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Ask a teacher, lesson 22 - What are some Spanish business expressions?
Hi everybody! Rosa here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Spanish questions.
The question for this lesson is…
What are some Spanish business expressions?
If we consider that about 500 million people are native Spanish speakers, we can understand why Spanish is becoming one of the most used languages in the world of business.
In this lesson, we’ll go over some basic business expressions that you can use in Spanish.
Disculpen el retraso, which means “I am sorry for being late,” is a very useful phrase. You can use this for whenever you can’t manage to be on time for a meeting or just come in late to the office. You can also say, Lamento el retraso which means the same thing but the sense of regret is stronger.
And don't forget to offer your tarjeta de visita, or "business card," when you are beginning a business relationship with someone.
A very useful expression to learn is the combination of a substantive plus the complement de negocios which means "of business." Following this combination we can form expressions like cena de negocios meaning "business dinner;" viaje de negocios meaning "business trip;" reunión de negocios meaning "business meeting;" centro de negocios meaning "business center;" visita de negocios meaning "business visit," and many others. Like in the examples, Hoy tengo una cena de negocios meaning "Today I have a business dinner," or ¿Dónde tendremos la reunión de negocios? “Where will we have the business meeting?"
If you're asked to write a report and want to know when it’s due, you can ask ¿Cuándo debo entregar el informe? which literally means “When should I give the report?”
If you’re a little busy at work and want to let your co-workers know, you can use this phrase-- Estoy a tope de trabajo. An example would be Estoy a tope de trabajo, no puedo hacer nada más which means “I'm overwhelmed by work, I can't do anything more.”
Tener en cuenta is another great idiom to use in business. It literally means “to realize” or “to be aware.” Let’s go over how to use it. For example, if your team has a lot of work to do, but you’ll be out of town the following week, you can say, Tener en cuenta que estaré de vacaciones la próxima semana, which means, “Take into consideration that I’m on vacation next week.”
When work is finished, you can use the phrase Ha sido un placer colaborar con ustedes/vosotros, which means “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.” You would use ustedes, which is “you” in the plural form in a formal context, or vosotros which is “you” in the plural form in an informal context. You can also use trabajar which means “work” instead of colaborar. With trabajar the phrase would be Ha sido un placer trabajar con ustedes/vosotros which means, “It has been a pleasure working with you.”
How was this lesson? Pretty interesting, right?
Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them!
¡Hasta pronto! “See you soon!”

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