Learn Italian: Mi sdraio e la schiena tocca il suolo. - I lie down and my back touches the ground.

In Italian, the verb for "to lie down" is sdraiarsi, which is reflexive. Literally, you are saying "I lay myself down." If you just said sdraio without the mi, it would mean you are laying an object down, not yourself.

Why does the sentence use la schiena (the back) instead of la mia schiena (my back)?

When talking about body parts, Italian uses the definite article (like la or il) instead of a possessive word (like mia) as long as it is obvious whose body part it is. Since you are the one lying down, it is already clear that it is your back.

Is there a spelling rule to remember for the verb tocca?

Yes! The verb is toccare (to touch). Because it ends in -care, you have to add an "h" in the tu (tocchi) and noi (tocchiamo) forms to keep the hard "k" sound. Here, the subject is la schiena (an "it"), so it takes the regular third-person ending -a. Since "c" already makes a hard sound before "a", no "h" is needed for tocca.

Could I use il pavimento instead of il suolo here?