Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "se" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

Q: How do you pronounce se in Portuguese (Brazil)?

se is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /si/. It means “if.” SEE. One syllable, the e raised to an i, and the s stays a clean hiss.

SEE. One syllable, the e raised to an i, and the s stays a clean hiss.

se /si/

An unstressed conjunction leaning on the clause it opens, which is what keeps the vowel raised. It's a homograph with the reflexive pronoun "se," pronounced identically, so "se ele se levanta" contains the same two letters doing entirely different grammatical jobs in the same breath.

Listen: se

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Sound it out

s A word-initial s, always unvoiced. It would only become a z if it sat between vowels, and here it opens the word, so it's a straightforward hiss.

e Unstressed and word-final, so it raises to "ee." Unlike t and d, the s isn't altered by the following i-sound, so there's no palatalization — just "see."

Hear it in a sentence

Se você quiser, eu vou junto.

If you want, I'll come along.

Listen: Se você quiser, eu vou junto.

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"Se você quiser, eu vou junto" opens a conditional, and the verb "quiser" is in the future subjunctive — a tense Portuguese uses constantly and Spanish has largely abandoned. Notice "junto" begins with a j pronounced "zh," like the s in "treasure," never the hard English j of "jump."

Where English speakers slip

Saying "say" is the default English reading and it's wrong on the vowel. Keep it high: "see." Learners also confuse this word with "sim," which is nasal and means "yes" — an easy slip since both are short s-words. Spanish speakers have their own version of the trap, since Spanish "si" and "sí" differ only by accent while Portuguese uses two visibly different spellings.