Negotiating salary: Responding to a job offer

🇮🇹 Calling the salary un po' basso rather than simply basso is the polite, standard way to push back. Italian negotiation favours softened wording over blunt demands.

💬 aveva is a past form used to make the question gentler, much like English "did you have". In the same way, volevo "I wanted" softens a request.

💬 Italian numbers are written as a single word: trenta + cinque + mila. Note that "one thousand" is mille, but every thousand after that uses mila.

💬 all'anno is a + l'anno, merged into one word. Swap in al mese to say "per month".

🇮🇹 Italian salaries are usually discussed as an annual gross figure, called the RAL. Take-home pay is much lower and is often paid in 13 or 14 monthly instalments.

💬 pensavo a "I was thinking of" is a soft way to put your number on the table, because the past form makes it sound less like a demand. You can reuse it for any suggestion: pensavo a venerdì "I was thinking Friday".

💬 fare "to do" works for agreeing on a figure, just like English "can we do...?". The same frame applies to prices: possiamo fare cento?

💬 Italian often drops the word for "you", and here the verb form accetta is the polite "you". A rising tone at the end is all it takes to turn it into a question.

💬 mille literally means "a thousand", so this is "a thousand thanks". It's an everyday phrase, not an over-the-top one.

💬 benvenuto changes its ending to match the person being welcomed: benvenuta for a woman, benvenuti for a group.

💬 le here is the polite "to you". Italian often uses the present tense for near-future plans, so mando means "I'll send".