What's your go-to thing to say when you need to break the ice with someone new?

A natural way to answer

My usual opener is a simple question about how they know the host. It's an easy way to break the ice and it gives the other person something to talk about straight away.

Key phrases to use

• break the ice — say or do something to ease the awkwardness when people first meet“He told a joke to break the ice.”
• get chatting — start having a friendly, casual conversation“We got chatting at the bus stop.”
• hitting it off — getting along really well with someone from the start“We hit it off immediately.”