to put on clothes -- mettre versus se mettre

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on August 4, 2012 at 10:01am

In my mind mettre or se mettre  would both imply putting on clothes and I would use porter for the act of wearing them continuously.

If the action was in the past I could see that  putting on and wearing might both be implied  as in I wore those shoes throughout the winter. (je mettais ces godasses ...)

 

I don't think we  (ie in english) would  normally say that we would say we  put on  (as distinct from wore) those shoes over that period but maybe you are more likely to in French (I am not sure  though) 

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Permalink Reply by Charles D on August 8, 2012 at 5:23am

Both words mean "to put on" or "to dress", but the reflexive construction has to do with "dressing one's self" (i.e.: I dress myself, he dresses himself, etc.).  Mettre by itself is used more for someone dressing someone or something else (i.e.:  the mother dresses her child, or the man set (dresses) the dinner table.)  That's how I view the difference, anyway.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on August 8, 2012 at 9:11am

But I think you can also use mettre simply to mean wear where it is the subject of the verb that is doing the wearing-ie not much of a diffence at all.

For example:

 

"Le lendemain, sur le sentier qui mène au lavoir, son coeur cogne fort. Ça fait presque mal, nom de nom ! Il a mis son pantalon propre, sa chemise à carreaux du dimanche, alors qu'on est mardi. Il s'est parfumé."

 

http://www.jcmourlevat.com/extrait_cornebique2.html

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