Running a Meeting in Spanish: 30 Ready-to-Use Phrases

Phrases that work · August 19, 2026 · 6 min read · by Jérémie Chiari

Running a meeting in Spanish comes down to about thirty fixed phrases, repeated from one meeting to the next: opening, giving the floor, refocusing, handling disagreement, closing. For a native speaker, these are near-automatic reflexes. For an English speaker who learned Spanish mostly from an app, they're exactly the moment things stall, because textbook vocabulary doesn't prepare you to speak in real time. This article groups thirty of these phrases by moment in the meeting, with the pronunciation that trips up English speakers and the mistake heard most often. The goal isn't to translate what you'd say in English, it's to learn formulas that already exist as-is in professional Spanish. Once these reflexes are in place, running a stand-up or a steering committee in Spanish becomes a question of repetition, not grammar.

How do you open a meeting in Spanish without hesitating?

Opening a meeting in Spanish takes three moves: welcome, state the goal, name the time box. These phrases get said in the first thirty seconds, before the real topic even lands on the table.

• "¿Empezamos?" (shall we start?): the stress falls on the third syllable, em-pe-ZA-mos, not flattened evenly the way English speakers tend to say it.
• "Gracias a todos por estar aquí." (thanks everyone for being here): a common mistake is translating word for word into something like "gracias por su presencia," which sounds stiff and formal, not how anyone actually opens a call.
• "Vamos a repasar la agenda." (let's go through the agenda): "agenda" is a true cognate here, but watch the double a, it's two distinct vowel sounds, a-hen-da, not one long English "uh."
• "El objetivo de esta llamada es..." (the goal of this call is...): "llamada" is the phrase that outs an English speaker fastest, the double l sounds like a y, ya-MA-da, never like the English L.
• "Tenemos media hora, así que vayamos al grano." (we have half an hour, so let's get to the point): "ir al grano" literally means "go to the grain," a fixed idiom, don't try to build the meaning from the words.
• "Seré breve." (I'll be brief): the rolled r in "breve" is a single tap, not the strong rolled r of "perro," a distinction most English speakers skip entirely.

How do you give everyone a turn to speak without cutting off the discussion?

Distributing the floor in Spanish relies on phrases that invite rather than call someone out directly, softer constructions than the flat imperative an English speaker might reach for first.

• "¿Qué opinas de esto?" (what do you think about this?): more natural in a meeting than "¿qué piensas?", which can come across a touch blunt.
• "Me encantaría escuchar tu opinión." (I'd love to hear your opinion): the conditional "encantaría" is stressed on the third syllable, en-can-ta-RI-a, easy to swallow if you're rushing.
• "Siéntete libre de intervenir." (feel free to jump in): a fixed expression, translating "jump in" literally as "saltar" would sound bizarre here.
• "¿Alguien quiere añadir algo?" (anyone want to add anything?): the ñ in "añadir" is its own letter, not an n followed by an h sound.
• "Empecemos escuchando a [nombre]." (let's start by listening to [name]): a clean way to structure a round-table without singling anyone out.
• "Adelante, te escuchamos." (go ahead, we're listening): stress on the third syllable, a-de-LAN-te, not the front-loaded stress English speakers default to.

This kind of phrase is best drilled out loud, not read silently. That's the angle behind thinking in Spanish: repeating full phrases until they come out without translating in your head, ideally during a real conversation rather than off a vocabulary list.

How do you refocus a meeting that's drifting off topic?

Refocusing a discussion in Spanish calls for a polite transition, never a blunt interruption. Professional Spanish avoids the flat "that's not what we're here for" that lands more easily in some other languages.

• "Dejemos eso de lado por ahora." (let's set that aside for now): "dejar de lado" is fixed, don't try to swap in a literal "al lado."
• "Nos estamos desviando un poco del tema." (we're getting a bit off track): said in one breath, no pause between "desviando" and "del tema."
• "¿Podemos volver al punto principal?" (can we come back to the main point?): a neutral phrase that works in almost any context.
• "Mantengámonos enfocados en [tema]." (let's stay focused on [topic]): a mouthful at first, but it's one of the few phrases here worth practicing purely for the rhythm.
• "Se nos acaba el tiempo." (we're running short on time): literally "time is running out on us," a reflexive construction with no direct English equivalent word for word.
• "Dejemos esto para la próxima reunión." (let's leave this for the next meeting): note the written accent on "próxima," it shifts the stress to the first syllable, and skipping it is the single most common spelling mistake English speakers make with this word.

How do you handle disagreement in Spanish without creating tension?

Handling disagreement in Spanish means acknowledging the other person before adding your nuance, never a flat no. It's also the moment in a meeting where hesitation shows the most, because these are the phrases people rehearse the least.

• "Entiendo tu punto, pero..." (I see your point, but...): the most common construction for introducing a disagreement in a meeting.
• "Es un buen argumento, aunque yo añadiría..." (that's a fair point, though I'd add...): "aunque" is pronounced AUN-ke, the u glides fast into the following vowel.
• "No estoy totalmente de acuerdo." (I'm not fully in agreement): softer than a flat "no estoy de acuerdo."
• "Aceptemos que no estamos de acuerdo, por ahora." (let's agree to disagree, for now): a fixed expression used to close a debate without settling it.
• "¿Podemos verlo desde otro ángulo?" (can we look at this from another angle?): the written accent on "ángulo" puts the stress on the first syllable, drop it and native listeners hear a different word entirely.
• "Entiendo lo que dices, pero los datos muestran..." (I hear what you're saying, but the data shows...): a very common structure in data or product meetings.

These phrases come up often in a professional setting, the kind of scripted exchange you also need for handling small talk and rapport in a second language: formulas you learn once and reuse, not sentences you rebuild from scratch every time under pressure.

How do you close a meeting and set next steps?

Closing a meeting in Spanish means summarizing, assigning actions, and fixing the next date, in that order. This is the part that gives the whole meeting its value, skip it and nobody knows who's doing what.

• "Vamos a cerrar." (let's wrap up): straightforward, no idiom to trip over.
• "Para resumir..." (to summarize...): the classic opener for a final recap.
• "[Nombre], ¿puedes encargarte de esta tarea?" (can you own this action item?): "encargarte" carries the sense of taking ownership, a false friend trap if you reach for "ser dueño de," which sounds like literal property.
• "Nos ponemos al día la próxima semana." (let's touch base next week): "ponerse al día" literally means "to bring oneself up to date," a fixed idiom, don't translate "touch base" word for word.
• "Enviaré un correo de seguimiento." (I'll send a follow-up email): "seguimiento" is stressed on the third syllable, se-gui-MIEN-to.
• "Gracias a todos, hablamos pronto." (thanks all, talk soon): the most common closing line in professional Spanish, spoken or written.

These thirty phrases cover the essentials of a thirty-minute meeting, from opening to close. They won't replace real speaking practice, but they give you a solid skeleton to improvise from. The vocabulary specific to your field comes next, once these reflexes are in place.

To actually make them stick, they need to come out of your mouth in a real exchange, not just get reread on a page. If you've been stuck cycling vocabulary in an app without anyone to talk to, that gap is exactly what most vocabulary apps leave open: short lessons built around pronunciation, paired with a coach who calls you at the time you chose for ten minutes of real conversation, rather than one more list to memorize alone.

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