Questions to Ask People About Themselves

Press Next question for one open question about the other person's life, and Show follow-up to go further.

Questions to Ask People About Themselves

What homemade thing of yours is still in use?

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Who uses it most?

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How it works

These 200 questions to ask people about themselves start with ten easy openers and move through where someone grew up, a normal day, favorites, work, people, things done, opinions and hopes. Nothing asks about dating, health, pay, politics or religion.

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Someone you have just met

Before the first card, press Topic. Ten to start with is ten openers. Fifty for anyone marks the questions to ask people you just met: 50 questions to ask someone without prying, such as which dish do you order every time it is on the menu? Easy keeps to cards like these.

Someone you already know

Good questions to ask someone about themselves follow the answer, so press Show follow-up. Medium suits a colleague or a neighbor: what would your old classmates remember you for? Hard is for an old friend: who changed the course of your life without knowing it?

Tips
  • When a round of 12 ends, Print these turns the topic you picked into slips, each with its follow-up.

Questions and answers

What are 10 questions to ask someone new?

Ten to start with holds them, such as: What brought you to this place today? What do you do with a spare Sunday? What keeps you busy on most days? What would you rather talk about than the weather?

What makes a question about someone's life a good one?

It is open, and only they can answer it: What did you see from the window you looked out of most as a child? What can you do without thinking that once took all your attention? Whose advice do you still hear in your head?

Which questions are too personal for a first meeting?

The Hard cards and People who matter are written for someone you know. No card at any level asks about dating, health, bodies, pay, debts, politics or religion.

Can I print the questions?

Yes. Pick a topic, play a round of 12, then press Print these on the end card for slips with a follow-up on each. Copy the list beside it copies the same questions as text.

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All 200 questions

Ten to start with 10

  • What brought you to this place today? Follow-up: How long did it take you to get here?
  • What did you recommend to someone most recently? Follow-up: How did they like your recommendation?
  • What do people usually ask you about first? Follow-up: What do you wish they asked about?
  • What do you do with a spare Sunday? Follow-up: Who is usually in it with you?
  • What is the best thing that has happened to you since Monday? Follow-up: Who was there when it happened?
  • What is the next treat on your calendar? Follow-up: Who planned that treat?
  • What keeps you busy on most days? Follow-up: Which part of that would you keep if you could drop the rest?
  • What would you rather talk about than the weather? Follow-up: What got you interested in that?
  • Which part of the country, or the world, do you call home? Follow-up: What would I notice first if I went there?
  • Which subject can you not resist joining in on? Follow-up: When did you last get carried away by it?

Where you grew up 24

  • What did moving away, or staying, cost you? Follow-up: What did it give you?
  • What did the grown-ups around you do for a living? Follow-up: Which of their jobs did you picture yourself in?
  • What did weekends look like in your house when you were growing up? Follow-up: Which part of them have you kept?
  • What did you believe about adults that turned out to be wrong? Follow-up: When did you find out the truth?
  • What did you carry in your school bag that had nothing to do with school? Follow-up: Who knew it was in there?
  • What did you collect, trade or hoard as a child? Follow-up: What happened to the collection?
  • What did you do after school when you were about nine? Follow-up: Who did you do that with?
  • What did you get in trouble for more than once? Follow-up: Who usually caught you?
  • What did you see from the window you looked out of most as a child? Follow-up: What would you see from it now?
  • What did you want badly at twelve? Follow-up: How did that turn out?
  • What did your family eat, say or celebrate that your friends' families did not? Follow-up: When did you notice the difference?
  • What games were played in the street or the yard where you grew up? Follow-up: Who made up the rules there?
  • What had wheels in your childhood, and where did it take you? Follow-up: Where did you go on it most often?
  • What kind of place did you grow up in: city, town, village or farm? Follow-up: What was at the end of your street?
  • What part of where you grew up do you carry around without meaning to? Follow-up: When does it show?
  • What was the first job you ever did for money, even a small one? Follow-up: Who gave you that job?
  • What was the first thing you were allowed to do on your own? Follow-up: How far from home did it take you?
  • What was the main meal of the week in your childhood home? Follow-up: Who was at the table for it?
  • What would you change about how you were raised, and what would you keep? Follow-up: Which of those have you already changed in your own life?
  • What would your old classmates remember you for? Follow-up: How much of that is still true?
  • When did you first notice people treating you as the adult in the room? Follow-up: What happened right after?
  • Which store, park or corner from your childhood can you still picture? Follow-up: What did you go there for?
  • Which teacher would recognize you today, and what would they say? Follow-up: What would you tell that teacher now?
  • Who looked out for you when you were small, apart from your parents? Follow-up: What did that person teach you?

