Talking about work in Spanish: 12 phrases for the meeting after the meeting
The vocabulary that keeps a project honest: deadlines, ownership, workload and the polite objection. B1, no word-type grouping — just the twelve phrases worth having ready.
Reviewed by Kirill Oleinichenko on September 18, 2026 · checklist v1
Work Spanish has a different centre of gravity from café Spanish. The grammar gets simpler — the present, the preterite and one good connector carry most of it — and the risk moves to tone. Saying «no puedo» is easy; saying «puedo, pero necesita otro plazo» is what keeps a project from quietly going wrong.
This set collects the twelve phrases that come up whichever side of the standup you are on. Some of them name things: the deadline, the workload, the colleague. A few carry responsibility — encargarse de algo, llevar a cabo. Two of them are the soft edges of a team: posponer instead of cancelar, sin embargo instead of no.
There is no word-type grouping on this page on purpose. At B1 the useful distinction is no longer between a noun and a verb; it is between a phrase you can say in the meeting and a phrase you can say after it. Read the list once, then reach for the practice sample.
One more habit makes the set stick: decide before the meeting which phrase you are going to use, and use it once. A phrase you have said out loud in a real call stops being vocabulary and becomes a reflex; the rest of the list waits its turn.
Vocabulary
la reuniónthe meeting
La reunión se ha alargado media hora. — The meeting ran half an hour over.
«Reunión» takes an accent on the ó in the singular and loses it in the plural: reuniones.
el plazothe deadline
El plazo para enviar el informe vence el viernes. — The deadline to send the report is Friday.
«El plazo vence» — deadlines expire; «cumplir el plazo» is to meet one.
encargarse de algoto take charge of something
Me encargo yo de hablar con el cliente. — I'll take care of talking to the client.
Reflexive: «me encargo», «te encargas». It promises ownership, not just participation.
el equipothe team
El equipo está en remoto los viernes. — The team is remote on Fridays.
In Latin America you will also hear «el team», but «equipo» is understood everywhere.
la carga de trabajothe workload
Esta semana la carga de trabajo es insostenible. — This week the workload is unsustainable.
Handy in a one-on-one: «¿cómo llevas la carga de trabajo?» — how are you handling the workload?
posponerto postpone
Podemos posponer la llamada a mañana. — We can postpone the call to tomorrow.
Irregular participle: pospuesto. Softer than «cancelar» — you can still say no.
el compañero, la compañerathe colleague
Mi compañera lleva el proyecto de Valencia. — My colleague runs the Valencia project.
«Compañero» covers classmates and teammates too; «colega» is a bit more formal.
llevar a caboto carry out
Llevamos a cabo la migración en dos fases. — We carried out the migration in two phases.
Fixed pair — «llevar a cabo» never changes the second word. Register: written status updates.
la herramientathe tool
Necesitamos una herramienta mejor para las notas. — We need a better tool for notes.
«Herramienta» is the physical kind too — context decides; software is usually «la herramienta» or «la app».
tener en cuentato keep in mind
Ten en cuenta que el cliente trabaja en otro huso horario. — Keep in mind that the client works in another time zone.
Imperative is irregular: «ten». In meetings you will hear «teniendo en cuenta…» as a connector.
el ascensothe promotion
Le dieron el ascenso después de dos años. — They gave him the promotion after two years.
The verb is «ascender»; «subir de puesto» is the informal version.
sin embargohowever
El plan es bueno; sin embargo, falta presupuesto. — The plan is good; however, the budget is missing.
Introduces the objection and survives a pause — «sin embargo» is what you say before disagreeing politely.
Built from: Kardo editorial team (calibration set, 2026-09)
Practice sample
Try one card from this deck.
Card 1 of 12
la reunión
the meeting
La reunión se ha alargado media hora. — The meeting ran half an hour over.
Review these words in Kardo
Kardo turns the words you actually meet — in lessons, articles, voice notes — into scheduled cards, with the context sentence attached. This deck comes from that pipeline.
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