These ESL conversation topics are twelve lesson topics of 20 open questions, from food and travel to technology and kindness. Every topic has questions for A1 to A2, B1 to B2 and C1, so a mixed class can share one.
Read the full guide
Pick the lesson topic, then the level
Press Lesson topic and choose a unit: Food and cooking, say, or Travel and vacations. Under CEFR: A1-A2, B1-B2, C1, Easy is A1 to A2, Medium is B1 to B2 and Hard is C1. In Shopping, A2 learners get which stores do you go to every week, and C1 learners get what do you wish you had not been talked into buying.
Kindness, for a lesson on compassion
Kindness and helping others (compassion) is for teachers who want compassion ESL conversation topics: who helps you when you have a problem? In pair work, one learner reads the card, the partner answers in full sentences and Show follow-up gives the next question.
Tips
Levels are an editor's mapping to the Core Inventory grammar list, not a test result; a coursebook may differ.
When a round of 12 ends, Print these gives the topic as slips for pairs, each with its follow-up.
Questions and answers
What are good ESL conversation topics for beginners?
Topics close to daily life: Family and friends, Food and cooking, Daily routines and Shopping. Press Easy for the A1 to A2 questions, which need forms such as the present simple, the past simple or going to: what are you going to buy this week?
Which conversation questions suit advanced learners?
Any topic on Hard. Each has four C1 questions that need a form such as inversion, a mixed conditional, a past modal, a regret with wish or the future perfect: had smartphones never been invented, how would your daily life be different now?
How are the questions graded?
By the grammar a natural answer needs, following the British Council and EAQUALS Core Inventory: the past simple at A1 to A2, the second conditional at B1, wish at B2 and inversion at C1. It is an editor's mapping, not a test.
Which subjects are left out?
A learner's body, pay, politics and religion, and any real person. The twelve topics are everyday ones: family, food, home, routines, work, free time, travel, shopping, weather, technology, nature and kindness.
Had you grown up in a different family, how might you be different today?Follow-up: Which of your habits would have stayed the same?
How has your circle of friends changed in the last five years?Follow-up: What caused the biggest change?
How many cousins do you have, and where do they live?Follow-up: Which cousin do you see most often?
If you could spend tomorrow with any relative, who would it be?Follow-up: Where would you take that relative?
Looking back, what ought you to have thanked a friend for?Follow-up: How might you still thank that friend?
Seldom do friendships last for decades. What might have ended one of yours?Follow-up: What has kept it going instead?
What did an older relative tell you that you did not believe at the time?Follow-up: Who told you, and what exactly did they say?
What did your grandparents use to tell you when you were small?Follow-up: Which of their words do you still use yourself?
What do you wish your family had written down before it was forgotten?Follow-up: What do you think the record would have shown?
What family tradition was passed down to you?Follow-up: Who is it going to be passed on to?
What qualities must a person have to be a close friend of yours?Follow-up: Which quality matters least to you?
What were you and your family doing this time last year?Follow-up: How has family life changed since then?
Where did you and your closest friend first speak to each other?Follow-up: What do the two of you usually do together?
Which friend have you known the longest, and how have you stayed in touch?Follow-up: What has kept the friendship going?
Which relative are you going to see next?Follow-up: What are you going to do together?
Which relative did you visit most recently, and how did you get there?Follow-up: How many days did the visit last?
Who do you phone most often, and what do you talk about?Follow-up: What was the last good news you shared?
Who in your family cooks the most?Follow-up: What does that person cook best?
Who is taller, older or louder: you or your closest friend?Follow-up: In what other ways are you two different?
Who is the oldest person in your family, and what is he or she like?Follow-up: What does he or she like doing?
Food and cooking 20
Had you been taught to cook earlier, what would be different about your meals now?Follow-up: What would you be cooking this week?
How is your favorite dish prepared, step by step?Follow-up: Which step must not be rushed?