A normal day 24

  • What are the first three things you do once the alarm rings? Follow-up: What happens if you skip a step?
  • What do you do differently on the weekend? Follow-up: Which weekend habit would you like on weekdays?
  • What do you do in the last half hour before sleep? Follow-up: What would you like to do instead?
  • What do you do to clear your head? Follow-up: How soon do you feel the difference?
  • What do you do with the middle of the day when it is yours? Follow-up: When did you last have a midday to yourself?
  • What do you listen to while you cook, drive or clean? Follow-up: Who introduced you to it?
  • What do you spend more time on than you would admit? Follow-up: What do you get out of it?
  • What does a day feel like when it has gone well for you? Follow-up: What did you do on the last one?
  • What does a good Tuesday look like for you? Follow-up: What usually gets in its way?
  • What does your breakfast look like on a working day? Follow-up: How different is it on a day off?
  • What interrupts you most often? Follow-up: How do you get back to where you were?
  • What is a habit you built on purpose? Follow-up: What did that habit replace?
  • What is for dinner on a night when nobody wants to cook? Follow-up: Who decides on those nights?
  • What is usually on your desk, counter or workbench? Follow-up: Which thing there gets used least?
  • What is your usual way of getting from home to wherever you spend the day? Follow-up: What do you do with that travel time?
  • What part of looking after a home do you quietly enjoy? Follow-up: What part do you avoid?
  • What part of your day would you not trade with anyone? Follow-up: Which part could someone else have tomorrow?
  • What would you remove from your week if nobody minded? Follow-up: What would you put in the gap?
  • When in the day are you happiest to be left alone, and where are you? Follow-up: What are you usually doing at that hour?
  • Where do you buy your food, and what is always in the basket? Follow-up: What is never in the basket?
  • Which hour of an ordinary day belongs only to you? Follow-up: What do you do with that hour?
  • Which household job do you do first to get it over with? Follow-up: Which one waits until last?
  • Which part of your week looks nothing like it did a year ago? Follow-up: What set that change off?
  • Whose name comes up on your phone most often? Follow-up: What do you two talk about?

