What does “lavarsi i denti” mean in Italian?
La mia semplice routine mattutina in italiano
A1 Italian listening practice · Standard Italian · Curated for beginners
In Italian you don’t brush your teeth, you wash them. The everyday phrase is lavarsi i denti, built on lavare, to wash. The reflexive lavarsi covers cleaning any part of yourself, so one verb handles your face, your hands and your teeth: mi lavo il viso, mi lavo le mani, mi lavo i denti. You only switch words for the tool, lo spazzolino, the toothbrush.
To say “I brush my teeth,” say mi lavo i denti; for the past, “after brushing my teeth,” it becomes dopo essermi lavata/lavato i denti. The morning clip lines the routine up step by step: “Io mi lavo i denti con lo spazzolino, spazzolino.” Lavare comes from Latin lavare, to wash (the same root behind lavatory and lava). Spazzolino is the little version of spazzola, a brush, so the brush you use on your hair turns into the spazzolino for your teeth. You may also hear spazzolarsi i denti, but lavarsi i denti is the usual way to say it.