Breakdown of Mein Opa wäscht sich den Bart und die Haare.
und
and
mein
my
der Opa
the grandpa
waschen
to wash
sich
oneself / himself / herself / themselves (reflexive pronoun)
der Bart
the beard
das Haar
the hair
Questions & Answers about Mein Opa wäscht sich den Bart und die Haare.
The English translation says "his beard", so why does the German use den (the) instead of seinen (his)?
In German, when you talk about doing something to your own body parts or clothing, you don't usually use possessive words like seinen (his). Instead, you use a reflexive pronoun (here, sich) to show who it is happening to, and just the definite article (den or die) for the body part. Literally, this sentence translates to: My grandpa washes for himself the beard.
Is sich in the dative or accusative case here?
It is in the dative case! For the 3rd person (he/she/it/they), the reflexive pronoun sich looks exactly the same in both dative and accusative. We know it is dative here because the sentence already has direct objects in the accusative case (den Bart and die Haare). He is washing the beard (accusative) for himself (dative).
English uses the singular "hair", but is Haare plural here?
Yes! While English treats "hair" as a singular mass, German usually uses the plural die Haare when talking about all the hair on someone's head. If you say das Haar (singular), it usually refers to just one single strand of hair.
Why does the verb wäscht have an umlaut (ä) here?
The verb waschen (to wash) is a strong (irregular) verb. When conjugated for du (you) or er/sie/es (he/she/it), its stem vowel a changes to ä. Since Mein Opa acts as "he" (er), the correct form is wäscht.
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