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When messaging in Italian, there are lots of abbreviations you may come across. And unfortunately, you won’t find any of them in your trusty Italian dictionary! 

To help you understand what your Italian friends have written, I have put together a list of common Italian text abbreviations. It’s not perfect Italian and you shouldn’t use these outside of informal messaging, but it’s good to keep them up your sleeve! You never know, these abbreviations may even help you to send ‘messaggini’ (messages) more quickly too.

The letter K

The letter k doesn’t exist in the Italian alphabet, but it is on Italian phones, tablets and computers. It is used to replace a hard c sound. I have listed the abbreviation, the full Italian word, and the English translation, see some examples below:

Anke – anche – also

Ki – chi – who

Ke – che – what

Km – come – how / like

The letter X

If there’s an x in your Italian message, it means ‘per’ (for, by, to). The reason for this is that the multiplication sign in Italian is called ‘per’, so 2 x 4 = 8 is read ‘due per quattro fa otto’. You can use ‘x’ any time you would use the word ‘per’, as well as in longer words that include ‘per’, such as:

Xciò – perciò – therefore

Xò – però – but / however

Xsona – persona – person

Xk – perchè – why / because

Prox – prossimo/a – next

Xfetto – perfetto - perfect

Numbers and maths

The number 6 is used as an abbreviation for the word ‘sei’, meaning ‘you are’. For example:

Dve 6? – dove sei? – where are you?

C6 – ci sei – are you there? / are you in?

Plus and minus are ‘più’ and ‘meno’ in Italian and their symbols are used to mean ‘more’ or ‘less’:

+ - più – more

− - meno - less

+ trd – più tardi – later

−male – meno male – thank goodness

Dropping letters

Sometimes abbreviations are created by losing vowels, such as:

Cmq – comunque – anyway

Nn – non – not

Dv – dove - where

Dp – dopo – later / after

Scs – scusa – sorry

Cn – con – with

Sn – sono – I am

T – ti – you

M – mi – me

Brv – bravo/brava – good/clever

Vbn – va bene – that’s ok

Tnt – tanto – a lot / very much

Other words are just shortened:

C sent – ci sentiamo – we speak

C ved – ci vediamo – we see each other

Risp – risondi –answer

Msg – messaggio - message

How to end a message

At the end of a message, you may see some of these words and expressions:

Pfv – per favour - please

Grz – grazie – thanks

Bc – baci – kisses

Tvb – ti voglio bene – I love you (to friends and family)

Tvtb – ti voglio tanto bene – I love you so much (to friends and family)

Ta – ti amo – I love you (romantically)

And one final sentence here to try out your skills. What does this mean in Italian?

Dve 6? Nn c sent d tnt tmp! C ved la sett prox?

Here it is in proper Italian:

Dove sei? Non ci sentiamo da tanto tempo. Ci vediamo la settimana prossima?

And in English:

Where are you? We haven’t spoken in a long time. Shall we see each other next week?