se

Definition & meaning

Se has two main uses in Italian:

1. Conjunction: “if” or “whether.”

   • It introduces a condition: Se piove, resto a casa means “If it rains, I’ll stay home.”
   • It introduces an indirect yes-or-no question: Non so se verrà means “I don’t know whether he or she will come.”
   • In comparisons, come se means “as if.”

2. Reflexive pronoun form.

   • Se is an unstressed form used in certain pronoun combinations, as in se lo ricorda (“he or she remembers it”).
   • The stressed standalone pronoun is written sé, meaning “oneself”: parla di sé (“he or she talks about himself or herself”). The accent distinguishes it from the conjunction se.

Grammar & Word origin

As a conjunction, se is invariable: its form does not change. It comes from Latin sī, meaning “if.”

As a pronoun, se is a form of the reflexive pronoun si ↗. The form se appears in combinations with other pronouns, such as se lo ↗ and se ne ↗. The accented form sé is used when the pronoun is stressed or stands independently.

Synonyms & antonyms

• qualora ↗ can mean “if” and is generally more formal than se.
• nel caso in cui ↗ means “in the event that” or “in case,” and is more explicit than se.
• Antonyms: There is no direct antonym for se. Its opposite depends on the context; for example, a condition expressed with “if” may be contrasted with a statement that something happens regardless of the condition.

Common phrases & collocations

• come se ↗ — “as if”
• se possibile ↗ — “if possible”
• se no ↗ / sennò [?](vocabuo://word/sennò] — “otherwise” or “if not”