How might people's eating habits change in the next twenty years?Follow-up: Which of those changes would you be glad to see?
If you ran a food stall for one day, what would you sell?Follow-up: What would you call the stall?
What are you going to cook or order on the weekend?Follow-up: Who is going to eat with you?
What did you eat yesterday evening, and where did you eat it?Follow-up: Who prepared that meal?
What do you like eating when you are tired?Follow-up: How long does it take to make?
What food from your country should a visitor try first?Follow-up: What is that food made of?
What is always in your kitchen, and what is never there?Follow-up: What are you going to make with it?
What will you have eaten by the end of this week that you had planned to avoid?Follow-up: How will you explain it to yourself?
What would you have cooked last night if you had had more time?Follow-up: Who would you have invited?
Which dish can you make with your eyes almost closed?Follow-up: Who taught you to cook it?
Which dish did people use to make in your family that nobody makes now?Follow-up: Who used to make it?
Which dish is said to be easy but is in fact hard to make well?Follow-up: What is usually done wrong?
Which food do you wish you had appreciated while you could still get it?Follow-up: How might you have learned to make it yourself?
Which fruit and vegetables do you buy every week?Follow-up: How much of each do you buy?
Which is tastier in your opinion: food at home or food in a restaurant?Follow-up: What is the best dish you eat at home?
Which local food is sent from your region to other places?Follow-up: How is it usually served?
Which meal that someone once made for you do you still remember?Follow-up: What did they say when they served it?
Which recipe have you been attempting for a long time without success?Follow-up: What keeps going wrong with it?
Home and hometown 20
Had your family settled in another town, where would you be living now?Follow-up: What would you have missed about your real hometown?
How has your neighborhood changed since you moved in?Follow-up: Which change do you like least?
How is your home likely to have changed by the time you retire?Follow-up: What will you have had repaired or replaced by then?
If you could move your home to any place, where would you put it?Follow-up: What would you see from the front door?
Rarely is a hometown valued until we leave. What should you have valued more in yours?Follow-up: What would you tell someone about to leave theirs?
What are you going to change in your home this year?Follow-up: What do you need to buy for the change?
What do people from other regions say about your hometown?Follow-up: How true is what they say?
What do you wish had never been knocked down or closed in your town?Follow-up: What might it have become?
What is on the walls of your living room or bedroom?Follow-up: Which of those things did you choose?
What is the best month to visit your hometown?Follow-up: What can a visitor do there then?
What is there near your home: stores, a park, a station?Follow-up: Which of them do you use most?
What was being built in your town when you were growing up?Follow-up: What is that building used for now?
What was your street like when you were seven or eight?Follow-up: What was there that is gone now?
What would a visitor have to see in your hometown, and what could they skip?Follow-up: How long would the visit take?
When did you move into your home, and who helped you?Follow-up: Where was your home before that?
Where did you use to play as a child, and what is there today?Follow-up: Who used to play there with you?
Which building in your town must have an interesting history?Follow-up: What do you think happened there?
Which is quieter: your street in the morning or your street at night?Follow-up: What makes the noise?
Which part of your town will probably be busier ten years from now?Follow-up: What might be built there?
Which room in your home is the busiest in the evening?Follow-up: What furniture is in that room?
Daily routines 20
How has your daily routine changed in the last two years?Follow-up: What caused the change in routine?
How long does your journey to work or class take?Follow-up: What do you do during the journey?
How often do you cook, clean and shop in a week?Follow-up: Which of the three do you like least?
If you had built better habits ten years ago, what would your mornings be like now?Follow-up: Which habit would have mattered most?
If your working day were two hours shorter, how would you use the time?Follow-up: Which task would you drop first?
Think of a morning that went wrong. What should you have done differently?Follow-up: What would the day have been like if you had?
What are you doing after this lesson?Follow-up: Who are you meeting later?
What are you due to start, stop or change in your routine soon?Follow-up: What is likely to get in the way?
What did you do yesterday between waking up and lunch?Follow-up: What was the best part of the morning?
