riduce

Riduce is the third-person singular present indicative form of the Italian verb ridurre, meaning “he/she reduces” or “you (formal) reduce.” The infinitive ridurre comes from Latin reducere, re- plus ducere, with senses including to bring back, to lessen, or to compress. In contemporary Italian, ridurre covers lowering quantities, prices, emissions, or dimensions, and can also refer to simplifying a problem or reducing data sets.

Conjugation and usage notes: the present indicative forms of ridurre are io riduco, tu riduci, lui/lei riduce, noi riduciamo, voi riducete, loro riducono. The past participle is ridotto, used with avere in compound tenses (e.g., Ho ridotto i costi, La quantità è stata ridotta). The passato remoto form for lui/lei is ridusse, and the future tense is ridurrò, ridurrai, ridurrà, ridurremo, ridurrete, ridurranno. Ridurre is a transitive verb and commonly takes a direct object representing what is being diminished or brought to a given level (e.g., ridurre i costi, ridurre le emissioni).

Usage notes and nuance: ridurre often implies bringing something to a defined level or back to a previous state, whereas diminuire is a broader term for general decrease. It is frequently used in economics, environmental policy, manufacturing, mathematics, and data processing (e.g., ridurre la dimensione di un file, ridurre un problema complesso a una versione semplificata). The phrase ridurre a può indicate reduction to a specific value, such as “ridurre a due metri.”

See also: riduzione, riduttore, riducibile.