se
Portuguese, pronoun
se is spelled S-E (2 letters) and appears 8,710 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 16th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Se is a Portuguese feminine pronoun meaning “third-person singular and plural reflexive pronoun; himself; herself; itself; themselves” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an accent, sé is a different word: “see (the cathedral and region under the jurisdiction of a bishop)”. With an accent, sê is a different word: “apocopic form of ser; used preceding the pronouns lo, la, los or las”. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “pronome pessoal reflexo”.
What does se mean in English?
pronoun
- 1
femininemasculinethird-person singular and plural reflexive pronoun; himself; herself; itself; themselves
Ela se viu no espelho.
- 2
Brazilcolloquialfemininemasculinenonstandardfirst-person singular reflexive pronoun; myself
Eu acordei e se vesti.
- 3
femininemasculinethird-person singular and plural reciprocal pronoun; each other; one another
Quando eles se conheceram?
- 4
Brazilcolloquialfemininemasculinenonstandardfirst-person plural reciprocal pronoun; each other; one another
Nós se beijámos.
- 5
femininemasculinesecond-person singular and plural reflexive and reciprocal pronoun, when used with second-person pronouns other than tu and vós; yourself; yourselves
E você se diz um professor!
- 6
femininemasculineimpersonal pronominal verb; oneself
Vive-se bem em Belém.
- 7
femininemasculinea particle that passivizes the verb without specifying its agent
Sempre se usavam roupas elegantes nessas reuniões.
- 8
femininemasculineaccessory, when it is used to embellish the verb without its omission impairing the understanding or changing the meaning
"Vão-se os reis, mas as nações ficam."
conjunction
- 1
if (introduces a condition that may be (or prove to be) either true or false)
Se for sair, leve um guarda-chuva.
- 2
if (introduces a condition that is counterfactual or hypothetical)
Se ela não tivesse me falado, não ia saber.
- 3
if (introduces a condition that is known to be true)
Se você tem carro, por que ir a pé?
- 4
if (introduces a relevance conditional)
Tenho sobras de bolo se você quiser.
- 5
if (when; whenever; every time that)
Se ele fala, irrita a todos.
- 6
if, whether (used to introduce a noun clause, an indirect question, that functions as the direct object of certain verbs)
Não sei se ela vem.
noun
- 1
femininesee (the cathedral and region under the jurisdiction of a bishop)
verb
- 1
second-person singular imperative of ser
- 2
apocopic form of ser; used preceding the pronouns lo, la, los or las
- 3
eye dialect spelling of ser, representing Brazil Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
conjunction: 1. indica hipótese 2. indica tempo; quando 3. visto que, uma vez que 4. introduz uma oração subordinada substantiva que expressa dúvida, incerteza ou interrogação direta
particle: 1. palavra apassivante ou partícula apassivadora
pronoun: 1. pronome pessoal reflexo
abbreviation: 1. Estado de Sergipe
noun: 1. igreja episcopal
noun: 1. senhor
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of se
- si alternative
- sés plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to se
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is se in Portuguese?
se appears 8,710 times per million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).