Learn French: Nous nous lavons le visage avec du savon.

Nous nous lavons le visage avec du savon.

We wash our faces with soap.

Breakdown of Nous nous lavons le visage avec du savon.

nous

we / us (object pronoun)

avec

with

some (partitive, masculine)

le savon

the soap

Questions & Answers about Nous nous lavons le visage avec du savon.

Why are there two nous words next to each other?

The first nous is the subject ("we"). The second nous is a reflexive pronoun that means "ourselves". When using a reflexive verb like se laver (to wash oneself), you need both to say "we wash (ourselves)".

The translation says "our faces", so why does the French use le visage ("the face")?

In French, you don't usually use words like "my" or "our" with body parts. Instead, you use the definite article (le, la, or les). The reflexive pronoun nous earlier in the sentence already tells us whose faces are being washed!

Since "we" refers to multiple people, why isn't the body part plural (les visages)?

When a group of people does an action to a body part, French keeps the body part singular if each person only has one. Since each person only has one face, it stays singular as le visage.

Why do we need du before savon?

Du means "some". In French, you can't just say "with soap"—you have to use a partitive article to show you are using an unspecified or uncountable amount of it. Since savon is a masculine word, we use du.