Questions to Ask in Spanish Conversation
Questions for a Spanish conversation session with a tutor, exchange partner, or friend, ordered so that each one pushes you into a different tense and a longer answer.
The questions
Open any question for the note
¿Cómo has estado esta semana? (How have you been this week?)
Why ask it
A softer opening than '¿Cómo estás?', which usually gets a one-word reply. The present perfect also invites a short account of the week rather than a status report, so the other person talks first and you get a minute of listening before you have to perform.
¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana? (What did you do this weekend?)
Why ask it
The most reliable preterite drill there is, because the answer is a sequence of finished actions. Listen for how they string events together with 'luego', 'después' and 'al final', which is exactly the connective tissue learners leave out.
¿Qué planes tienes para los próximos días? (What plans do you have for the next few days?)
Why ask it
Pulls in 'ir a' plus infinitive and the present used for scheduled events, which is how Spanish speakers usually talk about the near future rather than the simple future tense taught in class.
¿Cómo llegaste a vivir aquí? (How did you end up living here?)
Why ask it
Everyone has this story and it is long, which is the point: you want answers you cannot finish in five words. It also mixes preterite and imperfect naturally, since the events are finished but the background circumstances are not.
¿Cómo era tu barrio cuando eras pequeño? (What was your neighbourhood like when you were small?)
Why ask it
Almost forces the imperfect, the tense most learners under-use because their textbook introduced it second and never gave them a reason to reach for it. Descriptions of the past are where it lives.
¿Qué sabes cocinar bien, y cómo lo haces? (What can you cook well, and how do you make it?)
Why ask it
Instructions are the easiest extended speech in any language, so this is a gentle way to get a long answer. You also collect ordinary kitchen verbs, which are far more common in daily conversation than the abstract vocabulary on a syllabus.
¿Qué costumbre de aquí todavía te parece rara? (What custom here still seems odd to you?)
Why ask it
Works with anyone who has moved, and it produces opinions rather than facts. Notice whether they hedge with the subjunctive after phrases like 'no creo que', which is the construction you will need for your own opinions.
¿Qué diferencias notas entre esta ciudad y la tuya? (What differences do you notice between this city and yours?)
Why ask it
Comparisons drag in 'más que', 'menos que' and 'tan como' without any of the drill-book feeling. The content is also usually specific enough to give you three follow-up questions for free.
¿Cómo se celebra un cumpleaños en tu familia? (How is a birthday celebrated in your family?)
Why ask it
Uses the impersonal 'se', one of the most common constructions in spoken Spanish and one learners rarely produce. Family answers also tend to be warm and detailed, which keeps a stiff practice session moving.
¿Hay alguna palabra en español que no se pueda traducir bien al inglés? (Is there a Spanish word that does not translate well into English?)
Why ask it
Native speakers enjoy this question and it usually produces a word plus a story about when it is used, which is the only way that kind of vocabulary is learnable. It also gives you something concrete to take away from the session.
¿Qué historia cuenta tu familia siempre? (What story does your family always tell?)
Why ask it
A retold story is polished, so it comes out at natural speed with real narrative structure, which makes it far better listening practice than an improvised answer. Ask for it twice on different days and you will understand more the second time.
¿Qué harías si tuvieras un mes libre? (What would you do if you had a free month?)
Why ask it
The cleanest way into the conditional paired with the past subjunctive, a combination most learners avoid entirely. If you want the pattern yourself, answer the question after they do rather than only asking it.
¿Qué te habría gustado estudiar? (What would you have liked to study?)
Why ask it
Pushes into the past conditional, and the answers tend to be genuinely revealing about a road not taken. Expect a longer pause before the reply, which is a sign you have asked something real rather than a warm-up.
¿Qué es lo que más te ha sorprendido de este año? (What has surprised you most this year?)
Why ask it
The 'lo que' construction is worth hearing repeatedly because it has no tidy English equivalent. Surprise also produces more honest answers than asking what was best, which invites a tidy summary.
¿En qué te equivocaste y qué aprendiste? (What did you get wrong, and what did you learn?)
Why ask it
Only ask once the conversation has warmed up. Reflexive 'equivocarse' is the ordinary way to talk about being mistaken, and hearing it used about something real is what stops you translating from English and saying something clumsier.
¿Qué consejo le darías a alguien que acaba de llegar a tu país? (What advice would you give someone who has just arrived in your country?)
Why ask it
Advice-giving generates commands and subjunctive clauses in the same breath, and the practical content is genuinely useful if you ever travel there. Vague answers usually mean they left long ago.
¿Qué cree la gente de ti que no es verdad? (What do people believe about you that is not true?)
Why ask it
A searching question in any language, so save it for someone you have already spoken with a few times. The answer often reveals a nationality or regional stereotype they are tired of, which no conversation guide would have told you about.
¿Qué te hace reír? (What makes you laugh?)
Why ask it
Humour is the last thing to arrive in a foreign language and the fastest way to sound like a person rather than a textbook. Ask for an example, because the general answer is never as useful as the specific one.
¿Qué cambiarías de tu rutina si pudieras? (What would you change about your routine if you could?)
Why ask it
Combines everyday vocabulary you already have with the conditional, which makes it a good late-session question when you are tired. The answers are also small and concrete rather than grand, which keeps the exchange easy.
¿Qué pregunta te gustaría que te hicieran más a menudo? (What question would you like to be asked more often?)
Why ask it
Hands the session back to them and often produces the best material of the hour. Grammatically it is a useful thing to hear said properly, since the embedded subjunctive after 'te gustaría que' is hard to construct from rules alone.
Running a Spanish Conversation Session
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting Real Practice Out of an Hour
Choose questions by tense, not by topic
If you want the imperfect, ask about childhood. If you want the conditional, ask a hypothetical. Picking four questions that each target a different tense gives an hour more structure than any topic list, and you can reuse them with different partners.
Answer your own question afterwards
Asking is easy; producing the same construction is the hard part. Let them answer first, then say your version using their grammar as a template. That single habit turns listening practice into speaking practice.
Keep a short list of repair phrases ready
Knowing how to say that you did not catch the last part, or to ask them to slow down, is what keeps a conversation from collapsing at the first unfamiliar word. Rehearse three of them until they are automatic.
What Wastes the Session
Stacking questions with one-word answers
Favourite colour, favourite sport, favourite season: each ends in two seconds and leaves you back where you started. One question that produces three minutes of speech is worth twenty that do not.
Switching to English at the first difficulty
Once a session flips to English it rarely flips back. Agreeing in advance that you will describe around unknown words, and only translate as a last resort, is what keeps the hour in Spanish.
Asking searching questions too early
Questions about mistakes, assumptions, or roads not taken work well with a partner you have met a few times and feel intrusive with a stranger. Open with the week and the weekend, and save those for later sessions.