Breakdown of La niña se lava la cara y las manos.
y
and
la niña
the girl
la mano
the hand
lavarse
to wash oneself
la cara
the face
Questions & Answers about La niña se lava la cara y las manos.
Why do we need se before lava?
Se is a reflexive pronoun. We use it with the verb lavar (to wash) to show that the girl is performing the action on herself. Without se, la niña lava... would mean she is washing something else, like a car or a dog. Together, se lava means she washes herself (or in this case, her own face and hands).
The English translation says "her face", so why does the Spanish sentence use la (the) instead of su (her)?
In Spanish, when you use a reflexive verb (like lavarse) with body parts, you don't use possessive words like su (her) or mi (my). The reflexive pronoun se already tells us whose face it is! So we just use the definite articles la or las (the) for the body parts.
Wait, manos ends in "o". Shouldn't it be los manos?
Mano is a famous exception in Spanish! Even though it ends in "o", it is a feminine word. That is why we must use the feminine plural article las to say las manos (the hands).
Does lava change to plural if she washes multiple things (her face AND hands)?
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