124 Spanish Text Slang Terms for Smooth Messaging (Plus Useful Tips)

hla amig@s 

Can’t understand what your Spanish friends are saying online?

Learning to read and write in Spanish isn’t as easy as it used to be.

In this world of tweets and text messages, you’ll need to learn Spanish text slang to follow what’s going on.

Contents

Common Spanish Text Slang

Here’s a table of some of the most common Spanish text slang. If this looks a bit intimidating, don’t worry: we’ll go into the “rules” for writing text slang in Spanish later!

Spanish Text SlangWhat It's Shorthand ForEnglish Translation
-menosminus
less
+ o –más o menosso-so
sort of
kind of
+másplus
more
=igualequal
same
100presiemprealways
100tosientoI feel like
5mentariossin comentariosno comment
no words
abera verlet's see
akiaquihere
al -al menosat least
alva la vergaf**k it (offensive)
amig@s
amigxs
amigos
amigas
friends
amixamigo
amiga
friend
aoraahoranow
asiesasí esthat's right
ayno¡ay, no!oh no!
bbbebébaby
babe
bbrbeberto drink
bnbiengood
bnobuenofine
all right
bnxbuenas nochesgood night
bs
bss
besoskisses
bstobesitolittle kisses
cdocuandowhen
cdtcuídatetake care
chalechaledamn
chic@schicos
chicas
boys
girls
cmcómo
como
how
cmo stas?¿cómo estás?how are you?
ddeof
da =da igualit's all the same
it doesn't matter
de+sia2demasiadostoo many
dnddónde
donde
de nada
where
you're welcome
dtbDios te bendigaGod bless you
FFF (used to express frustration or disappointment, similar to the way it's used in English slang)
findefin de semanaweekend
gfe
gfa
jefe
jefa
boss
father
mother
gnlgenialgreat
gntgentepeople
gpigracias por invitarthanks for the invite (used jokingly to reply to other people's fun/tasty-looking posts)
grax
grx
graciasthanks
hlaholahello
hi
hnohermanobrother
hnahermanasister
k kequé
que
what
k ase?¿qué haces?what are you doing?
what are you up to?
kdmosquedamoslet's meet
keseso?¿qué es eso?what's that?
kienesquiéneswho
kieroquierowant
knquién
quien
who
kntmcuéntametell me
komocómo
como
how
ksacasahouse
kualcuálwhich, what
kuxaescuchalisten (to me)
kyccálleseshut up
be quiet
kytcállateshut up
be quiet
m gustame gustaI like it
m parece bienme parece bienlooks good to me
mdi
me da =
me da igualI don't care
msjmensajemessage
mua
muak
-xoxo
mxomuchomuch
namasnada másonly that
no cno séidk (I don't know)
npnno pasa nadait's okay
don't worry
ntcno te creasjk (just kidding)
ntpno te preocupesdon't worry
olaholahello
hi
ondedónde
donde
where
papara
papá
for
to
dad
pcopocolittle
peraesperawait
perameespéramewait for me
wait up
pk
pork
pq
por qué
porque
why
because
pospueswell
then
ptipara tu informaciónfyi (for your information)
qquéwhat
qdmosquedamoslet's meet
qnesquiéneswho (plural)
qieroquierowant
qmplecumpleañosbirthday
re100reciénrecently
just
salu2saludosgreetings
sbs?¿sabes?you know?
sisoysi soyrelate
srtsuertegood luck
stldsi tú lo dicesif you say so
tte(to) you
taestáit's
ta bnestá bienit's okay
ta wenoestá buenookay
it's okay
t amote amoI love you
tanestányou're
they're
tb
tbn
tmb
tmbn
tambiéntoo
also
tbjtrabajowork
tkm
tqm
te quiero muchoI like you very much
tljte lo juro!I swear! (informal)
tmcte me cuidastake care of yourself
tnces
tonces
tons
entoncesso
then
totodoall
toyestoyI am
tqte quieroI love you
tvote veoI see you
vamovamoslet's go
vasir?¿vas a ir?are you going?
vdd?
vrd?
¿verdad?right?
vns?¿vienes?are you coming?
voavoy aI will
wapa
wapo
guapa
guapo
beautiful
handsome
xporfor
by
x favorpor favorplease
x nadapor nadayou're welcome
x2por dossame (lit "by two")
xaparafor
xa k?
xa q?
¿para qué?what for?
xauchaubye
xdonperdónI'm sorry
xfapor favorplease
xk
xq
por qué
porque
why
because
yen2yendoon my way
ymam
ymm
llámamecall me
yo tb
ytb
yo tambiénme too

Why You Need to Learn Spanish Text Message Slang

It’s not just to keep up with the cool kids.

There are several practical reasons learning Spanish text slang is useful for anyone.

Cutting down on characters will save you money on texts in the long run. Your friends will also be glad to no longer receive your four-message-long essays. If you’ve ever had several messages “beep” in quick succession on your phone, you know how annoying this can be.

