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.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
¿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.
¿De dónde eres? (Where are you from?)
Why ask it
The standard opener, and it gives you a country plus a region you can ask about next. Place names are where listening usually breaks first, so ask them to spell it rather than nodding along.
¿Trabajas o estudias? (Do you work or study?)
Why ask it
Two verbs in one question, which makes it easy for them to answer briefly and easy for you to follow. It sets up "¿y te gusta?", turning a fact into an opinion and doubling the length of the exchange.
¿Cómo es un día normal para ti? (What is a normal day like for you?)
Why ask it
The answer arrives full of reflexive verbs, me levanto, me ducho, me acuesto, which is the construction learners drop most. Low risk too: nobody minds describing a Tuesday.
¿Qué te gusta hacer en tu tiempo libre? (What do you like to do in your free time?)
Why ask it
The quickest route to a topic you can both sustain. Listen for the infinitive after me gusta, since beginners expect a conjugated verb there and lose the rest of the sentence hunting for it.
¿Cómo es tu familia? (What is your family like?)
Why ask it
Cómo es asks for description, so you get adjectives and relationship vocabulary instead of a number. Household shape varies widely between countries, so ask rather than assume who lives with whom.
¿Cuál es el plato típico de tu ciudad? (What is the typical dish where you are from?)
Why ask it
Asking about a place rather than a preference gets you a dish, its ingredients and often a disagreement about the correct way to make it. Favourite-food questions end after one word; this one rarely does.
¿Qué serie o película en español me recomiendas? (What Spanish-language series or film would you recommend?)
Why ask it
The recommendation comes with their accent and country attached, which matters: a Mexican series and an Argentinian one train your ear very differently. Ask which they think is easiest to follow.
¿A dónde te gustaría viajar y por qué? (Where would you like to travel, and why?)
Why ask it
Conditional practice, gustaría and iría, in the friendliest possible setting. It is also one of the few questions where you both end up hunting for vocabulary together rather than one correcting the other.
¿Qué me recomiendas ver aquí que no salga en las guías? (What should I see here that is not in the guidebooks?)
Why ask it
Locals answer this quite differently from "what should a tourist see", and you usually get a market, a park or a bar instead of a monument. Have somewhere to write it down.
¿Qué es lo que más echas de menos de donde creciste? (What do you miss most about where you grew up?)
Why ask it
Whether they use echar de menos or extrañar tells you the regional preference, which is worth copying. The answers get personal quickly: a grandmother, a smell, one particular street.
¿Qué palabra o expresión se usa mucho donde vives? (What word or expression gets used a lot where you live?)
Why ask it
Regional slang is where textbooks stop helping. Ask them to put it in a sentence and write both down, because an expression heard once without context will not survive the walk home.
¿Hay alguna palabra que yo siempre pronuncio mal? (Is there a word I always pronounce wrong?)
Why ask it
Most native speakers will not correct you unless invited, so this is the invitation. Expect one or two specific sounds, often the r, the ll or a vowel held too long, and ask them to repeat the word so you can copy the second attempt.
¿Qué te costó más cuando empezaste a hablar otro idioma? (What was hardest when you started speaking another language?)
Why ask it
Turning it around makes the difficulty mutual. Anyone who has learned a language will list their own mistakes, which is reassuring and hands you specific things to watch for in your own speech.
¿Qué consejo le darías a alguien que está aprendiendo español? (What advice would you give someone learning Spanish?)
Why ask it
Advice from a daily speaker beats advice from a method, and it tends to be blunt and practical: stop translating in your head, watch this, come and talk to my aunt. Ask what they would do with three months.
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.