Lo siento, pero no puedo ir a la reunión.

Literally, lo siento means I feel it.

In everyday Spanish, though, it is a fixed expression meaning I’m sorry. It expresses regret about a situation. It does not necessarily mean you are admitting fault; it can simply mean you feel bad about what happened.

So in this sentence, Lo siento is the natural way to begin an apology or polite refusal.

The lo is a direct object pronoun, roughly meaning it.

In lo siento, it refers in a very general way to the situation or what happened. That is why the literal meaning is I feel it.

For learners, it is best to treat lo siento as a complete expression meaning I’m sorry rather than trying to translate each word every time.

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns when they are already clear from the verb form.

Here, puedo already means I can, so yo is unnecessary.

• No puedo ir = I can’t go
• Yo no puedo ir = I can’t go / I can’t go

Adding yo gives extra emphasis or contrast, but in normal speech it is often omitted.

In Spanish, no normally goes directly before the conjugated verb.

So:

• no puedo = I can’t
• no quiero = I don’t want
• no tengo = I don’t have

That is the standard word order for negation.

Puedo is the first person singular present tense form of poder, which means to be able to or can.

The verb poder is irregular because its stem changes from o to ue in many present-tense forms:

• yo puedo
• tú puedes
• él/ella/usted puede
• nosotros podemos
• vosotros podéis
• ellos/ellas/ustedes pueden

So puedo means I can or I am able to.

After a conjugated verb like poder, the next verb stays in the infinitive.

So:

• puedo ir = I can go
• puedo comer = I can eat
• puedo hablar = I can speak

You do not conjugate the second verb here, so puedo voy would be wrong.

The verb ir normally uses a before a destination or event.

Examples:

• ir a casa = to go home
• ir al trabajo = to go to work
• ir a la reunión = to go to the meeting

So the a is required because ir is followed by the place or event you are going to.

Because reunión is a noun, and here it refers to a specific meeting.

Spanish usually uses an article in this kind of context:

• a la reunión = to the meeting
• a una reunión = to a meeting

So la shows that both speaker and listener know which meeting is being discussed.

Yes, reunión is a feminine noun, so it takes la.

Many nouns ending in -ión are feminine:

• la reunión
• la conversación
• la decisión
• la estación

As always, there are patterns in Spanish gender, but it is best to learn the noun together with its article: la reunión.

The accent mark in reunión shows that the stress falls on the last syllable: re-u-NIÓN.

Without the accent mark, the word would follow the normal stress rule for words ending in n, which would make the stress fall earlier. The written accent tells you the pronunciation is irregular and must be stressed on -ón.

So the accent mark is important both for spelling and pronunciation.

Yes, it is a polite and very natural sentence.

It sounds softer than just saying No puedo ir a la reunión, because Lo siento shows regret and pero introduces the refusal politely.

It works well in everyday situations, including work, social plans, and messages. If you want to sound even more polite, you could say:

• Lo siento mucho, pero no puedo ir a la reunión.
• Lo siento, pero no puedo asistir a la reunión.

Yes. You could say:

Lo siento, pero no puedo asistir a la reunión.

That means the same thing, but asistir a often sounds a bit more formal or more business-like than ir a.

So:

• ir a la reunión = more everyday and general
• asistir a la reunión = slightly more formal

Both are correct in Spanish from Spain.

In Spanish, it is very common to put a comma before pero when it joins two clauses.

So:

• Lo siento, pero no puedo ir...

This is similar to English writing in a sentence like I’m sorry, but I can’t go.

The comma helps separate the apology from the explanation that follows.