Breakdown of Кто должен стирать её одежду?
кто
who / whoever
её
her (acc)
одежда
clothes / clothing
должен
must, have to
стирать
to wash clothes
Questions & Answers about Кто должен стирать её одежду?
Why does the sentence use the masculine form должен if we don't know who will be washing the clothes?
Can I use стирать to talk about washing dishes or washing my hands?
No, стирать is specifically used for washing fabrics, like clothes or linens. For washing things with water in general (like hands, floors, or dishes), you would use the verb мыть.
Why is the verb стирать imperfective here instead of perfective?
The imperfective стирать is used here because it likely asks about a general duty or a repeated action (as in, "Whose regular job is it to wash her clothes?"). If you meant a specific, one-time pile of laundry that needs to be finished right now, you could use the perfective постирать.
Since одежду is in the accusative case, shouldn't её (her) change its ending to match?
No, её is a special type of possessive word. Unlike adjectives or possessive pronouns like мой (my) or твой (your), the words его (his), её (her), and их (their) are frozen. They never change their endings, no matter what case the noun is in.
Why is the word for clothes written as одежду instead of its dictionary form одежда?
The noun одежда is the direct object of the verb стирать (it is the thing receiving the action of being washed). Because of this, it must take the accusative case, which changes the feminine -а ending to -у.
Learn Кто должен стирать её одежду and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free