Email

Email is still a major part of work and daily life, so students usually have plenty to talk about. These questions cover everything from email habits and etiquette to spam, organization, and how email compares to newer forms of communication.

Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.

Beginner (A1-A2)

1. How often do you send emails? What kinds of emails do you send most?
2. How many email accounts do you have? What do you use each one for?
3. What email provider do you use? What do you like about it?
4. How much of the email you receive is spam? What kinds of spam do you get most?
5. Who do you email the most? What do you usually write to them about?
6. What is the most annoying type of email you get? How often do you get them?
7. How many emails do you get in a day? What kinds?
8. How many unread emails do you have right now? Do you try to read them all?
9. What is the first email address you ever had? Do you still use it?
10. Do you get emails from stores or restaurants? What kinds of things do they send you?
11. Do you read all the emails you receive or do you skip some? What do you skip?
12. What kinds of emails make you happy when you see them in your inbox?
13. What do you do when you get an email from someone you don’t know?

Elementary (A2)

1. Have you hand-written a letter and sent it to someone? If no, why not? If yes, how often do you send letters and to whom?
2. Have you ever pressed “send” and then wished you hadn’t? What happened?
3. What was the best or worst email you have ever received? What did it say and how did it make you feel?
4. Have you ever gotten a computer virus from email? What happened and how did you fix it?
5. What time of day do you usually check your email? Why?
6. Do you check your email on your phone or on a computer? What’s good about each?
7. Do you write emails in English or in your first language? Why?
8. What’s the funniest email typo or autocorrect mistake you’ve ever sent?
9. Have you ever ignored an email and regretted it later? What happened?
10. What kinds of emails do you usually delete right away? Why?
11. Do you unsubscribe from mailing lists or just let them fill your inbox? Why?
12. Have you ever waited a long time for an important email? How did it feel?
13. What is the longest email you have ever written? Why was it so long?

Intermediate (B1)

1. If you could secretly view anyone’s email, whose email would you spy on? Why would you choose that person?
2. What can happen if someone steals your email password?
3. Do you prefer to send long emails or short emails? Why?
4. Do you prefer sending emails or using messaging apps like WhatsApp? Why?
5. Should companies be allowed to read their employees’ work emails? Why or why not?
6. What makes an email sound professional versus casual? Give me some examples.
7. If you could automatically block one type of email forever, what would it be? Why would you choose that one?
8. Do you think it is rude to take a long time to reply to an email? How long is too long?
9. What is the biggest mistake someone can make when writing a work email? Have you ever seen it happen?
10. If you accidentally received someone else’s private email, would you read it or delete it? Why?
11. Should there be laws against sending spam emails? What should the punishment be?
12. Do you think email will still be popular in 20 years, or will something replace it? What do you think will change?
13. What can you tell about a person from the way they write their emails? Give me some examples.

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. How has the way people use email changed over the past 10 years? What caused these changes?
2. How does the way people write emails differ from how they talk in person? Give me some examples.
3. How does the tone of email communication differ across cultures? What misunderstandings can this cause?
4. How is writing an email to a boss different from writing an email to a friend? What specific things change?
5. Some people check email constantly throughout the day, while others only check it once or twice. What are the trade-offs of each approach?
6. How do phishing emails and scams affect people’s trust in email as a communication tool?
7. How do companies use email marketing to influence consumer behavior? What techniques are most effective?
8. What impact does email overload have on people’s productivity and stress levels? How do people try to manage it?
9. What role does email play in modern dating and relationships? How has this changed over time?
10. Email leaves a permanent written record that can be searched, forwarded, and used as evidence. How does this permanence change the way people communicate compared to conversations that disappear?
11. Why has email persisted as a dominant form of communication despite the rise of messaging apps, social media, and other technologies? What unique role does it serve?

Advanced (C1)

1. Email was supposed to make communication faster and easier, but many people now say it creates more stress than it solves. How did a tool meant to help us end up overwhelming us?
2. When someone writes a formal email, they often sound completely different from how they speak. What does this gap between written and spoken identity reveal about how we perform professionalism?
3. Some workplaces have introduced ‘no email’ days or after-hours email bans. What tensions between productivity, worker well-being, and company culture do these policies expose?
4. Governments and companies can monitor email communications for security purposes, but this raises concerns about privacy. Where should the line be drawn, and who gets to decide?
5. People in positions of power often set the email culture at a company – late-night emails from a boss can create pressure even without a direct demand. How does email reinforce or challenge power dynamics in the workplace?
6. Many important decisions are now made through email chains rather than in-person meetings. How does this shift change who has influence, how ideas are evaluated, and what kinds of voices get heard?
7. AI tools can now write, summarize, and reply to emails for us. If most of our emails are written by AI, what happens to the personal connection that written communication is supposed to carry?
8. What does the phenomenon of ’email overload’ or ‘inbox zero’ culture reveal about modern attitudes toward work, productivity, and control?
9. People often spend a long time carefully choosing every word in an important email, but face-to-face conversations happen naturally without drafting and editing. How does the ability to revise what we say before sending it change the way we communicate, and are we losing something by never being spontaneous?
10. When someone doesn’t respond to an email, the sender is left guessing why – maybe they’re busy, maybe they’re angry, or maybe they never saw it. How does this uncertainty affect relationships, and why do people often assume the worst when they don’t get a reply?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions