Breakdown of Il grembiule è sporco, non se lo mette.
essere
to be
non
not
sporco
dirty
se lo
it for himself/herself/themselves (se la, se li, se le)
Questions & Answers about Il grembiule è sporco, non se lo mette.
Why does this sentence use se lo instead of just lo mette?
To say "to put on" (an item of clothing), Italian uses the reflexive verb mettersi (literally "to put on oneself"). When you combine the reflexive pronoun si (oneself) with the direct object pronoun lo (it, referring to the apron), the si changes to se, giving us se lo.
Would the meaning change if I just said non lo mette?
Yes, slightly! While mettersi means to put clothes on oneself, the non-reflexive verb mettere just means "to put" or "to place". So, non lo mette would mean "he doesn't put it [somewhere]", missing the specific meaning of putting on an item of clothing.
Why is the word order non se lo mette?
How do we know to use lo for the apron?