Here is some information about how to write an email that will help with our latest discussion in the Conversational Italian! Facebook group.
We are talking this week about how to conclude an email or a letter. Read below and join the conversation on our Facebook group. I’d love to hear from you!
For more complete details, visit our sister blog, blog.learntravelitalian.com, from which this excerpt was taken. All material is courtesy of Stella Lucente, LLC, and www.learntravelitalian.com.
Italian Salutations for Emails, Texts, and Letters
After we’ve written our email, text, or formal letter, how should we sign off? As you can imagine, this is very different depending on how close the two correspondents are. For two friends, the typical spoken salutations, “Ciao” and “Ci vediamo,” are commonly used for emails and texts, as are the many idiomatic expressions such as “A presto” or “A dopo.”
For those who are close friends or family, one may send kisses as “baci” and sometimes hugs, “abbracci,” as we do in English. You can imagine that there are many variations on this theme, such as “un bacione” for “a big kiss.” “Un bacio” or “tanti baci” are other variations and mean “a kiss” and “many kisses.” There is one big difference between salutations in English and Italian, though: Italians normally do not sign off with the word “love,” as in “Love, Kathy.”
For business, the word “Saluti” is generally used in closing to mean “Regards.” One can also give “Un Saluto” or “Tanti Saluti.” “Cordialmente” means “Yours Truly.” “Cordali Saluti” or “Distinti Saluti” are particularly polite, meaning “Kind Regards” and “Best Regards.” “Sinceramente” means “Sincerely” but is not as often used in closing an email or letter.
Commonly Used Familiar Italian Salutations
Ciao | Bye |
Ci vediamo | Good-bye (Until we see each other again.) |
A presto! | See you soon! |
A dopo! | See you later! |
Baci | Kisses |
Un bacio | A kiss |
Un bacione | A big kiss |
Tanti baci | Lots of kisses |
Baci e Abbracci | Kisses and hugs |
Commonly Used Formal Italian Salutations
Saluti | Regards |
Un Saluto | Regards |
Cordialmente | Yours truly |
Cordali Saluti | Kind regards |
Distinti Saluti | Best regards |
Tanti Saluti | Many regards |
Sinceramente | Sincerely |
This is super useful . I never know when to say baci and abbraci. Now I know. Gracie mille. x
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Glad you found my post helpful! I try to put up information that I find useful as I research it to try to improve my Italian.
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I’m sorry, I did mistake too… Your name is not Stella, but Kathryn. 🙂
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Yes, no problem. Many people think my company name is my name!
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Love this post me too, thank you Stella. I just note this one type mistake: Cordalimente – cor(DIAL)mente 🙂
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Thank you for letting me know! Will change.
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You are welcome!
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Reblogged this on Make Italy Yours.
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Thank you for the reblog!
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Very helpful! Grazie, Kathryn! Putting this into my quaderno!
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Prego!
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Love this post, many thanks for this useful list!
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You are very welcome!
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