Imperative of reflexive "cepillar"
When speaking to my daughter (ella tiene siete años) how would I say "Brush your teeth!" ?
- ¡Cepilla los dientes!
- ¡Se cepilla los dientes!
and is "los dientes" correct or should it be "sus dientes" ? Thanks.
3 Answers
Los dientes
"Cepíllate los dientes"
IMPERATIVO cepilla (tú) / cepillá (vos) cepillad (vosotros) / cepillen (ustedes)
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¡Cepilla los dientes! - Brush the teeth (whose teeth are you referring to?)
¡Se cepilla los dientes! - He/she is brushing the teeth! (again, whose teeth?)
You need either imperative or subjunctive here, and a pronoun ("te") to indicate whose teeth.
Like Julian said, the 2nd person familiar singular positive imperative is cepilla. You also need the reflexive pronoun, te. And it gets attached to the end of the positive imperative, cepíllate. You also need the accent.
You rarely use the possessive pronoun with body parts, almost always the article - los dientes.
Cepíllate los dientes - Brush your teeth.