The Many Forms of Wash
Hi! I'm back again with another question 
While working on Rosetta Stone this week, I came across the set of words for "wash." I found "Lava" "Lavo" "Lavan" and "Lavamos." My problem is that the picture will show a man washing his pants and the caption will be "El lava los pantalones."
Why if it's "El," do they use "Lava" instead of Lavo? Then there will be a picture of a woman washing a shirt and the caption will be "Lavo la camisa."
Why is this? I'm getting all confused...
2 Answers
El lava los pantalones.
He washes the trousers
Lavo la camisa
I wash the shirt
The infinitive for "to wash" is lavar.
First person sgl : lavo - I wash
Second person sgl : lavas - you wash
Third person sgl : lava - he/she/it washes
A verb is always conjugated the same way, there is only one way to say "he / she washes", and there is no o/a ending to a conjugated verb to indicate that the actor is male or female. In your example, "el" is used to indicate that the actor is male, but in most sentences, this is implied. In normal everyday Spanish you would say "lava los pantalones" and the other person would know from context whether the actor is male or female.
Hope this helps 
Saludos, Chica
I think Rosetta Stone's premise is you didn't learn grammar to learn your first language, you just sat around and watched and listened to different sounds in different contexts until, voila, you could understand and speak it fluently (which is true). However, pictures with captions do not offer quite the context of real life, plus you're unlikely to sit around for 4 years looking at the pictures / captions over and over again and do nothing else besides.
I'm not saying Rosetta Stone's premise is stupid, mind you...just maybe not the miracle they make it out to be.
Él lava = He washes
Lavo = I wash
Lava and lavo are different conjugations of the verb lavar (to wash).
