The Art Of Conversation: How To Come Up With Cute Things To Say To Your Crush

Updated November 5, 2024by Regain Editorial Team

Speaking to your crush can be a daunting activity. You might find that you can’t stop thinking about them and start creating a list of items to talk to your crush about. You might also find yourself relying on your vast repertoire of pop culture references to appear witty and topical in the presence of the person you are interested in but feeling as though you come up short. 

When you like someone new, countless insecurities can rise to the fore, and it may feel as though you will never quite regain your footing and have a meaningful conversation to offer. The art of conversation can be simple, though, and coming up with sweet things to say to your crush does not have to be a painful or seemingly impossible exercise.

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Struggling through conversations? Therapy can help

What to say to your crush

Talking to a love interest is often as simple as discovering what they like. Although conversation can initially seem difficult, the conversation is essentially a game of giving and taking. Finding out what to give is usually the most difficult part of the equation. When looking for things to say to your crush, there are a few simple things to consider. These are:

1) What is your crush interested in?

One of the best ways to get your crush excited about talking to you is to figure out what they like. You can ask about your crush's hobbies, favorite musicians, favorite TV shows, or favorite books and use these as simple and easy points of discussion. Talking to your crush about something they are interested in can help keep the conversation from growing stilted or uncomfortable, can keep them interested, and may prompt deeper discussions.

2) What are some current events to fall back on?

Current events are a great way to come up with solid topics of conversation. Reading newspapers, whether online or in print, can be a simple and effective way to stay abreast of what's going on in the world and can provide a great way for you to not only engage your crush in conversation but can also be a way for you to gauge how compatible the two of you are, in terms of your worldviews and belief systems.

3) What are you passionate about?

Don't forget to talk about you! Although you should always make a habit of practicing excellent listening skills, and it is certainly a skill worth learning to know how and when to ask questions about someone else, your crush needs to get to know you, too. Talk to your crush about things you are passionate about so that they can also get a good feel for who you are and what you care about. In any relationship, both parties need to have equal opportunity to get to know one another and get a true feel for who the other person is.

4) What do the two of you have in common?

Perhaps you met your crush through mutual friends while you were rock climbing. Maybe you first encountered your crush while perusing your favorite bookstore. Whatever the case may be, if you have an idea of a common interest, belief, or background trait shared between you and your crush, that provides a wonderful way to strike up a conversation

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Ultimately, when talking to your crush, the goal is to capture your crush's interest, get to know one another, and see if there is a connection between the two of you. Any conversation between the two of you that fulfills this purpose is bound to be a useful, helpful exercise.

How to talk to your crush

There are many ways to talk to your crush, and how you speak to them can influence how you come up with new things to say and new topics to discuss. These methods of speaking include:

1) Face-to-face interactions

Speaking to your crush face-to-face is likely to be the most nerve-wracking form of interaction, as it allows for the least amount of preparation and requires the greatest amount of thinking on your feet. Speaking face-to-face, though, may also offer the best rewards: you get to see your crush, spend time in their presence, enjoy (ideally) mutual attraction, and base your speech and interaction on the feedback and cues received from one another. Face-to-face communication usually involves the greatest amount of intimacy and bonding, and it is important to note, one of the most important factors in attraction is simple proximity.

2) Texting

Texting can be a more relaxed way to communicate with your crush. Thinking of cute text messages to send your crush to keep them interested might seem difficult, or you might struggle to adequately convey or comprehend the text's tone. This is where punctuation and other aids, such as emojis, often come into play: using different types of punctuation dashes, commas, ellipses, semicolons, and the like can all adequately and accurately convey the tone you wish to, as can emojis and GIFs.

3) Calling

Although some might see calling as too old school to be useful or too awkward to be tolerable, talking on the phone allows you to hear someone's tone and inflection without the commitment of actually going out together or meeting somewhere. Calling your crush on the phone allows the two of you to talk and connect while remaining firmly ensconced in your comfort zones, whether that means talking in your living room, in your bed, or a bubble bath with your favorite essential oils. 

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Struggling through conversations? Therapy can help

4) Social media interactions

Social media interaction can provide the same barrier that texting offers, with the added feature of commenting on something that has already happened. While a text requires that you either respond to something your crush has said or come up with something entirely new, social media allows you to use a jumping-off point via someone's post, photo, or video.

Which form of communication is best?

If your goal is to come up with cute things to tell your crush, texting and social media might be your best bet; both avenues allow you to spend time crafting your ideal response rather than having to come up with something clever or interesting on the fly. When coming up with things to text your crush, you can control your interaction's flow, duration, and pace, which allows you plenty of time to come up with witty, meaningful, or interesting conversation topics or responses. Speaking directly to someone or talking on the phone, you are not given the same level of grace, though some prefer the increased intimacy and connection that can be fostered by these types of communication.

Social media, too, allows you to have more control over your responses, though your crush may be able to see whether or not you are active or online, and this could put something of a damper on a conversation; after all, if you are visibly online, but taking twenty minutes to respond to a simple DM, your crush might wonder if they are not worth your time, or are not considered a priority. 

Ask a therapist for dating advice

If you're feeling nervous about how to talk to your crush, it's important to stop thinking too much about what to say and, instead, focus on being yourself. While it can certainly be tempting to appear perpetually clever and on top of a conversation, there will (ideally) come a day when you and your crush are engaged in conversation that does not hinge on how clever, cute, or entertaining you are. Although it is reasonable and understandable to try to appear this way to a new flame, make sure you are making plenty of room for normal conversation, as well, as these are the types of conversations that you and your crush will engage in if you begin a relationship.

If speaking to someone you are attracted to feels impossible or elicits an emotional or anxiety-ridden response powerful enough to trigger a racing heart and intense discomfort, you may be experiencing anxiety or an anxiety disorder. While everyone feels some amount of trepidation at the prospect of speaking to their crush, it is not typically debilitating or frightening to the point of overwhelm or tears. If you find that talking to your crush seems disproportionately frightening, painful, or overwhelming, you may want to speak with a therapist, such as those available on Regain.us. A therapist can help you develop healthy coping and communication strategies, which can help you feel safer and more comfortable engaging with your crush.

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