"Cet homme se lave les dents."

[Awesomo]

Can you really use this phrasing to say brushing teeth in French? My intuition is that the phrasing is as weird as saying you clean your teeth in English.

[Remy]

Yes, you can say "se laver les dents" or "se brosser les dents".

[jeanaux]

you don't say "cleaning your teeth"? Go and clean your teeth! Filthy child. Sounds ok to me...

[MauroQuil]

It's ok, but is not accepted as a translation.

[jeanaux]

I don't think that's what Awesomo was complaining about whether it was accepted or not though. I thought they were saying that "clean your teeth" sounds odd in english. I don't think it does though.

[Remy]

"This man is cleaning his teeth." is accepted as a translation.

[IAmJon]

Can you say something like: Cet homme lave sa dents?

[Remy]

No, you have to say:

• Cet homme se lave les dents.
• Cet homme se brosse les dents.

FYI, there is a mistake in your suggestion: since "dents" is plural, it would be "Cet homme lave ses dents.", but it does not sound natural in French.

[christel_grace]

se laver is a reflexive verb, so "cet homme se lave les dents" already implies that he his doing it to himself. Therefore, it does not make sense to put "ses" there.

[ChrisWhatever]

That was indeed the other thing which confused me here - so I assumed it had to be about false teeth and he was washing his own (with 'ses' added for emphasis) and could later go on to wash those belonging to others.