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Hypothetical questions for impromptu speaking

Hypotheticals free you from having to be right. Superpowers with a catch, a world where one everyday rule is reversed, a job nobody has ever had. The best answers commit to the premise quickly and then explore one consequence in detail instead of listing ten.

Draw one at random150 topics in this category. Press Practice next to any topic to load it into the timer.
  • You wake up able to speak every language, but you forget the one you use most. Do you accept?MediumPractice
  • Imagine you could fly, but only backwards and no faster than a brisk walk. Where do you go first?EasyPractice
  • Invisibility is yours one hour a week, and it must be booked in advance. How do you spend it?MediumPractice
  • Suppose you could pause time, but everyone could see you doing it. Still worth having?MediumPractice
  • Mind reading arrives with a catch: everyone hears your thoughts too. Do you take the deal?MediumPractice
  • A power to always spot a lie comes with never being believed yourself. Yes or no?HardPractice
  • Teleporting is possible, but only to places you have already stood. Where do you land most?EasyPractice
  • Super strength that works only when nobody is watching: describe the day you finally use it.EasyPractice
  • Perfect memory is offered, including every awkward moment you would rather lose. Do you sign?MediumPractice
  • You can speak fluently with one animal species. Which, and what is your first question?EasyPractice
  • Breathing underwater becomes possible for you alone. Walk us through your first afternoon.EasyPractice
  • Any meal can appear on demand, but you may never cook again. Is that a fair trade?MediumPractice
  • Picture growing an entirely new sense. What does it detect, and how does it change your commute?HardPractice
  • A power to mend any broken object, once per object, is yours. What do you fix first?EasyPractice
  • Time travel exists, but you may only watch and never speak. Which day do you visit?MediumPractice
  • One sentence can be sent back to you ten years ago. What does it say?EasyPractice
  • A one-way ticket to any century is offered, with no return trip. Do you take it?HardPractice
  • Reliving one ordinary Tuesday from your past is possible. Which one, and why that one?EasyPractice
  • Suppose you could skip an entire year of your life. Would you, and which year?HardPractice
  • Five minutes of your life twenty years from now are on a screen. Do you look?MediumPractice
  • Attend any moment in history as a fly on the wall. Pick it and tell us what you notice.MediumPractice
  • Rewinding the last hour becomes possible once a month. How does that change the risks you take?HardPractice
  • Borrow an hour from tomorrow to spend today, and tomorrow gets shorter. What do you do with it?EasyPractice
  • Lunch with your ten-year-old self: what do you order, and what do you refuse to explain?EasyPractice
  • Your future self mails a postcard with three words on it. Guess the words and why.MediumPractice
  • A distant relative leaves you a lighthouse you must live in for a year. Do you accept?EasyPractice
  • Someone hands you a case that refills each morning with one item you name. Name it.EasyPractice
  • You inherit a small island with no electricity and a very old library. Describe week one.MediumPractice
  • Someone hands you a key that opens one door in your town. What do you hope it opens?EasyPractice
  • A jar arrives labeled: open only when you are certain. Do you ever open it?HardPractice
  • An envelope holds a ticket leaving in six hours with no destination printed. Do you go?EasyPractice
  • Left to you: a shop selling exactly one thing, and you pick what. Pitch it to us.MediumPractice
  • A box arrives containing a talent you never developed. Which talent do you hope is inside?EasyPractice
  • Each morning a machine prints one honest compliment about you. Would you read them all?EasyPractice
  • One hundred perfect nights of sleep are yours, redeemable any time. When do you spend them?EasyPractice
  • Your neighbor leaves you a garden that grows only foods you have never tasted. Describe the harvest.EasyPractice
  • Your friend leaves an unfinished project in your hands and asks you to complete it. What now?MediumPractice
  • Overnight, everyone must say exactly what they mean. Describe your first meeting at work.MediumPractice
  • Money vanishes and favors become the only currency. How do you get through the week?HardPractice
  • In this world people sleep by day and work by night. What would you miss most?MediumPractice
  • Applause is replaced everywhere by stillness and silence. Would praise feel different?HardPractice
  • Suppose lying became physically impossible for one day worldwide. What happens by noon?HardPractice
  • Everyone can now see how many hours they have given each hobby. What changes?MediumPractice
  • Picture a rule that every meal must be shared with a stranger. Would you like that world?MediumPractice
  • Handwriting replaces typing everywhere, permanently. Argue for it or against it.MediumPractice