Favorites and why 24

  • What bargain or hand-me-down do you use nearly every day? Follow-up: Whose was it before it was yours?
  • What did you love once that you have gone off completely? Follow-up: What put you off it?
  • What do you find yourself humming while you work? Follow-up: Where did you pick that tune up?
  • What is your favorite kind of evening? Follow-up: When did you last have an evening like that?
  • What is your favorite thing to make or do for other people? Follow-up: Who gets it most often?
  • What is your idea of a good breakfast? Follow-up: Who cooks it the way you would?
  • What piece of clothing have you worn out and replaced with the same thing? Follow-up: What is so right about it?
  • What smell do you love that other people do not notice? Follow-up: Where does that smell find you?
  • What would you miss first if you left the town you live in? Follow-up: What would you be glad to leave behind?
  • Where is your spot for a quiet sit-down? Follow-up: What can you see from there?
  • Which animal do you have a soft spot for? Follow-up: When did that soft spot start?
  • Which background noise tells you that you are home? Follow-up: Where do you hear that sound now?
  • Which book has stayed on your shelf through every move? Follow-up: What keeps it there?
  • Which boss, tutor or trainer got the most out of you? Follow-up: What did that person see in you?
  • Which dish do you order every time it is on the menu? Follow-up: Where is it made best?
  • Which favorite of yours did you catch from someone else? Follow-up: What did you give them in return?
  • Which few weeks of the year suit you best? Follow-up: What is the first thing you do when they arrive?
  • Which game, sport or pastime could you happily lose a whole day to? Follow-up: When did you last lose a day to it?
  • Which holiday or yearly occasion do you like most? Follow-up: What do you always do on it?
  • Which movie or series have you seen more times than you can count? Follow-up: Which moment in it never gets old?
  • Which of your favorites would surprise people who know you? Follow-up: Why does it not fit their picture of you?
  • Which place have you returned to again and again? Follow-up: What do you do first when you arrive?
  • Which tradition from your family do you like best? Follow-up: How did it begin, as far as you know?
  • Which year of your life would you call your favorite so far? Follow-up: What made that year stand out?

Work and school 24

  • What can you do without thinking that once took all your attention? Follow-up: When did it stop being hard?
  • What did you study, train in or learn on the job? Follow-up: Which part of it do you still use?
  • What did you think you would become when you were sixteen? Follow-up: How near to that did you land?
  • What do you do for work, study or the main part of your day? Follow-up: How did you come to be doing that?
  • What do you find yourself explaining to people over and over? Follow-up: How do you explain it these days?
  • What do you use every week that no classroom ever covered? Follow-up: Where did you learn it instead?
  • What does doing a good job mean to you? Follow-up: Where did you get that idea?
  • What does nobody realize about the way you spend your working hours? Follow-up: What do they usually assume?
  • What have you walked away from, and how did you know it was time? Follow-up: What did you walk toward?
  • What is a job you did briefly that taught you a lot? Follow-up: Which part of it do you still lean on?
  • What is a normal Monday for you? Follow-up: Which part of Monday do you like?
  • What part of your work or studies would you do for free? Follow-up: What part would nobody do for free?
  • What tool, program or notebook could you not do without? Follow-up: How long have you used it?
  • What was the building like where you first worked or studied? Follow-up: What did it smell or sound like?
  • What work are you proudest of, whether or not anyone saw it? Follow-up: What did that work ask of you?
  • What would you do with your days if work were optional? Follow-up: What would you miss about working?
  • What would you sign up to study if a free year of classes fell in your lap? Follow-up: What would you do with it afterward?
  • What would your colleagues or classmates say you are like to work with? Follow-up: What would you add to their answer?
  • When did you last learn something completely new? Follow-up: How did it feel to be a beginner again?
  • Which job or course changed your direction? Follow-up: What were you heading for before it?
  • Which kind of task do people bring to you first? Follow-up: What kind of problem do you pass along?
  • Which lesson at school made the day worth getting up for? Follow-up: Who taught that subject?
  • Who do you eat lunch with on a working day? Follow-up: What do you talk about over lunch?
  • Who taught you the most about how to work? Follow-up: What was their rule?

People who matter 24

  • What did a grandparent or an older neighbor teach you? Follow-up: How much of their way do you still follow?
  • What do your closest friends have in common? Follow-up: Which of them is the exception?
  • What have you learned about being a good friend the hard way? Follow-up: Who taught you that lesson?
  • Which friend is most unlike you? Follow-up: What do you get from the difference?
  • Which friendship of yours goes back the furthest? Follow-up: What do you two still do the same way?
  • Who can make you laugh with just a look? Follow-up: What were the two of you laughing at last?
  • Who changed the course of your life without knowing it? Follow-up: What would you tell them now?
  • Who did you look up to at fifteen? Follow-up: How do they look to you from here?
  • Who do you call when something goes wrong with the house, the car or the computer? Follow-up: What do you do for them in return?
  • Who do you owe a thank-you that you have not yet given? Follow-up: What is stopping you from giving it?
  • Who do you see most weeks without having to plan it? Follow-up: What do you two get up to?
  • Who do you still hope to impress, whether or not they notice? Follow-up: Who was it ten years ago?
  • Who has known you through the most versions of yourself? Follow-up: Which version do they tease you about?
  • Who has surprised you by staying in your life? Follow-up: What keeps the two of you in touch?
  • Who in your life is easiest to be quiet with? Follow-up: How did that ease come about?
  • Who is someone you admire that few people have heard of? Follow-up: What do they do that you admire?
  • Who is the first to hear when something goes right for you? Follow-up: What did you last tell them?
  • Who knows you best, and what do they know that others miss? Follow-up: How did they find it out?
  • Who lives too far away for your liking? Follow-up: What would you do with a free afternoon together?
  • Who taught you to cook, drive, swim or ride? Follow-up: How patient were they with you?
  • Who took your side when it would have been easier not to? Follow-up: What did that look like in practice?
  • Who would you like to be more like, and in what way? Follow-up: What is one thing they do that you could start?
  • Whose advice do you still hear in your head? Follow-up: When did it last stop you or push you?
  • Whose habits do you catch yourself repeating? Follow-up: Which part of that are you glad of?

Things you have done 23

  • What did you do for someone that they never found out about? Follow-up: What made you keep it to yourself?
  • What did you start too late, or just in time? Follow-up: What would an earlier start have changed?
  • What have you built, planted or repaired that is still standing? Follow-up: How long ago was that?
  • What have you cooked for more people than you had chairs for? Follow-up: How did everyone fit?
  • What have you done once that you would not do twice? Follow-up: What would it take to change your mind?
  • What have you done that changed how you see yourself? Follow-up: What did you think of yourself before?
  • What have you done that your younger self would not believe? Follow-up: What would your younger self say?
  • What have you finished that took longer than a year? Follow-up: What kept you going through the middle?
  • What have you fixed that an expert said was not worth fixing? Follow-up: How long did the fix hold?
  • What have you given up that you once did every day? Follow-up: What do you do with that time now?
  • What have you organized that went better than it should have? Follow-up: What almost sank it?
  • What have you seen with your own eyes that most people only see in pictures? Follow-up: Was it bigger or smaller than you expected?
  • What have you won, even something small or silly? Follow-up: Where is the prize today?
  • What homemade thing of yours is still in use? Follow-up: Who uses it most?
  • What is the best mistake you ever made? Follow-up: What came out of it?
  • What is the bravest thing you have done in an ordinary week? Follow-up: Who had any idea at the time?
  • What is the longest you have ever worked on a single thing? Follow-up: How did you know it was finished?
  • What is the slowest trip you have ever enjoyed? Follow-up: Which stretch of it would you repeat?
  • What leap did you take without knowing where you would land? Follow-up: What would you have lost?
  • When did you last stand up and speak, sing or play for an audience? Follow-up: What do you remember about the minute before?
  • Where have you lived, and which place left the deepest mark? Follow-up: What did you take with you when you left?
  • Which sport, instrument or craft have you tried, even for a week? Follow-up: What made you stop or stay?
  • Which thing you have done should outlast you? Follow-up: Who witnessed it?

