Breakdown of Han tvättade ansiktet i kallt vatten.
tvätta
to wash
kall
cold
vattnet
the water
ansiktet
the face
Questions & Answers about Han tvättade ansiktet i kallt vatten.
Why does the Swedish sentence use ansiktet (the face) instead of hans ansikte (his face)?
In Swedish, when you do something to your own body and it is obvious who the body part belongs to, you use the definite form of the noun (ansiktet) instead of a possessive pronoun like hans or sitt.
Why is the word for cold spelled kallt with a T at the end?
Adjectives in Swedish change to match the noun they describe. Because vatten (water) is an ett word, the adjective takes a -t at the end, changing kall to kallt. This rule applies even to uncountable nouns like water.
I learned that washing often requires the reflexive pronoun sig. Why is it missing here?
If you just say 'He washed himself', you would use the reflexive pronoun: Han tvättade sig. However, because this sentence explicitly states the body part being washed (ansiktet), you do not need the reflexive pronoun sig. You just use the verb directly with the body part.