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Everyday English · Travel & getting around

Set off

Start a journey.

You leave your starting place and begin a journey. The focus is the start of travelling, not arriving.

Plain-English lessonVisual explanation3 practice steps

01 · Picture the situation

Understand it in three steps

Cartoon of two travellers driving away from their house at sunrise with bags in the car.
Picture the meaningThey set off early for their trip.
01Ready at home
02Start the journey
03On the way

Imagine this: Your bags are packed and everyone gets into the car. At seven, you leave home for the coast. You set off at seven.

02 · Hear it in everyday life

Examples you can use

Three natural sentences

  1. We set off before sunrise.
  2. They set off for the station at eight.
  3. Let us set off early to avoid traffic.

A short conversation

PERSON AWhat time should we set off?
PERSON BAt six, so we can arrive before lunch.

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

03 · Build your sentence

How to use set off

For journeys, use set off on its own or add for + destination, at + time, or on + a journey. No direct object is needed: “We set off for Delhi.”

BASE FORMset off
PAST SIMPLEset off
AFTER HAVE / HASset off

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 thisWe set off at seven yesterday.
Avoid this in this meaningWe setted off at seven yesterday.

The past form of set is set, not setted.

Do not confuse it: Set off is the start of a journey. Get back is the return. “We set off at nine and got back at five.”

Does it have another meaning?

Set something off means trigger it, as in “The smoke set the alarm off.” That pattern has an object and a different meaning.

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 leave home to begin your trip at 7:00. You…
  1. check in at 7:00
  2. get back at 7:00
  3. set off at 7:00
Check answer 1

C. set off at 7:00

Set off describes starting the journey.

2. We set off ___ the airport at five.
  1. for
  2. with
  3. by
Check answer 2

A. for

For introduces the destination after set off.

3. Your turn

Plan a trip: when will you set off?

See a possible model and self-check

We set off before sunrise.

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.