Business Spanish: Meetings, Negotiation and Saying No Politely
Run a meeting, haggle over budgets, and disagree with your boss in Spanish — armed with the hedging phrases that keep everyone smiling.
Key phrases
Antes de empezar, repasemos el orden del día.
Before we start, let's go over the agenda.
¿Quién levanta acta hoy? Que no se nos escape nada.
Who's taking the minutes today? Let's not miss anything.
Si os parece, procedemos con el siguiente punto.
If that works for everyone, let's move on to the next item.
Pues quedamos así: vosotros mandáis la propuesta y nosotros la revisamos el jueves.
So that's settled: you send the proposal and we review it on Thursday.
Me temo que con esos plazos no podemos comprometernos.
I'm afraid we can't commit to those deadlines.
No lo veo claro; yo lo plantearía de otra forma.
I'm not convinced — I'd approach it differently.
La propuesta es sólida. Dicho esto, el presupuesto se nos dispara.
The proposal is solid. That said, the budget is ballooning on us.
En principio nos encaja, pero habría que ajustar el margen.
In principle it works for us, but we'd need to adjust the margin.
Entiendo tu punto, pero creo que estamos midiendo el riesgo con datos antiguos.
I see your point, but I think we're measuring the risk with outdated data.
¿Hay margen para negociar el precio, o es cerrado?
Is there room to negotiate the price, or is it fixed?
Nos lo pensamos y te decimos algo a principios de semana.
We'll think it over and get back to you early next week.
Puedes tutearme, aquí nos tratamos todos de tú.
You can use tú with me — we're all on first-name terms here.
The Meeting Is the Real Language Exam
You can order tapas and survive small talk, but a Spanish reunión is where fluency gets audited. The stakes are different: you need to steer, hedge, push back, and close — often with people senior to you — without ever sounding blunt. Spanish professional culture prizes warmth and indirection in exactly the moments English speakers default to efficiency. This lesson is that toolkit.
The Machinery of the Reunión
The chair opens with el orden del día (the agenda — masculine, because la orden is a command) and someone levanta acta (takes the minutes). Moves you’ll need to steer:
- Si os parece, procedemos — the polite gearshift to the next item
- Recapitulando… — pulling a rambling discussion back together
- ¿Lo dejamos aquí y lo retomamos el jueves? — parking a topic
- Quedamos así — the closer; once someone says it, the decision is made. (Yes, that’s quedar again — the most overworked verb in Spanish scheduling.)
Punctuate agreement with vale — in a Spanish meeting it’s the oxygen everyone breathes between points.
Hedge Like a Diplomat
Spanish rarely says no; it says something that everyone understands as no. Decode the ladder:
- Me temo que… — bad news incoming, delivered on a cushion
- No lo veo claro — I have serious doubts (stronger than it sounds)
- En principio, sí — yes, with an exit door left open
- Dicho esto… — the pivot between the compliment and the problem
- Lo veo complicado — this is almost certainly not happening
- Nos lo pensamos — we’ll think about it; often the final resting place of a dead deal
At the Negotiation Table
Money talk revolves around el presupuesto (budget), el margen (both profit margin and room for manoeuvre), and the verb ajustar — ajustar el precio is the polite frame for “make it cheaper.” Useful probes: ¿hay margen? (is there wiggle room?), ¿el precio es cerrado? (is the price fixed?), ¿nos podéis mejorar la oferta? (can you improve the offer?). When you need to stall, nos lo pensamos y te decimos algo is graceful; when you’re ready, ¿lo cerramos? (shall we close it?) does the job.
Disagreeing Upward Without Dying
The formula is validate-then-diverge: entiendo tu punto, pero…, tiene sentido lo que dices, aunque…, then reframe rather than refute — yo lo plantearía de otra forma (I’d frame it differently). The conditional is your armour: yo diría, habría que ver, ¿no sería mejor…? all express dissent as hypothesis. A bare no estoy de acuerdo aimed at your boss is grammatically perfect and politically fatal.
Pro Tip: Tú or Usted?
Modern Spanish offices — startups, agencies, most of corporate Spain — run on tú, boss included; wheeling out usted with a thirty-five-year-old manager can even read as distancing. But usted still owns three territories: clients you’ve just met, very senior or older figures, and much of Latin American business culture, where it remains the default. The rule: open formal when in doubt, then accept the downgrade the moment you hear puedes tutearme. The invitation flows downward — wait for it; never issue it upward.
Consider this your seat at the table — the full professional playbook, from interviews to office politics, is in Daily Life and Culture, part of our Speak Spanish Like a Native book series.