Opinions you hold 23

  • What advice do you give that you do not follow? Follow-up: What stops you from taking it?
  • What do people worry about that you have stopped worrying about? Follow-up: How did you stop worrying?
  • What do you believe about work that your parents did not? Follow-up: Who or what changed your view?
  • What do you hold to even when it costs you? Follow-up: When did it last cost you?
  • What do you refuse to hurry? Follow-up: What do you rush that you should not?
  • What do you think children should be allowed to do more of? Follow-up: What did you get to do at their age?
  • What do you think you owe the people around you? Follow-up: What do they owe you?
  • What does a good life look like, in plain words? Follow-up: How close is yours to it?
  • What everyday custom would you happily do away with? Follow-up: What custom would you start instead?
  • What food do you defend that others turn their noses up at? Follow-up: How do you serve it?
  • What have you become less sure about as you got older? Follow-up: What have you become surer about?
  • What is a good reason to break a habit? Follow-up: Which habit of yours is safe for now?
  • What is a small courtesy you think matters a great deal? Follow-up: Who taught you to mind it?
  • What is easier to learn at forty than at fourteen? Follow-up: What did you learn late that you are glad of?
  • What is the right way to spend a day off: plans or no plans? Follow-up: How did your last day off go?
  • What makes a good host? Follow-up: Who do you know who hosts like that?
  • What makes a neighborhood a good one? Follow-up: How does yours measure up?
  • What makes a piece of work good, in your book? Follow-up: What example comes to mind?
  • What makes you want to hear the rest of someone's story? Follow-up: Who tells stories like that?
  • What must a town have before you would settle in it? Follow-up: How does your town do?
  • Which belief of your younger self would start an argument with you today? Follow-up: What did the old you get wrong?
  • Which invention do you think is underrated? Follow-up: What would you do without it?
  • Which is better: an early start or a late night? Follow-up: What are those hours good for?

Hopes and plans 24

  • What are you afraid of running out of time for? Follow-up: What is one step you could take this month?
  • What are you building, even if slowly? Follow-up: What will it look like when it is done?
  • What are you planning for the next free weekend? Follow-up: Who else is in on the plan?
  • What are you saving up, clearing out or getting ready for? Follow-up: When does it happen?
  • What do you hope your home feels like to a visitor? Follow-up: What gives it that feeling today?
  • What do you want to be true about how you treated people? Follow-up: Who would be the judge of that?
  • What do you want to still be curious about when you are old? Follow-up: What keeps the curiosity going?
  • What have you sworn to keep doing, whatever happens? Follow-up: How do you check on it?
  • What invitation are you hoping will come your way? Follow-up: What would you say if it came tomorrow?
  • What is on your list of things to attempt before you are too sensible? Follow-up: What has kept you from it?
  • What place would you like to know as well as a local? Follow-up: How many visits would that need?
  • What skill is next on your list? Follow-up: What is the first lesson?
  • What trip, project or reunion is still only an idea? Follow-up: What would put it on the calendar?
  • What would you attempt if you had more nerve? Follow-up: What is the smallest version of it?
  • What would you do with a year in which nothing was expected of you? Follow-up: What would you be glad to come back to?
  • What would you like people to say about you a decade from now? Follow-up: What are you doing toward it today?
  • What would you like to be doing on your eightieth birthday? Follow-up: Who do you hope is there?
  • What would you like to be in the middle of, five years from now? Follow-up: What happens on its first day?
  • What would you like to celebrate before the year is out? Follow-up: Who would be on the guest list?
  • What would you like to get better at, slowly? Follow-up: Who is already good at it?
  • What would you like to hand on to someone younger? Follow-up: Who have you got in mind?
  • Where would you like to go that you have never been? Follow-up: What would your first morning there hold?
  • Which project is still waiting for its first day? Follow-up: What would the first ten minutes look like?
  • Would you like the next five years to be quieter or busier than the last five? Follow-up: What would have to change for that?
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. Every card is an open question to ask one person about their own life, and each has its own follow-up. The nine topics run from ten easy openers to hopes and plans, and 50 cards that suit a person met an hour ago also carry the set Fifty for anyone. Every line was screened against the site blocklist: nothing about dating or romance, nothing sexual, no alcohol or drugs, nothing about a person's body, health, pay or debts, no politics or religion, no real people and no brand names. Levels are an editor's judgment of how personal a card is, not a measurement: easy for someone just met, medium for someone you know, hard for an old friend. On 2026-10-02 a script compared every question and follow-up with every other list on this site, and lines that repeated one elsewhere were rewritten. Licence: own work