Breakdown of Sie wäscht sich die Beine.
sie
she
waschen
to wash
sich
oneself / himself / herself / themselves (reflexive pronoun)
das Bein
the leg
Questions & Answers about Sie wäscht sich die Beine.
Why do we use sich here instead of nothing at all?
In German, when you do an action to a part of your own body, you use a reflexive pronoun to show who is affected. Here, sich (herself) shows that she is the one receiving the action of the washing.
Is sich in the accusative or dative case in this sentence?
It is dative! For the third person (he, she, it, they), both the accusative and dative reflexive pronouns are sich. Because the sentence already has a direct object being washed (die Beine), the reflexive pronoun must take the dative case.
Why does it say die Beine (the legs) instead of ihre Beine (her legs)?
In English we say 'she is washing her legs', but in German, you usually use the definite article (die) for body parts when it is already clear whose body it is. The reflexive pronoun sich already tells us it is her own body, so the possessive word ihre is not needed.
Why is there an umlaut in wäscht?
The verb waschen (to wash) is a strong verb. This means its main vowel changes in the du (you) and er/sie/es (he/she/it) forms. The a changes to ä, making it sie wäscht.
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