Breakdown of Mi hermano no se lava el pelo.
el hermano
the brother
no
no, not
mi
my
lavarse
to wash oneself
el pelo
the hair
Questions & Answers about Mi hermano no se lava el pelo.
Why is there a se before lava?
Lava comes from the reflexive verb lavarse (to wash oneself). Because the brother is washing his own hair, we need the reflexive pronoun se (himself) to show that he is performing the action on himself.
Where do we put no when using reflexive pronouns?
The negative word no always goes right before the reflexive pronoun. That is why it is no se lava and never se no lava.
Why does the sentence use el pelo ('the hair') instead of su pelo ('his hair')?
In English, we say 'his hair', but Spanish rarely uses possessive words for body parts. Because the reflexive pronoun se already tells us he is doing this to himself, Spanish just uses the word for 'the' (el).
What happens if I leave out the se and just say 'Mi hermano no lava el pelo'?
If you drop the se, the sentence changes meaning to 'My brother does not wash the hair' (for example, if he is a hairdresser refusing to wash a customer's hair). You need se to show it is his own hair.
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