What did you use to do every morning that you no longer do?Follow-up: Why did you stop doing it?
What do you always do before you go to bed?Follow-up: What time do you usually fall asleep?
What do you have to do every day, and what do you like to do?Follow-up: Which takes more of your time?
What have you been doing more of lately?Follow-up: When did that start?
What time do you get up on workdays, and what do you do first?Follow-up: What do you do after that first thing?
What were you listening to, watching or reading at ten o'clock last night?Follow-up: What had you just finished?
What will you be in the middle of at noon next Monday?Follow-up: What will you have finished by then?
What would your day be like if you had no phone and no clock?Follow-up: How would you know when to eat?
Which day of your week is the busiest?Follow-up: What makes that day so busy?
Which part of your daily routine do you wish were shorter?Follow-up: What have you tried so far?
Which routine ought you to have kept when a big change came into your life?Follow-up: What became of that routine in the end?
Work and study 20
Had you known then what you know now, which course or job would you have turned down?Follow-up: What would you have taken up instead?
How did you feel on your first morning at your workplace or school?Follow-up: Who did you meet on that day?
How long have you been working or studying where you are now?Follow-up: What have you learned in that time?
If you were the manager or the principal for a month, what would you change?Follow-up: How would people react to the change?
What are you practicing in English this week?Follow-up: Why are you practicing it?
What could you not do two years ago that you can do well now?Follow-up: Who or what helped you most?
What do you like about your job or your course?Follow-up: What do you not like about it?
What do you wish you had been taught before you started working?Follow-up: Who could have taught you that?
What is the most useful thing a teacher or manager has said to you?Follow-up: How did you use what they said?
What job did you use to think was easy until you saw it up close?Follow-up: What surprised you about that job?
What should a new student or a new colleague do in the first week?Follow-up: What should they avoid doing?
What skills will probably be needed in your field in ten years?Follow-up: How are you preparing for that?
What were you told on your first day that turned out to be wrong?Follow-up: Who told you that?
What would you have studied if you had chosen differently?Follow-up: Where might that have taken you?
Where do you work or study, and how many people are there?Follow-up: Who do you sit or work next to?
Where is your career or course of study likely to have taken you in ten years?Follow-up: What will you have had to give up on the way?
Which is harder for you: speaking in a meeting or writing an email?Follow-up: What makes it harder?
Which kind of work would you never take on, however interesting the project?Follow-up: What might make you think again?
Which lessons were easy for you as a child, and which were difficult?Follow-up: Who was your teacher then?
Which task do you keep putting off, and why?Follow-up: What will happen if you put it off again?
Free time and hobbies 20
By this time next year, what will you have tried for the first time?Follow-up: What are you likely to have dropped by then?
Had you practiced one skill every day for ten years, what could you do now?Follow-up: What stopped you from practicing?
How has the way you spend your evenings changed over the years?Follow-up: What do you miss from before?
How often do you read, and what do you read?Follow-up: Where do you like to read?
If you had a free month and no duties, how would you fill it?Follow-up: Where would you spend that month?
What are you planning to do on your next day off?Follow-up: Who is going to join you?
What did you love doing when you were ten years old?Follow-up: How often do you do it now?
What did you use to collect, play or make as a teenager?Follow-up: What happened to it all?
What do you do when you have two free hours and no plans?Follow-up: Who do you spend those hours with?
What hobby do you want to start?Follow-up: What do you need to start that hobby?
What hobby have you been meaning to take up for years?Follow-up: What has kept you from starting?
What is a game or sport that is played differently in your country?Follow-up: How are the rules explained to beginners?
What is thought to be a waste of time but has been well worth yours?Follow-up: How would you defend it to a critic?
What might you take up when you have more time?Follow-up: What would you have to give up for it?
What was the last movie, game or concert you went to?Follow-up: Who went along with you?
What would you have become good at if you had started as a child?Follow-up: Who might have taught you?
