Breakdown of Questa felpa è bella, se la mette.
essere
to be
bello
beautiful
questo
this (masculine)
la felpa
sweatshirt
Questions & Answers about Questa felpa è bella, se la mette.
Why does the sentence use se la instead of si la?
When the third-person reflexive pronoun si is placed right before a direct object pronoun like la (it), the si changes to se. This happens with all third-person combinations, turning si into se lo, se la, se li, or se le.
Why do we need the reflexive se here? Couldn't we just say la mette?
To say you are putting on an item of clothing, Italian uses the reflexive verb mettersi (literally, to put on oneself). If you just said la mette, it would mean she puts or places the sweatshirt somewhere, like on a chair, losing the meaning of getting dressed.
How do we know to use la in this combination?
The direct object pronoun must match the gender and number of the noun it replaces. Since felpa is feminine singular, we use la. If she were putting on a masculine item like a sweater (un maglione), it would be se lo mette.
The translation says 'she puts it on', but could this also mean 'he puts it on'?