Режим полоскания закончился, и бельё отжимают.

Полоскания is in the genitive singular.

In Russian, a noun often modifies another noun by using the genitive, where English would often use of or a noun-noun combination. So:

• режим = mode / cycle / setting
• полоскание = rinsing / rinse
• режим полоскания = rinse cycle or literally mode of rinsing

This is a very common pattern:

• чашка чая = a cup of tea
• центр города = city center
• начало урока = the start of the lesson

So here полоскания tells you what kind of mode/cycle it is.

Закончился comes from the verb закончиться, which means to end / to come to an end.

So:

• режим полоскания закончился = the rinse cycle ended / has finished

Why this form?

• режим is masculine singular
• past tense agrees with the subject
• so we get закончился (masculine singular past)

Compare:

• урок закончился = the lesson ended
• игра закончилась = the game ended
• занятие закончилось = the class ended

Why not закончил?
Because закончил usually means (someone) finished something:

• Я закончил работу = I finished the work

Why not закончено?
That would be a short-form passive participle, used in a different structure:

• Полоскание закончено = The rinsing is finished

That version is possible in some contexts, but it is a different construction from the one in your sentence.

The -ся here is part of the verb закончиться, which means to finish/end by itself or to come to an end.

Compare:

• закончить что-то = to finish something
• закончиться = to end / to be over

So:

• Мама закончила стирку. = Mom finished the washing.
• Стирка закончилась. = The washing ended / the wash is over.

In your sentence, the rinse cycle is not finishing something else; it itself is ending. That is why Russian uses закончился.

In Russian, бельё is a collective noun. Grammatically it is singular neuter, even though in English we often translate it with a plural idea like laundry or clothes.

So Russian treats it like one mass/collection:

• чистое бельё = clean laundry
• бельё сохнет = the laundry is drying
• бельё отжимают = the laundry is being spun/wrung out

This is similar to how English uses singular mass nouns like:

• furniture
• luggage
• laundry

You do not normally say белья as a plural meaning “laundries/clothes” in ordinary use.

Russian often uses the 3rd person plural to express an action when the doer is not named, not important, or understood from context. This is called an indefinite-personal use.

So:

• бельё отжимают literally = they are spinning/wringing out the laundry
• natural English meaning = the laundry is being spun

This is very common in Russian. For example:

• Меня зовут Анна. = My name is Anna.
  Literally: They call me Anna.
• В дверь стучат. = Someone is knocking at the door.
  Literally: They are knocking at the door.

In a washing-machine context, отжимают sounds natural because the agent is not important; what matters is that this stage is happening.

No specific person is meant.

Russian often uses 3rd person plural with an unspecified subject:

• говорят = they say / people say
• строят = they are building / people are building
• отжимают = they are spinning out / it is being spun out

In this sentence, the real-world “doer” is effectively the machine or the process, but Russian does not need to say that directly. The grammar simply presents the action as happening.

Here отжимают means spin-dry / wring out / extract water from.

The verb is отжимать (imperfective). In laundry/washing-machine language, it refers to the stage where water is pressed or spun out of the clothes.

Depending on context, English translations could be:

• the laundry is being spun
• the laundry is being spin-dried
• the clothes are being wrung out

Outside laundry, отжимать can also mean things like:

• to wring out by hand
• to squeeze out
• in other contexts, even to seize/extort something

But in this sentence, the washing-machine meaning is clear.

Because the sentence is describing an ongoing stage/process.

• отжимают = imperfective, present tense
  “they are spinning it” / “it is being spun”

The sentence means:

• the rinse cycle has ended,
• and now the laundry is in the spinning stage.

If you used a perfective future form such as отожмут, it would mean something like:

• they will spin it out

That would shift the meaning away from “this is happening now” to “this will happen / be completed.”

So the imperfective is the natural choice for a machine status/update.

Because this sentence joins two clauses, each with its own predicate:

1. Режим полоскания закончился
2. бельё отжимают

In Russian, when и connects two full clauses, a comma is normally used:

• Он пришёл, и мы начали.
• Дождь закончился, и стало тепло.

So here the comma is standard.

Yes. Russian has other ways to express similar meaning, for example:

• Режим полоскания закончился, и бельё отжимается.
• Режим полоскания закончился, бельё отжато. (less likely if the action is still ongoing; this means it has already been spun out)

But бельё отжимают is very natural Russian, especially in practical or machine-related language.

A rough comparison:

• бельё отжимают = the laundry is being spun / they are spinning the laundry
• бельё отжимается = the laundry is being spun (more formally/passively, sometimes sounding a bit less natural depending on context)

The original version is concise and idiomatic.

Because they are different words with different fixed spellings.

• бельё is spelled with ё
• полоскание is spelled with е, not ё

In printed Russian, ё is sometimes written as е, but the correct dictionary form of бельё is still бельё.

For learners, it helps to remember:

• бельё → always think of the yo sound
• полоскание → no ё there

Not the only way, but it is a very natural one.

Other possibilities depend on context:

• полоскание = rinsing / rinse
• цикл полоскания = rinse cycle
• режим полоскания = rinse mode / rinse cycle

On a washing machine, режим often refers to a program or mode, while цикл can emphasize the cycle/stage. In many contexts, both are understandable, but режим полоскания sounds perfectly normal.

A very literal breakdown would be:

• Режим = mode / cycle
• полоскания = of rinsing / rinse
• закончился = ended / came to an end
• и = and
• бельё = laundry
• отжимают = they are spinning/wringing out

So, literally:

The rinsing mode ended, and they are spinning out the laundry.

But natural English would usually be:

The rinse cycle has ended, and the laundry is being spun.