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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. 1

    femininemasculinethird-person singular and plural reflexive pronoun; himself; herself; itself; themselves

    Ela se viu no espelho.

  2. 2

    Brazilcolloquialfemininemasculinenonstandardfirst-person singular reflexive pronoun; myself

    Eu acordei e se vesti.

  3. 3

    femininemasculinethird-person singular and plural reciprocal pronoun; each other; one another

    Quando eles se conheceram?

  4. 4

    Brazilcolloquialfemininemasculinenonstandardfirst-person plural reciprocal pronoun; each other; one another

    Nós se beijámos.

  5. 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. 6

    femininemasculineimpersonal pronominal verb; oneself

    Vive-se bem em Belém.

  7. 7

    femininemasculinea particle that passivizes the verb without specifying its agent

    Sempre se usavam roupas elegantes nessas reuniões.

  8. 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. 1

    if (introduces a condition that may be (or prove to be) either true or false)

    Se for sair, leve um guarda-chuva.

  2. 2

    if (introduces a condition that is counterfactual or hypothetical)

    Se ela não tivesse me falado, não ia saber.

  3. 3

    if (introduces a condition that is known to be true)

    Se você tem carro, por que ir a pé?

  4. 4

    if (introduces a relevance conditional)

    Tenho sobras de bolo se você quiser.

  5. 5

    if (when; whenever; every time that)

    Se ele fala, irrita a todos.

  6. 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

as sé
  1. 1

    femininesee (the cathedral and region under the jurisdiction of a bishop)

verb

as sê
  1. 1

    second-person singular imperative of ser

  2. 2

    apocopic form of ser; used preceding the pronouns lo, la, los or las

  3. 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).

What to look up after se