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Try on meaning

Try on means to put on clothes or shoes to see if they fit or look good.

Check yourself: 3 questions

try something on

try on · tried · trying

B2Separable

Can I try on these jeans, please?

Try on meanings and examples

One meaning, each with its own CEFR level from Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries and the Cambridge Dictionary.

  1. 1

    Put on clothes or shoes to see if they fit or look good

    try something on

    B2Separable

    • Can I try on these jeans, please?
    • I tried the jacket on, but it was too big.
    • Why don’t you try it on before you buy it?
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Is try on separable?

Try on is separable: try on the shoes, try the shoes on. With a pronoun, it goes in the middle: try them on, not try on them.

The room in a shop where you try on clothes is the fitting room (UK) or dressing room (US). In UK informal English, try it on also means behave badly to see what you can get away with.

Verb tenses for try on

PresentI try on · she tries on
Pasttried on
Present perfecthave tried on
-ing formtrying on

Common mistakes with try on

What learners often say, and what to say instead.

  • Wrong: I like these shoes. Can I try on them?

    Right: I like these shoes. Can I try them on?

    A pronoun goes between try and on.

  • Wrong: Can I try this dress?

    Right: Can I try this dress on?

    For clothes, say try on. Try alone sounds like taste or test.

  • Wrong: I tryed on three coats.

    Right: I tried on three coats.

    Change y to i before -ed: tried.

Synonyms and opposites of try on

Words close to it, and words that mean the opposite.

Similar

Opposite

  • take offremove clothes you are wearing

Try on quiz

Three quick questions. Pick an answer to see if it is right and why.

  1. 1I don’t know my size here. Can I ___ these trousers?

  2. 2Choose the right sentence.

  3. 3In a shop, the assistant says, “The fitting rooms are over there.” What can you do there?

More phrasal verbs with try

2 phrasal verbs start with try. Test yourself on all of them in a few minutes.

Test yourself on tryTake the full test

Try on FAQ

Questions people ask about try on.

Try on vs put on: what is the difference?

Put on means dress in something: Put on your coat. Try on means put it on to check how it fits, usually in a shop.

Try on vs try out: what is the difference?

Try on is for clothes and shoes. Try out is for testing other things: try out a new bike, try out a recipe.

What does are you trying it on mean?

In UK informal English, it means are you trying to trick me or see how far you can go? It has nothing to do with clothes.

Use try on in real conversations

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