Breakdown of Zij wassen hun haar met zeep.
zij
they
met
with
wassen
to wash
hun
their
de zeep
the soap
het haar
the hair
Questions & Answers about Zij wassen hun haar met zeep.
The lesson is about reflexive pronouns. Why isn't there a zich in this sentence?
In Dutch, when you wash a specific body part (like your hair or hands), you don't use a reflexive pronoun. Just like in English, you simply use the verb wassen and a possessive pronoun (hun). You would only use zich if they were washing themselves in general: Zij wassen zich (They wash themselves).
How can I tell that zij means "they" and not "she" in this sentence?
You can tell by looking at the verb! Wassen is the plural form. If zij meant "she", the verb would be singular: Zij wast hun haar (She washes their hair).
I thought haar meant "her"?
It does! The Dutch word haar has two completely different meanings: the pronoun "her" and the noun "hair". You can easily tell it means "hair" here because it comes right after the possessive word hun (their).
Could I use ze instead of zij here?
Yes, ze is the unstressed version of zij and is actually much more common in everyday speech. You only use zij when you want to put specific emphasis on who is doing the washing ("They wash their hair, not us").
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