• Have you ever seen a UFO?
• What do you think aliens might look like?

35. Jokes

Telling jokes is an art and you might know some jokes in your first language. Can you tell them in English? 

Here’s one: I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder!

Questions:

• Do you have a joke that you always tell people? 
• Have you ever heard a joke that you didn't find funny, but others around you did? 
• What jokes do you not like?

36. Stereotypes

Stereotypes are often based on false assumptions about certain groups of people. If you talk about them, you might discover why these ideas are not correct. This is a topic that can really help you build an open mind.

Questions:

• What is a stereotype that you have heard about your country? 
• Have you ever been a victim of a stereotype?

37. Animals And Pets

This is a topic that anyone who has a pet would love talking about!

Questions:

• Do you have any pets? If not, would you like to have one?
• What's your favorite type of pet?
• Have you ever had a funny or interesting experience with a pet?

38. Art

What do you think of when you think of “art”? A friend of mine can’t think of anything but paintings. But there are many forms of art that you can talk about: music, sculptures, literature, theaters, and many others. Oh, and you don’t need to be an artist to have a conversation about art.

Questions:

• What is your favourite type of art?
• Have you ever created any art yourself?
• What do you think makes art valuable or important in our society?

39. Cars

Not everyone is into cars, but if you meet someone who likes them, you might have a never-ending conversation with them!

Questions:

• What car do you own?
• What’s your favourite type of car?
• Do you like car racing?

40. Childhood

I could spend entire nights telling you about my childhood memories. Is it the same for you?

Questions:

• What is your earliest childhood memory?
• Did you have any favorite childhood toys or games? 
• Did you have any childhood heroes?

Conversational English Topics To Kick-Start Discussions

What do you think of these conversational English topics? Do they make you feel like you want to go out there and have conversations? 

I hope so!

Having conversations in English can open a whole new world of opportunities. 

So, don't be afraid to put yourself out there and start talking. 

The more you talk, the more you will learn, and the more doors will open up for you!

If you need a little bit more help to start speaking, check out these common English phrases to sound more natural when you speak.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.