Making business phone calls: Scheduling a meeting over the phone

💬 Italian uses no word for "on" with days. Giovedì mattina alone means "on Thursday morning". It works the same with lunedì pomeriggio "Monday afternoon".

💬 Italian simply leaves out "it". È possibile is a statement, and rising intonation makes it a question.

💬 Pieno means "full". It's the normal word for a fully booked day, the same one you'd use for a full glass.

🇮🇹 Italian receptionists routinely soften a refusal with Mi dispiace. It's also the polite way for you to decline a slot they offer.

💬 Alle is a + le merged, and you use it for clock times: alle dieci, alle tre. One o'clock is the exception, all'una, because it counts as just one hour.

💬 Va bene literally means "it goes well". Asked as a question it checks if something works, and said flatly it means "OK".

💬 Adding -issimo boosts a word: bene becomes benissimo "very well", and bello becomes bellissimo "very beautiful".

🇮🇹 Repeating the day and time back is standard on Italian business calls. It confirms the booking without sounding fussy.

💬 Italian uses in with no "the" for familiar places: in ufficio, in banca "at the bank", in farmacia "at the pharmacy".

💬 Allora means "so" or "well then" here, and it signals a wrap-up. Italians use it constantly to open or close a point.

💬 The apostrophe stands for a dropped vowel: d'accordo is di accordo "in agreement". Say it as one word: (dak-KOR-doh).

🇮🇹 molto gentile is a standard warm closing for a stranger who helped you. It sounds polite, not gushing.

💬 Si figuri is the formal form, used with someone you call Lei. Between friends it becomes Figurati.

🇮🇹 This is the polite reply to grazie in professional settings. It's warmer than prego, roughly "don't mention it".

🇮🇹 The standard friendly sign-off to end a business call or leave a shop. Expect to hear it back.

🇮🇹 Use it to return a wish, like when someone says Buona giornata "Have a good day" at the end of a call. It fits both formal and informal situations.