Shouldn't it be 'brossée'?

Question

The woman is describing the terrible hotel and at one point says "... et après que je me suis brossé les dents le premier soir ...". Shouldn't it actually be "je me suis brossée les dents" since it's the woman talking? I wrote brossée during the test and kwizbot marked it as incorrect.

thanks, Scott

Accepted Answer

Hi Scott,
If you look at my answer to the same query asked by Leah below,  maybe this will clarify the point -
https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/agreement-of-reflexive-verbs

Answer

This is a tricky one, and the answer is that, actually, brossé is correct even if a woman is saying it. The reason being that the direct object is les dents and not me (which is the indirect object in this case).

Answer

Hi Chris, thanks for the answer, but it still doesn't make sense to me.

It seems like you're saying that we are using the verb 'brosser' rather than the reflexive verb 'se brosser' in this case. But then we would use avoir as the auxiliary verb rather than être.

See: https://www.the-conjugation.com/french/verb/brosser-feminine.php

Verb tables I've seen for 'se brosser' in the feminine form show 'je me suis brossée' as being the correct form.

See https://www.the-conjugation.com/french/verb/se_brosser-feminine.php

I still think it's a mistake in the text.

regards, Scott

Answer

Cécile, Chris - thank you very much! That is a really obscure, but interesting, rule!

Answer

Hi Scott,I know this can be confusing, but here it is (using se laver for easier examples):Marie s'est lavée. -- The participle matches the direct object (se).Ses mains, que Marie s'est lavées, ne sont plus sales. -- The participles matches again the direct object which is que (referring back to ses mains).Marie s'est lavé les mains. -- Now you have two direct objects: se and les mains. The "more direct one", i.e., the one which is directly being acted upon, is les mains. It appears behind the participle and hence the participle is not matched to it.