Who this path is for
You will be using Spanish at work — meetings, emails, contracts, presentations, video calls with colleagues in Mexico City or Buenos Aires or Santiago. Casual Spanish is not enough. You need formal register, clean reported speech for summarising what was said in a meeting, the conditional for making polite requests, and the subjunctive for proposing and recommending things without sounding pushy. This path assumes you already know the basics. It is not a complete course — it is a focused set of structures that turn intermediate Spanish into appropriate-for-work Spanish.
The path
1. Tú vs Usted
In business, default to usted. Switching to tú should be a deliberate signal of warmth, never an accident. Different countries have slightly different conventions — read the regional notes at the bottom of the page.
2. Polite Expressions
The fixed formulas: muchas gracias, con mucho gusto, no hay problema, quedo a su disposición. Learn them as units; use them constantly.
3. Greetings and Goodbyes
Business Spanish has its own greeting register. Buenos días and buenas tardes until later in the evening; qué tal is too casual for first meetings.
4. Imperfect for Politeness
Quería pedirle un favor. The imperfect softens requests in a way the present cannot. The single most useful tense in polite business Spanish.
5. Quisiera
Quisiera proponer una idea. Frozen polite form everyone uses. You can say it before you've ever conjugated another subjunctive.
6. Conditional: Regular Forms
Hablaría, escribiría, podría. The "would" tense. Essential for soft requests and proposals.
7. Conditional for Politeness
¿Podría enviarme el informe? The conditional is your most powerful politeness tool in writing — emails, letters, formal requests of any kind.
8. Softened Requests
The alternatives to direct commands. In professional Spanish you almost never use a bare imperative — you wrap it in a conditional or a question.
9. Future: Regular Forms
Enviaré, llamaremos, confirmaremos. The "real" future is more common in writing than speech, and business writing is where you'll use it most.
10. Future of Probability
Será un error del sistema. The future expresses present probability — useful for diplomatic uncertainty in a business setting.
11. Subjunctive Triggers: Recommendations
Les recomiendo que revisen el contrato. The single most common business subjunctive trigger. You will use it in every meeting and most emails.
12. Subjunctive Triggers: Wishes
Esperamos que el proyecto sea un éxito. Hopes and wishes are equally common in formal communication.
13. Reported Speech: Overview
When you summarise what someone said in a meeting (El director dijo que...), the verb tense shifts. Learn the rules — you will use them constantly in minutes and reports.
14. Reported Speech: Tense Shifts
The tidy table of which present-tense statements become which past-tense reports. Keep this open as a reference while writing meeting summaries.
15. Dice vs Dijo
The difference between reporting in present (dice que...) and past (dijo que...) is subtle but important in formal writing.
16. Cardinal Numbers 100 and Above
For prices, quantities, percentages, and figures in spreadsheets. Don't trust your A1 numbers — quinientos, setecientos, and novecientos trip up many learners.
17. Math and Measurements
Percentages, decimals, multiplication. Spanish uses comma-decimal notation in many regions. Learn how to read figures aloud the local way.
18. Dates
Day-month-year order, lowercase month names, and the de connectors. Wrong date format on an invoice is a real, fixable mistake.
19. Telling Time
Meeting times, deadlines, video call confirmations. Make sure you can say a las tres y media de la tarde without hesitating.
20. Question Word: Cuánto
¿Cuánto cuesta? ¿Cuánto tiempo? ¿Cuántas unidades? The most useful question word in negotiations.
21. Personal A
Used constantly in business Spanish: contratamos a tres ingenieros, llamé al cliente. Forgetting it sounds careless in writing.
22. Active vs Passive
In English business writing the passive is often the polite default ("the report was sent"). In Spanish, an active or se-passive often sounds more natural. Adjust your instinct.
23. Passive Se
Se enviará el contrato mañana. The clean, formal way to say "the contract will be sent". Use this in emails instead of a Ser-passive.
Email and letter formulas
A short reference of fixed phrases that appear in almost every business message. Learn them as units.
- Estimado/a Sr./Sra. ...: — Dear Mr./Mrs. ... (formal opening)
- Reciba un cordial saludo. — Receive a cordial greeting (less formal opening)
- Espero que se encuentre bien. — I hope this finds you well.
- Le escribo para... — I am writing in order to...
- Le agradecería que... — I would be grateful if you would... (followed by subjunctive)
- Quedo a su disposición para cualquier consulta. — I remain at your disposal for any question.
- Le saluda atentamente, — Yours sincerely (formal closing)
- Reciba un cordial saludo, — With cordial greetings (slightly less formal closing)
Next step
After this path, browse the errors catalog for the specific mistakes that mark non-native business writers, and consider working through Path: B2 Upper Intermediate to round out the rest of the verb system.
Related Topics
- Tú vs UstedA1 — The informal (tú) and formal (usted) singular 'you' and when to use each
- Usage: Polite RequestsB1 — The conditional softens requests and suggestions, making them sound more courteous than the present tense.
- Simple Future: Regular FormationB1 — Learn to form the regular simple future in Spanish by adding one set of endings to the infinitive.
- Recommendations (Sugerir que, Pedir que)B1 — Verbs of suggestion, request, and command that introduce the present subjunctive in Spanish.
- Reported Speech OverviewB1 — How Spanish reports what someone else said using direct and indirect speech.
- Cardinal Numbers 100 and BeyondA2 — Numbers from 100 to millions, including gender agreement for hundreds
- Polite ExpressionsA1 — Please, thank you, excuse me, and softer phrasings for polite requests.
- Softened RequestsB1 — How to make requests politer than a direct command using the conditional, modal verbs, and impersonal forms.
- Imperfect for PolitenessC1 — Using the imperfect tense to soften requests and make questions sound more polite — one of Spanish's most charming grammar tricks.
- Quisiera, Pudiera (Polite Forms)B2 — The imperfect subjunctive of querer and poder is used to make polite requests that are softer than the conditional.