Which hobby is harder than it looks, in your experience?Follow-up: What must a beginner get right first?
Which is more relaxing for you: music, a walk or a nap?Follow-up: When do you usually do it?
Which pastime do you wish you had never given up?Follow-up: What would it take to pick it back up?
Which sports or games can you play?Follow-up: How well can you play them?
Travel and vacations 20
Had you missed that train, flight or bus, how would the trip have turned out?Follow-up: What would you have ended up seeing instead?
How did you travel on your most recent journey out of town?Follow-up: How long did the journey take?
How do you like to travel: by train, by car, by plane or on foot?Follow-up: Which of those is the slowest?
If a free ticket arrived today, which destination would you choose?Follow-up: What would you do there before lunch?
On which journey were you shown something you could never have pictured beforehand?Follow-up: How did you describe it to people at home?
What did the last traveler you spoke to tell you about their trip?Follow-up: What did you ask that traveler?
What do you always pack first?Follow-up: What do you often forget to pack?
What do you usually buy or bring home from a trip?Follow-up: Who do you give it to?
What had you expected before your first trip far from home?Follow-up: How was the real place different?
What would you have done differently on your last trip?Follow-up: What would you do exactly the same again?
When did rain, heat or snow change your vacation plans?Follow-up: What did you do on the worst day?
Where are you going on your next vacation?Follow-up: Who are you going with?
Where might you be traveling in five years' time?Follow-up: What will you need to have learned by then?
Where will tourists no longer be allowed to go in fifty years, do you think?Follow-up: What will have been lost or saved by then?
Which do you like more: the sea, the mountains or a city?Follow-up: What do you do when you are there?
Which journey of yours has gone wrong in the most interesting way?Follow-up: What were you doing when it got difficult?
Which place has been changed most by tourism, in your view?Follow-up: How could that place be protected?
Which town or country have you been back to several times?Follow-up: What did you do there the second time?
Which travel habit of yours has changed since you were younger?Follow-up: What did you use to do instead?
Which trip do you wish you had taken when you had the chance?Follow-up: What held you back at the time?
Shopping 20
Had online stores never been invented, how would your week look different?Follow-up: What would you still be buying in person?
How has the way people shop changed since you were young?Follow-up: What has been lost because of it?
How much fruit, bread and milk do you buy in a week?Follow-up: How many bags do you carry home?
If stores were open only one day a week, how would you plan your shopping?Follow-up: What would you run out of first?
What are you going to buy this week?Follow-up: Where are you going to buy it?
What did a salesperson last say to you, and what did you answer?Follow-up: How helpful was the conversation?
What did you ask your parents to buy when you were a child?Follow-up: What did your parents say?
What did you buy last month that you now use every day?Follow-up: Which store did you find it in?
What do you never buy online?Follow-up: Why do you want to see it first?
What do you wish you had not been talked into buying?Follow-up: What ought the seller to have told you?
What have you bought that you have never used?Follow-up: What made you buy it?
What must be checked before you buy shoes, fruit or furniture?Follow-up: What can you only find out later?
What should a shopper be told before buying a second-hand bike or phone?Follow-up: What might the seller not mention?
What would you have bought last year if you had waited for a better moment?Follow-up: What stopped you from waiting?
Which do you like more: a market, a small shop or a big store?Follow-up: What can you find there?
Which is more useful: a shopping list or a good memory?Follow-up: What do you often forget to buy?
Which item would you never buy without having tried it first?Follow-up: What might have happened the one time you did?
Which product used to be common in stores and has now disappeared?Follow-up: What has replaced that product?
Which shopping habit of yours might be laughed at in fifty years?Follow-up: What will it have been replaced by?
Which stores do you go to every week?Follow-up: What do you buy in those stores?
Weather and seasons 20
Had the weather been different on one important day, how might your life have changed?Follow-up: What would not have happened at all?
How are homes in your country built for the heat, the cold or the rain?Follow-up: What do visitors notice first about them?
