Charlamos- Conversation Starters in Spanish

Learning a new language can be very exciting! You learn new ways to think, and you have the opportunity to connect with new people that you never would have otherwise. In addition, it can also stir up feelings of anxiety and self-doubt, especially when you don’t know what to say. That’s where conversation starters come in to play! Here are some basic conversation starters in Spanish to help you fill space where you want to keep practicing your Spanish.

Here, we’ve divided these conversation starters based on tense. That way, you can focus on the skills and tenses that you’re working on. However, there’s a time and place for everything. Even advanced Spanish speakers can benefit from some simpler phrases!

Present Tense Conversation Starters

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Present tense is, as you would expect, how we describe events in the present. It’s also how we talk about habits, rituals, universal truths and permanent situations.

• ¿Qué te gusta hacer en tu tiempo libre?
  • What do you like to do in your free time?
• ¿Qué comes para el desayuno/el almuerzo/la cena/la merienda?
  • What do you eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack?
• ¿A qué hora te despiertas?
  • What time do you wake up?
• ¿De dónde eres?
  • Where are you from?
• ¿Te gusta viajar?
  • Do you like to travel?
• ¿Has visto alguna película o leído algún libro interesante últimamente? 
  • Have you seen any interesting movies or read any books lately
• ¿Cómo conoces a [nombre]?
  • How do you know [name]?

Past Tense Conversation Starters

In Spanish, there are two main types of verbs to ask questions about the past; the preterit is for completed actions and actions that took place a finite number of times, whereas the imperfect tense describes actions without definite beginnings and/or ends. The imperfect is also used to describe habitual actions in the past. As you read the following conversation starters, can you identify which verbs are in the preterit vs. the imperfect?

• ¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana pasado?
  • What did you do last weekend?
• ¿Cómo eras de nino?
  • What were you like as a kid?
• ¿Dónde asististe la escula? ¿Te gustó tu experiencia allí?
  • Where did you go to school? Did you like your experience there?
• ¿Cómo celebraste tu último cumpleaños?
  • How did you celebrate your last birthday?

Future Tense Conversation Starters

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Fortunately, the future tense in Spanish is often considered one of the simplest. Remember, even if you haven’t learned the future tense yet, you can say “voy a…” from the formula, “ir + a + infinitive” to say “I’m going to…”

• ¿Adónde viajarás para tus próximas vacaciones? 
  • Where will you travel for your next vacation?
• ¿Qué harás manana?
  • What will you do tomorrow?

Conditional Conversation Starters

These questions are for the dreamers. If you want to ask someone, “What would you do if…?” then these questions are for you! Often, these questions can elicit some of the most fun conversations.

• ¿Dónde irías si tuvieras un millón de euros?
  • Where would you go if you had a million euros?
• ¿Dónde vivirías en el mundo?
  • Where would you live in the world?
• ¿Qué aprenderias si tuvieras mucho tiempo libre?
  • What would you learn if you had a lot of free time?
• ¿Con qué celebridad te casarías?
  • Which celebrity would you marry?