Отжим закончился, и бельё развешивают.

Here отжим means the spin cycle of a washing machine.

More literally, отжим comes from the idea of wringing out / extracting moisture. In laundry context, it often refers to the machine stage where water is spun out of the clothes.

So in this sentence, Отжим закончился means The spin cycle has finished / ended.

Because отжим is:

• masculine
• singular
• the subject of the clause

The verb закончиться is used here, not закончить.

So:

• закончился = masculine singular past
• закончилась = feminine singular past
• закончилось = neuter singular past
• закончились = plural past

Since отжим is masculine, the correct form is закончился.

Also, закончиться means to come to an end / to finish, while закончить usually means to finish something as an object.

Compare:

• Отжим закончился. = The spin cycle ended.
• Я закончил стирку. = I finished the washing.

The -ся makes the verb закончиться, which often means to end, to be over, or to come to an end.

Without -ся, закончить usually means to finish something:

• Я закончил работу. = I finished the work.

With -ся, the event itself ends:

• Работа закончилась. = The work ended.
• Отжим закончился. = The spin cycle ended.

So in this sentence, the spin cycle is not actively finishing something else; it is itself coming to an end.

Бельё is a neuter singular collective noun.

It usually means:

• laundry
• linen
• sometimes underwear, depending on context

In this sentence it means the laundry / the clothes being washed.

Even though it refers to multiple items, grammatically it is treated as singular:

• чистое бельё = clean laundry
• мокрое бельё = wet laundry

So it works a bit like English laundry: one grammatical word referring to a collection of clothes.

Because бельё is not the subject of развешивают.

The verb развешивают is in the 3rd person plural, but the subject is omitted. Russian often does this when the subject is indefinite or obvious from context.

So the structure is basically:

• (Они) развешивают бельё.
• They are hanging up the laundry.

But in English, this is often translated more naturally as:

• The laundry is being hung up.

So:

• бельё = object
• развешивают = they hang / are hanging
• implied subject = someone / people / they

This is a very common Russian pattern.

Grammatically, it is active, not passive.

Russian often uses an active 3rd person plural verb with no stated subject to mean something like:

• they
• people
• someone

This can correspond to English passive:

• Бельё развешивают. = They are hanging up the laundry. = The laundry is being hung up.

So the Russian sentence is active in form, but English may translate it passively.

Because the sentence describes two actions from different viewpoints:

• Отжим закончился — a completed event in the past
• бельё развешивают — what happens now, after that

So the idea is something like:

• The spin cycle has finished, and now they’re hanging up the laundry.

Russian present tense is often used for what is happening at the current moment. So after the spin cycle ended, the next action is now in progress.

If both actions were simply narrated as past events, Russian could say something like:

• Отжим закончился, и бельё развесили.

That would mean The spin cycle ended, and they hung up the laundry.

Both are possible in some contexts, but развешивать is more specific.

• вешать = to hang
• развешивать = to hang up / hang out / hang items separately or spread out

With laundry, развешивать is very natural because clothes are usually hung up one by one, spread out on a line or rack.

So:

• вешают бельё = hanging the laundry
• развешивают бельё = hanging the laundry up/out, spreading it out to dry

The prefixed verb often sounds more natural for laundry.

It is in the accusative case here, because it is the direct object of развешивают.

However, for many neuter inanimate nouns, the nominative and accusative forms are the same.

So:

• nominative: бельё
• accusative: бельё

That is why there is no visible ending change.

Because this sentence contains two separate clauses:

1. Отжим закончился
2. бельё развешивают

Each clause has its own verb, so Russian puts a comma before и when joining them.

This is normal punctuation for compound sentences.

Бельё is pronounced approximately bel-YO.

A few useful points:

• ё is always stressed
• it sounds like yo
• the ь softens the preceding consonant

So:

• бельё ≈ byel-YO or bel-YO, depending on how detailed you want to be about the soft consonant

The letter ё is important here because it shows both stress and pronunciation. Without it, a learner might misread the word.

Yes — that is a very natural English translation.

A more literal version would be:

• The spin cycle ended, and they are hanging up the laundry.

But in English, when the doer is unimportant or unknown, passive often sounds better:

• The spin cycle ended, and the laundry is being hung up.

So if you see развешивают here, think:

• literal Russian structure: they are hanging up the laundry
• natural English meaning: the laundry is being hung up