Breakdown of Ella se lava la cara allí.
ella
she / her (after a preposition)
allí
there
lavarse
to wash oneself
la cara
the face
Questions & Answers about Ella se lava la cara allí.
Why do we need the word se in this sentence?
In Spanish, when someone performs an action on themselves, you must use a reflexive pronoun. Here, se acts as 'herself'. Without it, Ella lava would just mean she is washing something else, like a car or clothes.
The English translation says 'her face', but the Spanish says la cara (the face). Why not su cara?
When you talk about daily routines involving body parts in Spanish, you don't use possessive words like su (her). Because the reflexive pronoun se already shows that she is doing the action to herself, saying su cara would sound repetitive. Instead, you just use the word for 'the' (la).
Why is se placed before the verb lava?
Reflexive pronouns like me, te, and se generally go immediately before a conjugated verb. Since lava is the main action word meaning 'she washes', the pronoun se steps right in front of it.
Is it necessary to include the word Ella?