Is lavarse correct here?

Question

I saw a sentence today saying "El se lava el coche." on a Spanish-learning material.

I tried to find the difference between lavarse and lavar, which I found explained quite well by thiswhen to use lavarse versus lavar

So is this sentence wrong here, or is it if we are saying "he's cleaning HIS car" we can use lavarse too?

Please fill out your profile so that we may better help you . Bienvenido al foro , buena suerte amigo. - ray76, Feb 17, 2015

Thank you for filling out your profile, Lisa. - sanlee, Feb 20, 2015

Answer 1

"El se lava el coche" is incorrect. "Se" refers to one's self.

"El se lava" would mean: He washes himself.

You can put in a direct object such as: "El se lava las manos" He washes himself the hands. English speakers say " He washes his hands"

But to say that he washes the the car---El lava el coche. To say he washes his car that would be "El lava su coche."

Sometimes Spanish speakers will use a reflexive as in your example, but that doesn't make it correct.

Thank you! - Lisa_H, Feb 17, 2015

Answer 2

I agree with Daniela and I'd like to add that 'el' wears an accent when it's the personal pronoun meaning 'he' (instead of the male singular definite article 'the').

Also, in Spanish, a reflexive verb referring to the person and a definite article for the direct object is normally used when referring to their body parts: F.e.: 'me duele la cabeza' or 'me pica la espalda'. A person would have to be véry attached to their car and would probably be joking about it to use this construction, though. A grammatician may frown at it, though.

Thank you! - Lisa_H, Feb 17, 2015

Answer 3

As a native and I admit it is a wrong form, I could say that if I was enumerating, listing some chore, used to emphasize the chore itself. Difficult to describe though.

At least as a Chilean.

Thank you! - Lisa_H, Feb 17, 2015