Le Présent: Mettre (to put, to place)

Mettre ("to put" or "to place") is one of the highest-frequency verbs in French, the model for a productive family of -mettre verbs (permettre, promettre, admettre, soumettre, transmettre), and a verb whose semantic range stretches from the literal — putting an object on a table — to dozens of figurative uses: putting on clothes, turning on appliances, taking a certain amount of time, beginning an activity (se mettre à), and ending one (mettre fin à). It is also one of the verbs where French and English fail to line up neatly: French mettre covers what English splits among put, place, set, put on, turn on, and take (in take time).

This page covers the full present paradigm with its memorable single-t / double-tt alternation, surveys the major collocations, and explains the reflexive se mettre à construction that learners need by A2.

The full paradigm

The single-t / double-tt pattern

The signature spelling feature of mettre is that the singular forms (mets, mets, met) carry only one t, while the plural forms (mettons, mettez, mettent) carry two:

• Singular: je mets, tu mets, il met — single t, pronounced /mɛ/
• Plural: nous mettons, vous mettez, ils mettent — double tt, pronounced /mɛtɔ̃/, /mɛte/, /mɛt/

The reason is purely orthographic: in the plural, the e before the tt is followed by a pronounced consonant /t/, so the spelling marks that with a doubled letter and the vowel stays /ɛ/ (an open e). In the singular, the t is silent at the end of a word, the vowel is still /ɛ/, but the spelling does not need a doubled consonant to keep it that way.

A useful comparison: the verb promettre (a mettre-family verb) follows the same pattern — je promets, tu promets, il promet, nous promettons, vous promettez, ils promettent.

The mettre family

The -mettre verbs all conjugate exactly like mettre. Once you have one, you have the family:

Use 1: Literal "put / place"

The core meaning of mettre is to place an object somewhere. With a destination, French combines mettre with a preposition that depends on the spatial relationship — most commonly sur (on), dans (in), sous (under), à (at):

This use overlaps cleanly with English put — there are no surprises here.

Use 2: Putting on clothes

For the act of dressing — putting an item of clothing onto your body — French uses mettre, not porter. Porter means to wear (the state of having something on); mettre means to put on (the action of donning):

• Je mets ma veste. — I'm putting on my jacket.
• Je porte une veste. — I'm wearing a jacket.

The contrast is identical to English in concept, but English speakers often default to porter for both meanings because it looks more like a verb of clothing. The native distinction is sharp:

For the verb enfiler (to slip on, slide into) — used for tighter or more deliberate dressing actions like socks, sleeves, gloves — see the dedicated clothing-vocabulary page.

Use 3: Turning on appliances

French uses mettre to mean turn on for appliances and devices. The pattern is mettre + le/la + appliance:

The opposite is éteindre (turn off) — but for "turn off" colloquial French often uses arrêter or even enlever depending on context.

Use 4: Mettre + duration — "take" (time)

To express how long something takes, French uses mettre:

• J'ai mis trois heures à finir ce devoir. — It took me three hours to finish this assignment.
• Le train met vingt minutes pour aller à Versailles. — The train takes twenty minutes to get to Versailles.

The structure is subject + mettre + duration + à/pour + infinitive. The à is more common in older usage; pour is the modern colloquial choice. English speakers are tempted to translate "it takes" with prendre, but French uses mettre when there is a personal subject doing the activity:

For impersonal "it takes X minutes" without a personal subject, French often uses ça prend or il faut — ça prend dix minutes en métro / il faut dix minutes en métro.

Use 5: Reflexive — se mettre à (to begin)

The reflexive form se mettre à is one of the most useful constructions in French for expressing the beginning of an action. The structure is se mettre + à + infinitive:

• Je me mets à étudier. — I'm getting down to studying.
• Il s'est mis à pleuvoir. — It started raining.
• Elle s'est mise à pleurer. — She started crying.

The connotation is slightly more energetic than the neutral commencer à: se mettre à implies a deliberate plunge into an action, often after a period of inactivity or anticipation. Commencer à is the neutral choice; se mettre à adds drama or commitment.

The non-reflexive mettre quelqu'un à (causative) is also useful: mettre les enfants au lit (put the kids to bed), mettre quelqu'un à l'aise (put someone at ease).

Use 6: Fixed expressions

A handful of fixed phrases turn up constantly:

A note on the past participle: mis

The past participle of mettre is mis /mi/ (masculine) or mise /miz/ (feminine). The -s is silent in the masculine, but pronounced /z/ in the feminine — an audible agreement signal:

• J'ai mis le livre sur la table. — I put the book on the table.
• La table est mise. — The table is set.
• Les chaussures que j'ai mises hier. — The shoes I put on yesterday. (Note the agreement mises with feminine plural object preceding the verb.)

This becomes important once you reach the passé composé and direct-object agreement. Flag it now and return when you reach those topics.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Single t in the plural.

Mistake 2: Double tt in the singular.

Mistake 3: Using porter for the act of putting on.

The action of dressing is mettre; the state of being dressed is porter. English splits these with put on / wear, and so does French.

Mistake 4: Using prendre for "take time" with a personal subject.

(Impersonal ça prend trois heures is fine, but with a personal subject, mettre is the verb.)

Mistake 5: Forgetting the preposition à with se mettre à.

Mistake 6: Using faire where mettre is required.

Key takeaways

Mettre is a workhorse irregular verb whose six present forms compress into two patterns: singular with single t (mets, mets, met) and plural with doubled tt (mettons, mettez, mettent). The same template covers an entire family — permettre, promettre, admettre, soumettre, transmettre. Beyond conjugation, the real work is the dozens of collocations: mettre la table, mettre un manteau, mettre la télé, mettre du temps, mettre fin à, se mettre à. The verb is one of the most semantically overloaded in the language, and learning it is a matter of absorbing the fixed expressions one at a time as you encounter them.