How to write an email or letter in Italian
You may have been faced with the situation that you need to write a letter or an email in Italian to your Italian professor, your tour guide in Italy or an Italian Language School, and you don’t know where to start. So you switch to English, the lingua franca.
You shouldn’t, because writing a letter in Italian is not so difficult. All you need to do is learn the standard greetings and introductions, and there you have it.
Of course, the types of greetings and introductions, you are going to use, depend on to whom you are writing. And so, a distinction has to be made between writing a formal letter and an informal one.
How to write a formal email or letter
How to start a formal email or letter in Italian
If the situation requires you to be formal, you can start your email like this…
- Gentile Sig. Rossi – Dear Sir
- Gentile Sig.a Rossi – Dear Madam
If the situation requires you to be super formal, you should opt for this greeting
- Egregio Sig. Rossi Sir
- Egregia Sig.ra Rossi Madam
In formal letters or emails the abbreviations Sig. stands for Sir, Sig.ra stands for Madam.
If the setting is not so formal or you don’t know, you could start your email with a Buongiorno or Buonasera.
THE TITLES
Italians love using their titles, so it is important to mention them even in a letter. If the addressee has a title, you can use the following abbreviations The abbreviation goes straight before the person’s name. For example: Dott.ssa Mattea Capelli or Ing. Marco Ruggero.
- Dott. – Dott.ssa (dottore – dottoressa = a doctor or anyone with a degree)
- Avv. (avvocato – lawyer),
- Ing. (ingegnere – engineer),
- Arch. (architetto – architect),
- Rag. (ragioniere – accountant)
The introduction…
Referring to something
- Le scrivo, in riferimento al nostro incontro – I am writing with regard to our meeting
- Le scrivo, in riferimento al colloquio telefonico – I am writing with regard to our phone call
- Come anticipato nella mail precedente / telefonicamente – as stated in previous mail / call
- In risposta alla Sua mail…- In answer to your email (Sua is upper case here to distinguish it from the possessive adjective of the 3rd person singular sua “his/her)”
The body
In the main body of the mail you should write the reasons for writing, such as…
- Con la presente comunico… – I am writing with regard to
- Con presente, scrivo per presentare la mia candidatura per il posto di (job position) presso (company) – I am writing to apply to the X job position
- Le scrivo perché vorrei qualche informazione su… – I am writing because I would like to know…
The closings
The most common Italian letter closings are:
- In attesa di riscontro, resto a disposizione per chiarimenti e porgo cordiali saluti
- In attesa di un Suo cortese riscontro
- Ringraziando per l’attenzione
- In attesa di un Suo riscontro, porgo i miei più cordiali saluti
These letter endings stand for the English I am looking forward to hearing from you. Regardless, the meaning is slightly different, they serve the same purpose and are used in Italian in the same way.
Formal salutation
As for the final greetings, you should use the following Italian (formal) salutations or saluti formali, which stands for the English sincerely or warm/kind regards.
- Distinti Saluti
- Cordiali Saluti
- Cordialmente
If you have an attachment, don’t forget to mention it
- In allegato invio… – please find in attachment
- Allego… – I am attaching
How to say “I am looking forward to hearing from you”?
To round out the list, a note goes to the standard way of concluding an email in English: “I look forward to hearing from you.” The better way to translate this sentence in Italian is by using the phrases
- Aspetto Sue notizie (formal setting)
- Aspetto tue notizie (informal meeting)
Examples of formal letters (or emails) in Italian
Gentile Sig.na Rossi,
Con la presente, invio la mia candidatura per il posto di lavoro come Responsabile di Amministrazione presso i Vostri uffici.
Allego il mio CV e lettera di motivazione.
In attesa di un Suo riscontro, porgo i miei più cordiali saluti.
Serena
Gentile Sig. Rossi
Le scrivo in in riferimento al nostro colloquio telefonico di ieri, per comunicarle che abbiamo preso in considerazione la Sua proposta di progetto. La invitiamo a mandarci al più presto un report completo del progetto.
In attesa di un cordiale riscontro, le porgo i miei cordiali saluti.
Serena Rossi
How to write a informal email or letter in Italian
If you are writing your email or letter to an Italian friend or colleague, then the tone must be different, and you can switch to more informal greetings and ending salutations. Let’s see how
When it comes to starting a friendly email, you can opt for
- Caro Marco
- Cara Lucia
Caro stands for dear, but it is used just in informal and friendly settings. You can also open your letter by using ciao.
Concerning to ending a friendly letter or email, you should choose one of the following Italian salutations (Saluti informali)
- Fammi sapere – let me know
- Un abbraccio – hugs
- Un caro saluto – cheers
- A presto – until the next time
Example of a (short) friendly email in Italian
Ciao Marcello
Come stai? Scusami se ti rispondo con molto ritardo ma sono stato molto impegnato ultimamente. Come va la vita? Ci sono novità a lavoro? Per quanto riguarda quel progetto, ne ho parlato con il mio capo. In allegato ti mando mando i dettagli dell’incontro.
Fammi sapere cosa ne pensi
Un abbraccio
Marco
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August 18, 2020 @ 10:22 am
thank you so much. I wrote my first Italian formal letter without the need to check google translate
August 18, 2020 @ 6:13 pm
Happy to help 🙂
April 15, 2021 @ 3:15 am
Nicely presented modern aspects of italo grammar. Good job and I’ll check out your podcast next
July 11, 2022 @ 9:30 pm
Ciao, Serena!
Thank you for writing this article; it was very succinct and will prove itself to be a very handy reference. Nevertheless, I hope you will answer just a couple more questions for me:
1. Do these rules also apply to correspondence (i.e., comments, posts, replies, etc.) via the Internet (e.g., blogs and forums) and social media (e.g., Instagram, FB, etc.)?
2. Could one use “salve” to open a friendly email?
Aspetto tue notizie.
Un caro saluto!
Samantha
P.S. How is my comment vis-à-vis what you taught us in this article? If you see anything that might get me into trouble, or that you would have written a different way—other than the body of the message being in English, of course—please don’t hesitate to tell me. In fact, be very critical!
July 12, 2022 @ 8:27 am
Grazie Samantha!
to answer your inquiries:
1. Unless you’re writing a letter or email to someone, I personally wouldn’t use these forms on social media or blogs.
2. Yes, you can use “Salve” to open a friendly and informal email.