How has the weather in your region changed since you were a child?Follow-up: What do older people say about it?
How many seasons does your country have, and when do they start?Follow-up: Which season is the shortest?
If your country had only one season, which should it be?Follow-up: What would people miss most?
What are you going to do when the weather gets warmer?Follow-up: What will you stop wearing?
What do you do at home when a storm keeps you inside?Follow-up: Who is usually inside with you?
What do you wear when it is very cold?Follow-up: What do you drink to get warm?
What have you had to cancel or stop because of the weather?Follow-up: What were you doing when it started?
What is said about the weather in your region that visitors find hard to believe?Follow-up: How is it usually proved to them?
What is the climate where you live likely to be like by the end of the century?Follow-up: What will have had to change by then?
What is the weather like today, and what are you wearing?Follow-up: What was the weather like yesterday?
What must tomorrow's weather be like for your plans to work?Follow-up: What might you do if it is not?
What should you have checked before a sudden change in the weather ruined your plans?Follow-up: What were you in the middle of when it happened?
What used to happen every winter or summer that happens less often now?Follow-up: How do you feel about the change?
What was the weather like on your last birthday?Follow-up: How did you spend that day?
What will people be wearing six months from now where you live?Follow-up: What will have changed in the streets?
What would you have done last weekend if the weather had been perfect?Follow-up: What did you do in the end?
Which is nicer for a walk: a cool morning or a warm evening?Follow-up: Where do you like to walk?
Which season is the longest where you live?Follow-up: What do people do in that season?
Technology 20
Had smartphones never been invented, how would your daily life be different now?Follow-up: What would you have done with all those hours?
How has technology changed the way you learn English?Follow-up: What have you stopped doing because of it?
How often do you send messages, and who do you send them to?Follow-up: What was your last message about?
If the internet stopped for a week, what would you do with your time?Follow-up: What would you be glad to live without?
What can your phone do that you never use?Follow-up: Why do you not need it?
What did people use before cell phones to find their way?Follow-up: How well did that way of finding places work?
What did people use to say about new technology that sounds funny now?Follow-up: What might sound funny in the future?
What do you like watching or reading online?Follow-up: How much time do you spend on it?
What do you wish had been explained to you before you first went online?Follow-up: What might you have avoided?
What should children be taught about using technology?Follow-up: Who ought to teach them?
What was the first screen in your home, and who used it?Follow-up: What could that first one do?
What were you doing the last time a device failed you?Follow-up: How did you solve the problem?
What would you have missed on your last journey if your phone had been at home?Follow-up: Who would you have asked for help?
Which apps or websites are you going to open tonight?Follow-up: How long are you going to spend on them?
Which device do you use most in a day?Follow-up: What do you use that device for?
Which device that you own will have been replaced within five years?Follow-up: What is it likely to be replaced by?
Which invention has been improved most in your lifetime?Follow-up: How was it used when you first saw it?
Which is easier for you: typing or writing by hand?Follow-up: When do you still write by hand?
Which job might be done by machines in twenty years?Follow-up: What will people do instead?
Which piece of technology ought you to have stopped using long ago?Follow-up: What has it quietly taken from you?
Nature and animals 20
Had people never kept animals, how do you imagine our homes and farms today?Follow-up: What would we have had to invent?
How has the countryside near you changed during your life?Follow-up: What used to grow or live there?
If you could protect one place in nature forever, which would it be?Follow-up: What would you forbid there?
What are you going to do outdoors this month?Follow-up: What do you need to take with you?
What did you use to believe about an animal that turned out to be false?Follow-up: Who told you the truth about it?
What grows in the gardens, fields or pots where you live?Follow-up: When do they look their best?
What is the most surprising animal you have ever seen in the wild?Follow-up: What was it doing when you saw it?
What must a person know before keeping a dog, a bird or a fish?Follow-up: What might they regret later?