You can simply say less in your messages, or you can use fewer characters to say the same thing. I think you’ll agree that the second option is more appealing.

Even if don’t regularly write text messages in Spanish, Spanish text slang is used across social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, as well as messaging services like WhatsApp. Using and understanding this slang will make you sound like an authentic member of the Spanish-speaking community.

Which you are, of course. Right?

Deciphering all those signs and symbols can be a fun way to use the Spanish you already know in a new way.

The Characteristics of Spanish Text Message Slang 

Omitting letters

Like in English, omitting vowels (vocales) is one of the easiest way to shrtn wrds. Genial becomes gnlfor example.

Losing consonants works too. Ahora is often written as aora.

But of course, it’s not always just a simple case of getting rid of the vocales.

When a word begins with es, drop those first letters. So estoy becomes toy and esta becomes ta

Switching letters

Another Spanish text slang characteristic is switching letters. For example, the letters q and c both change to k, so quiero becomes kiero, aquí becomes aki and quién becomes kn.

Note that the word que on its own can either change to k or q.

As you’ve seen, x is another letter that’s used a lot in Spanish text slang. X usually symbolizes por, so por favor (please) becomes xfa. Porque and ¿por qué? (because and why) become xq and xq?, respectively.

As por and para are similar (though sadly not exactly the same!), para becomes xa. Para qué? (another version of “why?” or “what for?”) becomes xa q?

The third and final way you can use the x in Spanish slang is to replace ch. For example, mucho becomes mxo and chau becomes xau.

Abbreviations

In English, we have FYI, LOL, ROFL and various other abbreviations. In Spanish, there are plenty of phrases that work in a similar way. Te quiero mucho becomes tqm or tkm, for example.

A basic chat message might start like this:

message ex 1

In “normal Spanish,” this means:

Hola (Hi)
¿Qué tal? (How are you?)
Bien, gracias ¿y tú? (Good, thanks. And you?)
Bien. (Good.)

Have lots of jajajaja in the middle while you chat about silly things and have fun. To “laugh” in Spanish, you can use jajaja, jejeje or jijiji.

An end to a chat might look something like this, assuming you guys like each other:

message ex 2

The “normal Spanish” translation for this one looks like:

Te quiero mucho (Love you)
Yo también (Love you too)
Besos (Kisses)

You can also end a text with bst (which means besito or “little kiss” in English) and a scattering of emoticons won’t hurt matters either.

It’s important to note that some Spanish speakers, especially young people, may use the English phrases instead of the Spanish equivalent. For example, they might use LOL (laugh out loud) or OMG (oh my God) in their English forms, since most people already know what they mean in English.

Numbers Used in Spanish Text Slang

In English, we might end a text with “cul8r.” We can also say something is gr8! The same concept of using letters for the way they sound applies to Spanish words.

For example, what do you think salu2 means? Salutwo? No, remember, that we’re speaking Spanish here so 2 is pronounced dos. So salu2 means saludos!

There you go. You can now send greetings to people in your text messages.

Other phrases using numbers are:

re100 = recién (recently)

100pre = siempre (always)

You could end your text message with: Tqm xa 100pre. That would mean, te quiero mucho para siempre or “I love you forever.” Or simply end with salu2, to play it a bit cooler.

Symbols Used in Spanish Text Slang

Symbols can also be used in fun ways to make phrases. If you want to say me da igual (I don’t mind), for example, you could choose between MDI, me da = and da =. (Remember that = is pronounced igual in Spanish.)

The phrase más o menos is used a lot in Spanish to mean “so, so,” “sort of” or “kind of.” Mathematical symbols are used here (más = plus, menos = minus) so the phrase becomes: ” + 0 – ” (Yes, you read that right.)

You might have also noticed that some Spanish speakers use the @ sign in words like amig@s or chic@s.

This isn’t just to look cool, but rather it’s a way of representing that the friends or people could be boys or girls, (where they’d usually be either amigos or amigas) and making Spanish more gender neutral. Got that, + o –?

You’ll also notice that, to save space, the upside-down question and exclamation marks aren’t used in Spanish text slang.

Practicing Spanish Slang in General

So there you have it! You should be able to impress your Spanish-speaking friends and bombard them with messages, hashtags and threads. And, of course, your text messages will be much shorter now.

Next on your list should be spoken slang. That’s basically like audio text messages, right? Okay, maybe that’s a stretch. But if you want to sound natural in Spanish, it’s always a good idea to learn some common slang actually used by Spanish speakers.

One way to learn useful Spanish slang is on FluentU, where you can hear it used through Spanish videos like movie clips, music videos and vlogs.

Go for it, chic@s!

And One More Thing…

If you've made it this far that means you probably enjoy learning Spanish with engaging material and will then love FluentU.

Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.

FluentU has a wide variety of videos, as you can see here:

learn-spanish-with-videos

FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.

learn-spanish-with-interactive-subtitled-videos

Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab.

learn-spanish-with-songs

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.

learn-spanish-with-music-videos

The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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