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Everyday English · Daily routines

Take off

Remove an item of clothing.

You remove something you are wearing, such as a coat, shoes, glasses or a hat.

Plain-English lessonVisual explanation3 practice steps

01 · Picture the situation

Understand it in three steps

Cartoon of a woman removing her coat after arriving home.
Picture the meaningShe takes her coat off when she gets home.
01Shoes on feet
02Remove the shoes
03Shoes by the door

Imagine this: Nina comes home in wet shoes. She removes them and leaves them by the door. She takes her shoes off so the floor stays dry.

02 · Hear it in everyday life

Examples you can use

Three natural sentences

  1. Please take your shoes off at the door.
  2. He took off his coat because the room was warm.
  3. My glasses are dirty. I will take them off to clean them.

A short conversation

PERSON AWould you like to take your coat off?
PERSON BYes, thank you. It is warm in here.

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

03 · Build your sentence

How to use take off

With a noun, say take off your shoes or take your shoes off. With it or them, use the middle position: take it off / take them off.

BASE FORMtake off
PAST SIMPLEtook off
AFTER HAVE / HAStaken 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 thisShe took her coat off.
Avoid this in this meaningShe taked her coat off.

The past form of take is took. It is not taked.

Do not confuse it: Put on is the dressing action. Take off is the removing action. Wear describes having the item on your body.

Does it have another meaning?

For an aircraft, take off means leave the ground: “The plane took off at noon.” There is no clothing object in that use.

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. The room is warm, so Ben removes his jacket. What does he do?
  1. He takes it off
  2. He puts it on
  3. He fills it in
Check answer 1

A. He takes it off

Removing clothing is taking it off.

2. Your boots are muddy. Please ___.
  1. take off them
  2. take them off
  3. took them off
Check answer 2

B. take them off

Use take them off in a request. Them comes before off.

3. Your turn

What do you take off when you get home?

See a possible model and self-check

Please take your shoes off at the door.

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.