  • Clocks disappear tomorrow. How would you decide when to start and stop your day?HardPractice
  • Weather now answers to the mood of the crowd. Describe your town on a Monday morning.EasyPractice
  • Every song you hear is one you have never heard and will never hear again. Better or worse?HardPractice
  • Suppose compliments could only be given in person, never in writing. Would kindness grow?HardPractice
  • Imagine every recipe on Earth vanished and cooking had to be invented again. Where do we start?MediumPractice
  • Running the local library for a day with no budget limits: what is your first change?EasyPractice
  • For one day you set the rules at work. Name three and defend the strangest one.MediumPractice
  • You are put in charge of naming everything in a brand-new town. Where do you begin?MediumPractice
  • Suppose you controlled the soundtrack of your city for a day. What plays at rush hour?EasyPractice
  • As sole judge of a contest for the best sandwich on Earth, explain your criteria.EasyPractice
  • Every screen in your building shows whatever you choose for twenty-four hours. Choose.MediumPractice
  • You lead a school for one day. Which rule goes first, and what replaces it?EasyPractice
  • A stadium microphone is handed to you with no instructions at all. What do you say?MediumPractice
  • Your team has one week to build something completely useless and beautiful. Lead us.MediumPractice
  • Your town elects you Chief of Small Improvements. What is your very first project?EasyPractice
  • Testing hammocks in public parks is now a paid job. Would you take it, and for how long?EasyPractice
  • Hired as a professional apologizer, describe your most difficult client.MediumPractice
  • Someone offers you a job naming new colors. Name the color of a rainy sidewalk.EasyPractice
  • As official taster for a company inventing new fruit, describe today's sample.EasyPractice
  • A museum hires you to explain one painting, and you must invent its whole story.MediumPractice
  • Pitch yourself as the full-time stargazer a cruise ship is hiring.MediumPractice
  • Appointed keeper of one very old tree, describe what the job involves.MediumPractice
  • A company pays you to be the first user of every new product. What do you dread?MediumPractice
  • Your town names you its official rememberer of stories nobody else keeps. Begin.HardPractice
  • Being excellent at one thing or good at ten: choose, and defend the choice.HardPractice
  • Pressing a button gives everyone an extra hour daily, and nobody may opt out. Do you press?HardPractice
  • One stranger can be guaranteed a wonderful day, though you never learn who. Worth doing?MediumPractice
  • Remove one worry from your life or one from a friend's, but not both. Which goes?HardPractice
  • Only five photographs from your whole life may be kept. Which one is the surprise?EasyPractice
  • A new rule makes you give away one possession weekly. What goes first, what never goes?EasyPractice
  • Learning the exact day you will be happiest, but never why: do you want to know?MediumPractice
  • Someone offers to make you fifteen minutes early to everything, forever. Any downside?EasyPractice
  • Undo one embarrassing moment, or keep the lesson it taught you. Which do you keep?MediumPractice
  • A device lets you skip any conversation you dread, but nothing gets resolved. Use it?MediumPractice
  • Mastering any sport instantly is possible, but only while nobody keeps score. Interested?MediumPractice
  • Dropped into an unknown city with a paper map and no phone: what is your first move?EasyPractice
  • A trail appears in your neighborhood that was not there yesterday. Do you follow it?EasyPractice
  • One modern object can be sent to your childhood bedroom. What arrives, and how do you explain it?EasyPractice
  • Suppose every board game became real for an hour. Which one do you play?EasyPractice
  • One new holiday may be added to the calendar. What is it for, and how do we celebrate?EasyPractice
  • A film is being made of your most ordinary day. Describe the opening shot.EasyPractice
  • You may add one chapter to a book you love. What happens in it?EasyPractice
  • Every plant in your home can now name one thing it needs. What do you expect to hear?EasyPractice
  • Pets can file one formal complaint about their humans. What would yours say?EasyPractice
  • A talking crow offers to run one errand a day for you. What do you send it to do?EasyPractice
  • Trade your sense of direction for perfect rhythm. Deal, or no deal?MediumPractice
  • Suppose you could taste colors for a week. What does your favorite shirt taste like?EasyPractice
  • A room in your home becomes any place you describe aloud. Describe it now.EasyPractice
  • Midday now holds a quiet hour when nobody anywhere may work. How do you use it?MediumPractice
  • Everyone receives one public do-over per year. Would you use yours, and on what?HardPractice
  • Freeze one season and live in it forever: which do you pick, and what do you lose?EasyPractice
  • Imagine your phone worked for only one purpose you choose each morning. Choose today's.EasyPractice
