Wear, dress or put on?

Some students get confused with these three verbs. Dress and put on are quite similar, but the former is intransitive and the latter always takes an object.

She always dresses in dark colours
Image: 'IMG_2897 Leather dress from behind'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67575879@N03/6154818221

Dress is an intransitive verb, that is, it doesn’t have an object:
She always dresses in dark colours.
Put on is always used with a direct object: You put clothes on: She put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
Note that you cannot use put on in the first example, nor dress in the second one.
*She always puts on in dark colours.
*She dressed a pair of...
On the other hand, wear is a transitive verb. You wear clothes, shoes, jewelry... on your body, but before that, you had to put those clothes, shoes or jewelry on you.

Please, note that you carry an umbrella, a stick or a bag.

She’s carrying an umbrella
Image: 'Chinese New Year'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30265340@N00/2256618233

Have a look at this presentation for further explanations.

Wear, put on and dress

View more presentations from Inma Dominguez.

Other verbs related to clothes are:

• Take off is the opposite of put on.
• Try on. You try clothes on to see if they look good on you.
• Fit. If something fits you it’s just the right size for you.
• Suit. If something suits you, it looks good on you or rather it makes you look nice.

Try this jacket on, I think blue suits you. Oh, no, take it off, it doesn’t fit you: it’s too small!

• Don is the same as put on but just more formal.  Lorenz donned a kaffiyeh, an Arab headdress of folded cloth that's held on by a cord.

Kaffiyeh
Image: 'DSC_00055'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/90638744@N00/2167990641

Idioms

• If you wear your heart on your sleeve, you make your feelings or opinions obvious to other people. “You have to play it cool with a girl like her; you mustn’t wear your heart on your sleeve.
• To be dressed to the nines means to wear very fashionable or expensive clothes. He was dressed to the nines in a black Dolce & Gabbana suit.
• If someone is dressed to kill, he or she is wearing strikingly attractive clothing. She  was dressed to kill in a low top, short skirt and leather boots.

Now you can check what you have learnt by doing this test:

Wet, damp, moist and other words of the same semantic field

Wet, damp, moist,...Which of these words would you use to describe something that has got water or another liquid on its surface? They are not exact equivalents, and sometimes it's difficult for learners of English to spot the difference in nuance. We are going to see their meanings and we'll also add some other words of the same semantic field.


Adjectives:

• Wet is used when something is full of water. You can use it with intensifiers like soaking or dripping.      He was walking under the rain and by the time he got home his clothes were soaking wet.

• Soaked means very wet. It is usually used for clothes. If they are extremely wet, we would say soaked through. When they finally stopped, the storm having passed, they were soaked through and chilled to the bone.

Soaking wet / drenched

mage: 'Cleo being soaked'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71753457@N00/48635289

• Soggy is used for paper, food or similar that have become soft because they are wet. It can also be used for clothes or for bad, wet weather. It was so damp in that old house that the bread and biscuits became soggy in minutes.
• Waterlogged is used for ground that has so much water on the surface that it cannot hold any more. The river burst its banks and all the fields were waterlogged.
• Damp is slightly wet, but in an umpleasant way. We stayed at a horrible hotel. It was cold and damp.
• Moist is also slightly wet, but generally not in an unpleasant way. If something is moist, it is neither too dry nor too wet. It can be used for the skin and even for cakes. Doctors advise that a child's skin should be kept moist with softening lotions.

          This cake is delicious. It´s so moist!

Moisture on a rose

Image: 'Pink rose'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60364452@N00/565893224

• Humid is used to describe the weather. It means wet and hot, containing a great deal of water vapour. This plant thrives in humid places like the Amazon Rainforest.

Verbs:

• To wet or to get wet
• To soak is to make someone or something very wet. Figuratively it is used to mean “to be immersed in something”, even if it's not a liquid. He is extremely wealthy. In fact, he is soaked in riches.
• To drench is to make someone or something extremely wet with a lot of water. The passing car drenched me as it drove through a puddle.
• To flood is to cover an area of land with a great amount of water. Hurricane Katrina flooded a great part of New Orleans.
• To dampen or damp is to make something slightly wet. You should dampen the soil before sowing the seeds.
• To moisten is to put a few drops of liquid onto something. Add enough water to moisten the cake mixture.

Some idioms:

• Wet behind the ears: inexperienced.
• A wet blanket: someone who spoils a happy event, also called killjoy or spoilsport
• If you wet your whistle you have an alcoholic drink.

To sum up:

	VERB	ADJECTIVE	NOUN
extremely	soak	soaked/soaking
	drench	drenched
	flood	flooded	flood / flooding
very	wet / get wet	wet	wetness
slightly	dampen / damp	damp	dampness
	moisten	moist	moisture

Try this exercise to check what you have learnt.