Reflexive verbs and their agreement
CEFR B2 · part 2
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
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All reflexives take être. But the participle only agrees if the pronoun is the direct object: elle s'est lavée, whereas elle s'est lavé les mains, because there the hands are the direct object. And some verbs never agree: se parler, se téléphoner.
The usual slip. Always making it agree, because the auxiliary is être. «Elle s'est lavé les mains» takes no -e.
Why it catches you out. English has no reflexive conjugation at all —she washed and she washed her hands look the same— so both the être auxiliary and the agreement have to be built from nothing.