Learn Dutch: U droogt zich af. - You formal dry yourself.

U droogt zich af.

You (formal) dry yourself.

Breakdown of U droogt zich af.

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Questions & Answers about U droogt zich af.

Why do we use zich for "yourself" here?

The pronoun u is the formal version of "you". In Dutch, the reflexive pronoun for u is zich. You might remember that zich is also used for "himself", "herself", and "themselves" (hij, zij, ze). It acts as the formal "yourself" here.

Is it also correct to say U droogt u af?

Yes! For the formal u, both zich and u are correct reflexive pronouns. So U droogt u af is perfectly fine, though U droogt zich af is often preferred by Dutch speakers because it avoids repeating the same word.

Why is the word af all the way at the end?

The full verb is afdrogen (to dry off), which is a separable verb. In a normal main sentence, the verb splits: the core verb (droogt) takes the second position, and the little prefix (af) gets kicked to the very end of the sentence.

How would this sentence look if I used the informal "you"?

If you are talking to a friend, you use the informal jij or je. The reflexive pronoun for je is also je. The sentence would be: Je droogt je af.