La reunión empieza a las doce.

In Spanish, it is very common to use the definite article with nouns when talking about a specific thing.

• la reunión = the meeting
• In this sentence, we are talking about a particular meeting, so la is needed.

If you just said reunión, it would usually sound incomplete here.

The noun reunión is grammatically feminine, so it takes la.

You have to learn the gender of nouns as part of the word:

• la reunión
• una reunión

A useful clue is that many nouns ending in -ión are feminine:

• la reunión
• la decisión
• la canción

The accent mark shows which syllable is stressed.

reunión is pronounced with the stress on the last syllable:
reu-nión

Without the accent mark, Spanish spelling rules would suggest a different stress pattern, so the accent is necessary.

It also helps show that the ending is -ión, which is very common in Spanish nouns.

Empieza is the third-person singular present tense form of empezar.

The infinitive is:

• empezar = to start / to begin

To match la reunión (the meeting), you need the form meaning starts / begins:

• La reunión empieza = The meeting starts

Also, empezar is a stem-changing verb in the present tense:

• empiezo
• empiezas
• empieza
• empezamos
• empezáis
• empiezan

So the e changes to ie in many forms, including empieza.

In Spanish, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already shows who or what the subject is.

Here, empieza already matches la reunión, so it is not needed.

Spanish normally prefers:

• La reunión empieza a las doce.

Using a pronoun like ella would sound odd here, because reunión is a thing, not a female person.

Spanish uses a + article + time when saying something happens at a certain hour.

So:

• a la una = at one
• a las dos = at two
• a las doce = at twelve

Think of a here as meaning at.

Spanish uses:

• a la with one o’clock
• a las with all other hours

So:

• a la una
• a las dos
• a las doce

This is just the normal pattern for telling time in Spanish.

By itself, doce can mean either twelve noon or twelve midnight. The context usually makes it clear.

If you want to be specific, Spanish can say:

• a las doce del mediodía = at twelve noon
• a las doce de la noche = at twelve at night
• a medianoche = at midnight

In everyday situations, people often rely on context.

Yes, empieza is present tense, but Spanish often uses the present tense for scheduled future events, just like English does.

Compare:

• The meeting starts at twelve.
• La reunión empieza a las doce.

This is very natural in both languages when talking about timetables, schedules, or fixed plans.

Yes. Comienza and empieza both mean begins / starts.

So both are correct:

• La reunión empieza a las doce.
• La reunión comienza a las doce.

In many situations, empezar is a bit more common in everyday speech, but both are normal and correct.

Yes, but the meaning is slightly different.

• La reunión empieza a las doce = the meeting starts at twelve
• La reunión es a las doce = the meeting is / takes place at twelve

Both can work, but empieza is more precise if you want to talk about the starting time.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

la reu-nee-ON em-PYE-tha a las DO-the
in much of Spain

In many parts of Spain:

• z in empieza sounds like the th in think
• c before e/i also has that sound

In Latin America, you would usually hear: em-PYE-sa and DO-se

The stressed parts are:

• reuNIÓN
• emPIEza
• DOce

No. In Spanish, only the first word of the sentence is capitalized here:

• La reunión empieza a las doce.

Months, days of the week, languages, and most common nouns are not capitalized in Spanish unless they begin the sentence.

So this sentence is written correctly as:

• La reunión empieza a las doce.