Friendship

Friendship is one of those topics where everyone has stories to share. These questions range from simple descriptions of best friends to deeper discussions about loyalty, online friendships, and how social connections change over time.

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. Who is your best friend? How long have you known them?
2. Where do you usually meet your friends? (At home, at a cafe, at the park, etc.)
3. How often do you see your friends? (Every day, once a week, once a month, etc.)
4. What is your friend’s favorite thing to do? Do you like doing it too?
5. Do you have a friend in another country? How do you stay in touch?
6. What do you and your friends like to eat or drink together? (Coffee, pizza, snacks, etc.)
7. Do you have more friends at work or outside of work? Why?
8. What do you usually talk about with your friends? (Movies, sports, family, etc.)
9. How many close friends do you have? Is that enough for you?
10. What is something fun you did with a friend recently? Tell me about it.
11. Do your friends live close to you or far away? How do you spend time together?
12. What is something you and your best friend both like? (A sport, a food, a TV show, etc.)

Elementary (A2)

1. Describe your best friend.
2. Are you close friends with anyone who you knew in elementary school? How has that friendship changed over the years?
3. Do you have any friends who would risk their life to save you?
4. How did you meet your best friend? Did you become close right away or did it take time?
5. What do you and your closest friend usually do when you hang out?
6. Who is the funniest person you know? What makes them so funny?
7. What is something nice you did for a friend?
8. What’s the best gift a friend has ever given you? What was it for?
9. Have you ever made a friend online? How did that happen?
10. Have you ever lost touch with a good friend? Why?

Intermediate (B1)

1. Do you prefer to have many friends or just a few that you are close to? Why?
2. What is the biggest thing you have done to help a friend?
3. Would you risk your life to save a friend? How about a stranger? Where do you draw the line?
4. What kind of qualities do you look for in a friend? Which quality is the most important to you and why?
5. What is the best way to make new friends? Do you like making new friends?
6. Do you think sites like Facebook are good for friendships or do they stop people from becoming close?
7. Do you prefer making plans with friends in advance or being spontaneous? Why?
8. Is it easier to make friends now or when you were younger? Why?
9. Do you and your friends like the same kind of music and movies? Why do you think that is?
10. Should friends always tell each other the truth, even when it hurts? Why or why not?
11. Do you think it’s possible to be close friends with someone you’ve never met in person? Why or why not?
12. How do you deal with a friend who always cancels plans? What would you say to them?
13. What do you think is the difference between a close friend and an acquaintance? When does someone become a close friend?
14. If you moved to a new city where you didn’t know anyone, how would you make friends?
15. Have you ever ended a friendship on purpose? What made you decide to do that?
16. Is it better to have one best friend or several good friends? Why do you think so?
17. What’s the biggest sacrifice you would make for a friend? Where would you draw the line?
18. If you could go back in time, would you change anything about how you treated a friend? What would you do differently?

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. What are the benefits of having just a few close friends? How about the benefits of having many friends?
2. Why do people need friends? What can happen if a person has no friends?
3. How has social media changed the way people make and keep friends? What do you think about those changes?
4. How are friendships in your country different from friendships in other countries you’ve seen or heard about?
5. Why do some childhood friendships last a lifetime while others fade away? What factors make the difference?
6. How does the way people make friends change at different stages of life? What makes each stage unique?
7. What role does vulnerability play in forming deep friendships? How comfortable are you with being vulnerable with friends?
8. Compare how people maintained friendships before the internet to how they do it now. What has been gained and what has been lost?
9. How do money and social status affect friendships? Have you seen this play out in real life?
10. Some people say that true friendship is becoming rarer in modern life. Do you agree? What evidence do you see?
11. How do economic pressures and the demands of modern work culture reshape the amount of time and energy people can invest in friendships?
12. How do political and ideological divisions affect personal friendships, and should people try to maintain friendships across those divides?

Advanced (C1)

1. How might the increasing reliance on digital communication simultaneously strengthen and weaken the emotional depth of friendships?
2. To what extent do cultural norms around individualism and collectivism shape what people expect from their friendships?
3. What tensions exist between loyalty to a friend and loyalty to your own values when the two come into conflict?
4. In what ways do power imbalances within friendships mirror larger social hierarchies based on class, education, or status?
5. Why do many people find it harder to form deep friendships as adults, and what does this reveal about how modern societies are structured?
6. To what extent is the idea of a ‘best friend’ a cultural construction, and how does it vary across different societies?
7. How do the expectations placed on friendships today compare to those in previous generations, and what social forces are driving those changes?
8. How has the commercialization of social life through apps and platforms changed what it means to be a friend versus an acquaintance?
9. How does the pressure to always be emotionally available for friends conflict with the need to protect your own mental health, and what does this tension reveal about unspoken rules in modern friendships?
10. In what ways do workplace friendships create conflicts between genuine trust and professional ambition, and how do those dynamics differ from friendships formed outside of work?
11. How does frequently moving or living abroad change what people look for in friendships, and what does this say about the relationship between geographic stability and emotional depth?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions