Breakdown of Elles se brossent souvent les dents.
elles
they (feminine)
souvent
often
se brosser
to brush
la dent
the tooth
Questions & Answers about Elles se brossent souvent les dents.
Why is there a se before the verb?
se is a reflexive pronoun. In French, when you do an action to yourself, you use a reflexive verb. Here, se brossent literally translates as "brush themselves". For the pronouns il, elle, ils, and elles, the reflexive pronoun is always se.
Why does it say les dents (the teeth) instead of using a word for "their"?
In French, when you are talking about parts of the body and you have already used a reflexive pronoun like se to show whose body it is, you just use the definite article (le, la, or les). The sentence literally translates to "they brush themselves the teeth".
Why is the word souvent (often) placed after the verb?
In French, short adverbs like souvent usually go directly after the conjugated verb, not before it. In English we say "often brush", but in French the order has to be brossent souvent.
Do I pronounce the "-ent" at the end of brossent?
No, the "-ent" ending for the ils and elles forms of regular verbs in the present tense is completely silent. You pronounce brossent exactly like you would pronounce the singular form, brosse.