Breakdown of Hun tørrer sig med håndklædet.
hun
she
håndklædet
the towel
med
with; by (bus, train) / of, to (the meaning or point of something)
sig
oneself / himself / herself / themselves
Questions & Answers about Hun tørrer sig med håndklædet.
Why do we use sig instead of hende here?
sig is the reflexive pronoun for the third person (he, she, it, or they). It shows that the subject is performing the action on themselves. If you said Hun tørrer hende, it would mean "She dries her" (a completely different woman!). Because she is drying herself, we must use sig.
Would I use sig if I wanted to say "I dry myself"?
No, sig is only used for the third person (he, she, it, they). If you want to say "I dry myself", you use the first-person pronoun mig, like this: Jeg tørrer mig. Similarly, "You dry yourself" would be Du tørrer dig.
Do I always need a reflexive pronoun with tørrer?
Only when someone is drying themselves. If you are drying an object, you just use the normal noun. For example, Hun tørrer bordet means "She dries the table". The pronoun is only needed because the person and the object being dried are the same.
Why does håndklædet end with a -t instead of -en?
In Danish, nouns are either en-words (common gender) or et-words (neuter). The word for "towel" is an et-word: et håndklæde. To say "the towel", we add the definite suffix to the end. Since the word already ends in an -e, we just add a -t to make it håndklædet.