Brazilian Portuguese Texting Slang: How We Really Chat on WhatsApp

If you have ever texted a Brazilian friend on WhatsApp or slid into their Instagram DMs, you have probably run into something like this: "vc vai? blz, tmj, flw". Here in Brazil we abbreviate everything when we write informally, and this guide to Brazilian Portuguese texting slang covers the abbreviations we use every single day so you never get lost in a chat again.

These Portuguese chat abbreviations (or abreviações, as we call them) pop up in messages, comments, stories and group chats. They are not "bad Portuguese": they are a natural part of the informal register, the same way English speakers type "u", "lol" or "omw".

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The most common Portuguese chat abbreviations (informal texting)

Here is a table with each abbreviation and its full meaning in Portuguese. Save this post so you can check it whenever you need to.

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Everyday words we shorten in Brazil

On top of the acronyms above, there are single words we almost always trim when typing fast. These are the ones you will see the most:

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A fun fact: where did "cê" come from?

The cê is not a WhatsApp invention: it has centuries of history behind it. It all started with Vossa Mercê (literally "Your Mercy"), a formal, respectful way to address someone politely in Portugal, much like the way English once used titles such as "Your Grace". With everyday use, that long expression slowly wore down in people's mouths.

The path went more or less like this: Vossa Mercê became vosmecê, then vancê, and finally você. And since we Brazilians never stop trimming words, in everyday speech você even lost its first syllable and turned into cê: "cê vai?", "cê viu isso?". The funny part is that a form of address that was born extremely formal ended up as the most relaxed, informal way to say "you".

That is why cê almost always shows up in speech or in chat, never in a formal text. It is the same wearing-down process you see in every abbreviation in this post, only this one took a few centuries to finish.

Kékicêké? Learn Portuguese faster - Part 1 (advanced)

What they look like in a real conversation

To show you how we combine all these abbreviations, take a look at this typical little WhatsApp exchange between two friends:

Oi miga, vc vai no rolê hj?

Vou sim! Tô saindo agr. Tmj!

Blz, dmr! Flw, bjs

Abbreviated swear words in Portuguese (18+ content)

Heads up: this section contains vulgar language. I am including it because you will run into these abbreviations in memes, comments and informal conversations, and it is better to understand them than to be left thinking "what did they just say?". These are strong words: use them wisely (or better yet, just recognize them).

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Getting the hang of these Portuguese abbreviations is one of those details that make you sound much more natural when you chat with us. You do not need to memorize them all at once: you pick them up with use. My advice: next time a message full of acronyms lands in your inbox, come back to this table and decode it. Before long you will be doing it without thinking.

And when we speak? The contractions that are not written as acronyms

So far we have looked at written abbreviations: we cut letters to type faster (vc, tmj, blz). But there is another level that confuses a lot of Portuguese learners: when we speak, we do not just cut words, we melt them together. So "o que é que você quer?" comes out of the mouth as "kékicêké?", and "pensei que você ia" turns into "pensêquicêía". If you have ever known a word but failed to recognize it when you heard it, this is why.

I put together a series of four posts where I walk you through these contractions and abbreviations step by step, from basic to advanced. Each part has its own video, real examples and even a downloadable PDF. Start with whichever one helps you most:

• Part 1: the famous "kékicêké?". You learn how we fuse whole questions when speaking fast: coméki cê sabe?, xô vê, pronde cê vai?
• Part 2: here you will master the classics tô, tá, tava, num, numa, pra and the contractions with prepositions, both spoken and written. With example sentences to practice right away.
• Part 3: the final challenge. Whole sentences said at real Brazilian speed, like "tákiprôcês" or "vambora?". If you can already hold your own, test here how much you understand when we speak with no brakes.
• Part 4 (Basic): the most complete guide to get started. Here you understand the contractions that show up in EVERY conversation and that almost nobody explains to you: no, na, pelo, pela, dele, daquele, nesse, prum, dum... Includes a free PDF with the full list. If you are just starting out, begin here.

When we talk fast: the contractions of Portuguese

Up to here we looked at written abbreviations, but when we Brazilians talk fast something similar happens: we do not just trim words, we melt whole phrases together until they are almost unrecognizable. That is why you often know a word but do not recognize it when you hear it, because in real speech it sticks to the ones next to it and loses syllables. Look at these examples of how several everyday phrases really sound and what their full version is in Portuguese.

Anteontem is the day before yesterday (if today is Wednesday, it was Monday). It is exactly what English speakers call "the day before yesterday".

But in everyday conversation, almost no Brazilian says "anteontem" pronouncing every syllable clearly. Speaking fast, we swallow it and it sounds like "antiontem" or "antonte", all run together.

So do not be surprised to hear "antonte" in a chat: it is simply the spoken, informal way of saying anteontem.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. In some regions of Brazil, speech gets trimmed so much that it almost sounds like another language. The most famous case is Minas Gerais, with its mineirês, where whole phrases turn into a single word.

Acronyms in Portuguese - Formal ones

So far we have looked at chat abbreviations, that is, the informal ones. But there is another world of acronyms that also show up every day in Brazil, just in a more serious context: CPF, RG, CEP, CNH, CNPJ, PIX, SUS... These are the ones you will run into in documents, banks, forms, news and even in Brazilian series.

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If you do not know what they mean, no worries: I put together a complete guide where I explain the most used acronyms in Brazilian Portuguese, organized by category (documents, taxes, health, traffic, justice and much more), with their meaning, pronunciation and usage examples. There I also clear up the difference between acronyms, initialisms and abbreviations, which is one of the most common sources of confusion for Portuguese learners.

Watch out for the false friend: "chatear" is not what you think

Before we wrap up, a quick but important note: the Portuguese verb chatear looks a lot like the English word "chat", but it is a false friend and means something very different. In Brazil, chatear means to annoy, to bother or to bore someone. For example, when someone tells you "para de me chatear", they are not asking you to stop chatting on WhatsApp: they are telling you "stop bothering me".

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