Making business phone calls: Scheduling a meeting over the phone

💬 The -le on ayudarle is the formal "you". With a friend it becomes ayudarte.

💬 Add any action to make a polite request: Me gustaría hablar con... "I'd like to speak with...". It's softer than quiero "I want".

💬 Here le means "you" (formal). With a friend you'd say ¿Te va bien?.

💬 Spanish uses el where English uses "on" with days: el jueves "on Thursday". Use los jueves for "on Thursdays" every week.

💬 Parts of the day take por: por la tarde "in the afternoon", por la noche "at night".

🇪🇸 In Spain "morning" stretches until around 2 pm, when lunch begins. A meeting por la mañana could easily be at 12:30.

💬 Putting el jueves first highlights the day, as in "Thursday, I can't". It's a natural way to turn down one option and leave others open.

💬 ¿Y + thing? is a quick way to suggest an alternative. For example, ¿Y a las once? "What about at eleven?"

💬 Times use las because horas "hours" is understood: a las diez. The one exception is one o'clock, which is a la una.

💬 parecer means "to seem", so this is literally "does it seem good to you?". The le makes it formal, and ¿Te parece bien? is the casual version.

💬 Literally "do we see each other?", this is the everyday way to say "shall we meet?". Nos vemos on its own also works as "see you".

💬 su can mean "your" (formal), "his", "her" or "their", so context decides. On this call it's the formal "your".

💬 In Spain calle "street" comes before the name, and the number comes last.

💬 In Spain the c in doce is said like English th: (DOH-theh). Same in once and trece.

💬 muchas ends in -as to match gracias. Never say muchos gracias.

🇪🇸 This is the polite way to return someone's thanks, used with people you address formally. With friends you'd say a ti.

💬 Hasta + a time is the standard sign-off for "see you then". For example, Hasta mañana "See you tomorrow" or Hasta luego "See you later".