Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy.

In Spanish, querer + infinitive often sounds less blunt than want to in English. In everyday conversation (and even many emails), Quiero cancelar… is normally acceptable and not automatically rude.

However, if you want to sound more polite/formal, especially in Spain, you’d often choose:

Quisiera cancelar la reunión de hoy. – I’d like to cancel today’s meeting. (more polite, a bit formal)
Me gustaría cancelar la reunión de hoy. – I would like to cancel today’s meeting.
Quería cancelar la reunión de hoy. – Literally “I wanted to cancel…”, but used as a softener, like “I was hoping to cancel…”.

So quiero can feel slightly more direct, but context and tone matter a lot, and it’s very common and natural.

Is Quiero cancelar… too direct or rude in Spanish, especially in Spain?

Not automatically. Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy is fine in many spoken situations, for example:

on the phone with someone you know
in a casual work context
when you’re among colleagues you speak informally with

That said, compared with English, where I want to cancel can be pretty blunt, Spanish has more tolerance for quiero in neutral contexts.

If you want to be especially polite or formal (customer service, email to someone senior, etc.), in Spain you’d more likely write:

Quisiera cancelar la reunión de hoy.
Me gustaría cancelar la reunión de hoy.
Quería cancelar la reunión de hoy.

These sound more tactful and are safer in written, professional, or service contexts.

Why is it la reunión de hoy and not something like hoy reunión or hoy’s meeting?

Spanish doesn’t form possessives the way English does with ’s (today’s, John’s, etc.). Instead, it typically uses de:

la reunión de hoy – today’s meeting
el coche de Juan – John’s car
las notas del profesor – the teacher’s notes

So la reunión de hoy literally is the meeting of today, but it’s exactly how you say today’s meeting.

You can use hoy in other positions:

La reunión es hoy. – The meeting is today.
Hoy tengo una reunión. – Today I have a meeting.

But hoy reunión is not a valid noun phrase, and hoy’s meeting simply has no equivalent structure in Spanish. You must use de: la reunión de hoy.

Why do we need the article la in la reunión de hoy? Could I just say Quiero cancelar reunión de hoy?

You need the article la here. In Spanish, most singular countable nouns in this kind of sentence take an article:

Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy. ✅
Quiero cancelar reunión de hoy. ❌ (sounds incomplete/wrong)

General rule: when you refer to a specific meeting, object, person, etc., you normally use el / la / los / las:

Voy a posponer la reunión. – I’m going to postpone the meeting.
Han cancelado el vuelo. – They have canceled the flight.

You would typically omit the article only in some very fixed expressions (tengo clase, tengo trabajo, etc.), but reunión here is not one of those exceptions. So la reunión de hoy is the natural form.

Why is it la reunión and not el reunión?

Because reunión is a feminine noun in Spanish.

la reunión – the meeting
una reunión – a meeting
las reuniones – the meetings

There’s no clear rule from the ending alone; many words ending in -ión are feminine (la canción, la decisión, la información), and reunión follows that pattern.

So:

Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy. ✅
Quiero cancelar el reunión de hoy. ❌

Could I say cita instead of reunión, like Quiero cancelar la cita de hoy?

Yes, but it changes the nuance.

In Spain:

reunión is typically a meeting, often work-related: team meetings, business meetings, committee meetings, etc.
cita is usually an appointment: doctor, hairdresser, immigration office, job interview, sometimes a date.

So:

Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy. – I want to cancel today’s (work/business) meeting.
Quiero cancelar la cita de hoy. – I want to cancel today’s appointment.

Use reunión if you’re talking about a group/work meeting; cita if it’s a scheduled appointment with a specific person/professional.

Can I move hoy or de hoy around in the sentence? For example: Hoy quiero cancelar la reunión or Quiero cancelar hoy la reunión?

Yes. You can move the time element, and it stays correct, but the emphasis changes slightly.

All of these are grammatically fine:

Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy.
– Focus: today’s meeting (as opposed to tomorrow’s, etc.)
Quiero cancelar la reunión hoy.
– Slightly more: I want to cancel the meeting today (maybe it’s a meeting that happens regularly).
Hoy quiero cancelar la reunión.
– Emphasis on today as your current decision: “Today I want to cancel the meeting.”
Quiero cancelar hoy la reunión.
– Similar to (2), but the word order sounds slightly more neutral/less marked.

If what you mean is precisely today’s meeting, the clearest and most typical is:

Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy.

What’s the difference between cancelar, anular, suspender, aplazar and posponer in Spain?

In everyday Spanish from Spain, these have slightly different nuances:

cancelar la reunión – cancel the meeting (it won’t happen, full stop). Very common and clear.
anular la reunión – basically the same as cancelar; common in Spain, maybe a bit more formal or bureaucratic in feel.
suspender la reunión – to suspend the meeting; often implies it’s stopped or not going ahead for now, but context decides whether it will be rescheduled.
aplazar la reunión / posponer la reunión – to postpone the meeting; clearly means move it to a later time/date, not cancel entirely.

So:

If you mean it’s not happening at all:
Quiero cancelar / anular la reunión de hoy.
If you mean let’s move it (not cancel):
Quiero aplazar / posponer la reunión de hoy.

How would I say I need to cancel today’s meeting or I have to cancel today’s meeting instead of I want to?

You just change the verb before cancelar:

Necesito cancelar la reunión de hoy.
– I need to cancel today’s meeting.
Tengo que cancelar la reunión de hoy.
– I have to cancel today’s meeting.

Both are very natural in Spain. Tengo que usually sounds a bit stronger/obligatory than necesito, like there’s some external reason or requirement.

Is there any situation where I’d need the personal a in this sentence, like Quiero cancelar a la reunión?

No. You must not use the personal a here.

The personal a in Spanish is used (mainly) before direct objects that are:

specific people: Veo a María.
or personified animals: Quiero a mi perro.

Reunión is an event, not a person, so you just use a direct object with no a:

Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy. ✅
Quiero cancelar a la reunión de hoy. ❌

How would I say I want to cancel today’s meetings (plural)?

You just make reunión plural and match the article:

Quiero cancelar las reuniones de hoy.
– I want to cancel today’s meetings.

Breakdown:

las – plural feminine article
reuniones – plural of reunión
de hoy – “of today” → today’s

Is Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy acceptable in a formal email in Spain, or should I change it?

It’s understandable and not wrong, but for a formal or semi-formal email in Spain, people usually soften it a bit.

More natural formal options:

Quisiera cancelar la reunión de hoy.
Me gustaría cancelar la reunión de hoy.
Lamento tener que cancelar la reunión de hoy. – I’m sorry to have to cancel today’s meeting.
Por motivos personales/profesionales, tengo que cancelar la reunión de hoy. – For personal/professional reasons, I have to cancel today’s meeting.

You can then add a follow-up line:

¿Podríamos reprogramarla para otra fecha? – Could we reschedule it for another date?

So: Quiero cancelar la reunión de hoy is fine in speech and in informal writing; in a formal email, choose one of the softer variants.