put down — to place something on a surface
phrasal verbB1IELTS 5+neutralcore
To move something you are holding and place it onto a table, floor, or another surface.
Say it like a native
Textbook Kindly place the object upon the table.
Native Just put it down on the table.
'Put down' is the everyday verb; 'place upon' is formal/stiff.
Pattern: put down + noun
In use
- She put down her bag on the chair and sat next to me.daily life
- When I get home from work, I usually put down my keys on the table by the door so I don't lose them.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ Put down it on the table.
✓ Put it down on the table.
With a pronoun, the object goes in the middle: 'put it down'.
Common collocations
put + thing + down— it down, the bags down, your pen down, down carefully
Don't confuse it
Not the same as 'put away', which means to return something to its usual place.
Related
- put down (to criticize or insult someone) — Another meaning of 'put down' is 'to criticize or insult someone'; compare the examples to keep the meanings separate.