What pets did you or your neighbors have when you were a child?Follow-up: What were the pets' names?
What will have happened to your favorite landscape by the time today's children are old?Follow-up: What is likely to be done to protect it?
What will probably have disappeared from nature near you in fifty years?Follow-up: What could be done about it now?
What would you have done if you had found a lost animal yesterday?Follow-up: Who would you have called?
Where is the nearest park, river or forest to you?Follow-up: How often do you walk there?
Which animal are you afraid of, and which do you love?Follow-up: Where did you last see one of them?
Which animal is the symbol of your country or region?Follow-up: Where would a visitor find one?
Which animal is treated very differently in different countries?Follow-up: How is that animal treated in yours?
Which animals live near your home?Follow-up: When do you see those animals?
Which common animal ought we all to have been taught more about?Follow-up: What do people get wrong about it?
Which is more beautiful to you: a forest, a desert or the sea?Follow-up: What can you do in a place like that?
Which wild place do you wish you had seen before it changed?Follow-up: What is said to have been there?
Kindness and helping others (compassion) 20
Had someone not helped you at one moment in your life, where might you be now?Follow-up: How have you tried to repay that help?
How do you help at home, at work or in your class?Follow-up: How often do you help like that?
If you had a free day to help others, how would you spend it?Follow-up: Who would you ask to join you?
What are you going to do for someone this week?Follow-up: When are you going to do it?
What can you do for a neighbor who is new or alone?Follow-up: What could you bring or say?
What do you say in your language to thank someone warmly?Follow-up: How would you say it in English?
What might a new neighbor or classmate need that nobody thinks to offer?Follow-up: How could it be offered without embarrassment?
What should be done for people who are new to a town?Follow-up: Who should do it?
What were you taught about kindness as a child?Follow-up: Who taught you, and what did they say?
What will you have done for others by the end of this year that you are not doing now?Follow-up: What is likely to make it difficult?
What would you have done if you had seen someone drop their shopping today?Follow-up: What might have stopped you?
Which act of kindness that you have seen ought to have made the news?Follow-up: How would the story have been told?
Which is easier: asking for help or giving help?Follow-up: Who did you last ask for help?
Which small act of kindness used to be common and is rarer now?Follow-up: Why do you think it has faded?
Which stranger has gone out of their way for you, and what did they do?Follow-up: What were you doing when it happened?
Who did something nice for you recently, and what was it?Follow-up: What did you say to them?
Who has been patient with your English, and how has that helped?Follow-up: How have you helped another learner?
Who helps you when you have a problem?Follow-up: How does that person help you?
Who was kind to you when you were a child?Follow-up: What did that kind person do?
Whom do you wish you had thanked properly?Follow-up: What would you say if you were given the chance?
How this list was compiled
Written for this page by the Game Night Generator editors in October 2026; no question or follow-up is copied from another list. There are twelve lesson topics of 20 open questions, and every topic holds questions at three levels: easy for A1 to A2, medium for B1 to B2 and hard for C1. The level of a question follows the grammar a natural answer needs, as the British Council and EAQUALS Core Inventory for General English lists grammar level by level at https://www.examenglish.com/CEFR/cefr_grammar.htm (read 2026-10-02): for example the present simple, the past simple and going to at A1 to A2, the second and third conditionals and the simple passive at B1, wish, mixed conditionals and relative clauses at B2, and inversion, modals in the past and regrets with wish at C1. Two placings are the editor's own: the list has no entry for used to, and questions about past habits with used to are placed at medium, beside its B2 entry Would expressing habits, in the past; questions that need the future perfect are placed at hard under its C1 entry Futures (revision), although the list first names the future perfect at B2. The levels are an editor's mapping, not the result of a test. Every line was screened: nothing about a learner's body, pay, politics or religion, and no real people or brand names. On 2026-10-02 a script compared every question and follow-up with every other list on this site, including the ESL conversation starters, and lines that repeated one elsewhere were rewritten. Licence: own work