to put the shoe on the other foot
- idiom
:
ponerse en el lugar del otro
- Well, put the shoe on the other foot, say you're a martian.
Examples
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Before making a decision, try to put the shoe on the other foot and consider how they might feel.
-
In discussions about fairness, it's important to put the shoe on the other foot and see the other person's perspective.
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To resolve the disagreement, he suggested they put the shoe on the other foot and understand each other's viewpoints.
Synonyms
5
3.7
Imagine being in another person's situation to understand their feelings
2
4.2
To imagine being in another person's situation to understand how they feel
1
3.7
To understand how someone thinks and feels about a situation
Imagine yourself in another person's situation to understand how they feel
To imagine how someone else feels and sees things
Imagine being the other person to understand their feelings and situation
How Empathetic
Surface Forms
Morphology
put + the + shoe + on + the + other + foot
The image of moving a shoe to the other foot evokes swapping position or perspective, so a learner who knows 'put', 'shoe', 'on', 'other' and 'foot' can often infer a sense of role reversal. However, the extension to the specific pragmatic meaning 'imagine oneself in another person's situation' is metaphorical and not fully predictable from the parts (and similar idioms vary cross-linguistically), so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Put the shoe on the other foot paints a clear picture: imagine taking someone else's shoe and putting it on the other foot, so you are standing in their place and feeling what they feel. That's why it means 'to switch roles' or 'to imagine yourself in another person's situation'.