  • A translator reveals what babies and pets are thinking, but only literally. Fun or awkward?EasyPractice
  • One household chore can vanish forever from every home. Which one goes?EasyPractice
  • Suppose you could give one anonymous gift to your entire street. What would it be?MediumPractice
  • You wake up as the person who taught you the most. What do you do with the day?HardPractice
  • For one week you must learn something new before breakfast. Plan the seven mornings.MediumPractice
  • A school opens teaching only what adults wish they had learned. Design the timetable.HardPractice
  • Any class taught by anyone from history is open to you. Whose class, and what do you ask?EasyPractice
  • Borrow anyone's confidence for one hour. When exactly do you schedule it?MediumPractice
  • A bell rings every time you say a word you overuse. Which word rings first?EasyPractice
  • Everyone nearby hears a narrator describing your day aloud. Blessing or nightmare?MediumPractice
  • A stranger will follow your advice exactly for one day. What do you tell them?HardPractice
  • One skill can be guaranteed to pass to the next generation. Which skill, and why?HardPractice
  • Suppose an app showed how much a decision would matter in ten years. Would you install it?HardPractice
  • One thing from the past may be brought back into the present. What returns?MediumPractice
  • Leave a message for everyone who will live in your home after you. Say it aloud.MediumPractice
  • Future grandchildren ask what your era got right. What is your answer?HardPractice
  • Explaining a rainbow to someone who has never seen color: how do you begin?HardPractice
  • You must teach a class on something you are genuinely bad at. Give the first lesson.MediumPractice
  • A friend proposes swapping lives for a week. Whose life would tempt you, and why?EasyPractice
  • Design one perfect day for someone you love. Walk us through it hour by hour.EasyPractice
  • One meal in your life stays exactly as it is forever. Which meal do you protect?EasyPractice
  • The last song you heard becomes your theme music everywhere. Report the damage.EasyPractice
  • One item may be added to every hotel room in the world. What do you add?EasyPractice
  • Pack one suitcase for a year abroad, and it must weigh less than a cat. What goes in?EasyPractice
  • A trip is offered that you may never photograph or describe online. Still interested?MediumPractice
  • Live anywhere for a year, but you must arrive knowing nobody. Where do you land?MediumPractice
  • Every road sign in town is replaced with advice. Write the one at your corner.MediumPractice
  • New rules require every building to include one useless beautiful feature. Describe yours.MediumPractice
  • Design a park for people who say they hate parks. What is inside the gate?HardPractice
  • Invent a sport playable in a hallway. Explain the rules and the worst possible foul.HardPractice
  • Create a tradition your friends would still keep in fifty years. Sell it to them now.HardPractice
  • Name the museum you would build and the strangest object inside it.MediumPractice
  • Pitch a restaurant with only three items on the menu, forever. Name them.MediumPractice
  • Describe the ideal waiting room for people who cannot stand waiting.MediumPractice
  • Invent a machine that solves one small daily annoyance perfectly. Demonstrate it.EasyPractice
  • Deliver the safety announcement for a spaceship carrying only nervous tourists.MediumPractice
  • First shop on the moon is yours to open. What do you sell, and to whom?MediumPractice
  • Suppose humans could hibernate one month a year. Would you, and which month?MediumPractice
  • A pill removes the need for sleep, but dreams disappear with it. Do you take it?HardPractice
  • Your city may swap weather with anywhere for one week a year. Where do you borrow from?EasyPractice
  • Imagine seeing the number of people thinking about you right now. Would you look?HardPractice
  • One rule for the whole internet is yours to write. What is it?HardPractice
  • A polite robot follows you for a month doing exactly one task. Which task?EasyPractice
  • Your appliances hold a meeting about you tonight. What do they complain about?EasyPractice
  • Your reflection offers one piece of advice each morning. What did it say today?EasyPractice
  • Bottle one feeling and open it later: which feeling, and when do you use it?MediumPractice
  • A stranger will remember you forever for one small thing. What do you hope it is?HardPractice
  • Keep one souvenir from every year of your life. What did last year leave you?EasyPractice
  • A small warm door appears in your wall. Do you open it, and what is inside?EasyPractice
  • Everyone picks one question they will answer honestly all year. What is yours?MediumPractice
  • Swap jobs with anyone for a month, no training given. Whose job do you take?MediumPractice
  • A machine names the perfect career for you but never explains why. Do you follow it?HardPractice
  • Nobody may say they are busy anymore. What do we say instead?MediumPractice