Log inSign up

L'homme se rase devant le miroir.

L'homme se rase devant le miroir.
The man is shaving in front of the mirror.
From Lesson 60:Daily routine verbs (se lever, s'habiller)·French

Questions & Answers about L'homme se rase devant le miroir.

Why do we need the word se in this sentence?
Se is a reflexive pronoun that means himself here. For many daily routine actions like washing, dressing, or shaving, French uses reflexive verbs to show that the subject is performing the action on themselves. Literally, the sentence says The man shaves himself.
Why does se come before the verb rase?
In French, reflexive pronouns like me, te, and se always go directly before the verb they belong to. You cannot put it after the verb like in English; it must be L'homme se rase and never L'homme rase se.
The English translation says 'is shaving'. Why doesn't the French sentence use a word for 'is'?
French does not have a separate '-ing' tense like English does. The simple present tense in French covers both meanings. Therefore, se rase translates to both 'shaves' (as a daily routine) and 'is shaving' (happening right now).
Why is it written as L'homme instead of Le homme?
The letter 'h' in homme is silent, meaning the word starts with a vowel sound. When short words like le or la come before a vowel sound, they drop their own vowel and connect to the next word with an apostrophe. This makes the sentence flow more smoothly.

Learn L'homme se rase devant le miroir and more in French

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning French →