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Everyday English · Daily routines

Put on

Dress yourself in an item of clothing.

You move a piece of clothing onto your body. Think about the action of dressing, not the whole time you have the clothes on.

Plain-English lessonVisual explanation3 practice steps

01 · Picture the situation

Understand it in three steps

Cartoon of a man sliding his arms into a jacket before going outside.
Picture the meaningHe puts his jacket on before going out.
01Jacket on a hook
02Arms into sleeves
03Ready to go

Imagine this: It is cold outside. Leo takes his jacket from the hook and moves his arms into its sleeves. He puts his jacket on before leaving.

02 · Hear it in everyday life

Examples you can use

Three natural sentences

  1. Put on your coat before you go outside.
  2. She put her glasses on to read the menu.
  3. These shoes are comfortable. I will put them on.

A short conversation

PERSON AAre you ready to leave?
PERSON BAlmost. I just need to put my shoes on.

Read the conversation aloud. Then swap roles and try it again without looking.

03 · Build your sentence

How to use put on

Put on is separable in this meaning. A clothing noun can go after on or in the middle: put on a coat / put a coat on. Pronouns must go in the middle: put it on / put them on.

BASE FORMput on
PAST SIMPLEput on
AFTER HAVE / HASput on

The base form is used after can, will and to. The past simple describes a finished past event. The third form follows have or has, for example when connecting an earlier action to now.

A common mistake to avoid

Use thisI put them on before leaving.
Avoid this in this meaningI put on them before leaving.

Them replaces shoes or another plural clothing item, so it goes before on.

Do not confuse it: Put on describes the action of dressing. Wear describes the state afterwards: “I put on a coat at eight. I wore it all morning.”

Does it have another meaning?

Put on can also refer to organising a show or gaining weight. Those meanings depend on the words around it; this lesson focuses on clothing.

Learn the meaning and sentence pattern together. Small words such as up and off do not have one fixed meaning in every expression.

04 · Make it stick

Try it for yourself

Choose an answer before opening the explanation. Then make a sentence about your own life.

1. You move a jacket from a chair onto your body. You…
  1. take it off
  2. put it on
  3. hand it in
Check answer 1

B. put it on

You are dressing yourself, so you put the jacket on.

2. These gloves are warm. Please ___.
  1. put on them
  2. put them on
  3. put them
Check answer 2

B. put them on

With the pronoun them, separate put and on.

3. Your turn

Name something you put on before going out.

See a possible model and self-check

Put on your coat before you go outside.

This is one model, not the only correct answer. Check that your sentence uses the meaning taught here, the right verb form and the word order above. Change the person, place or time to make it your own.