Clothes are the pieces of material we use/wear to cover our bodies to stop us being naked (and cold). Other uses of clothes include protection, as a fashion statement, as a uniform or for doing sports and exercise.
Each item of clothing has its own name and distinguishable features.
- Clothes on the bottom half of the body include trousers, skirt, leggings, shorts, socks, pants, joggers, jeans, culottes, tights and hot pants.
- Clothes on the top half of the body include jumper, t-shirt, shirt, coat, jacket, tie, gloves, cami top, bra, vest.
There are a few synonyms of the word ‘clothes’ for you to learn.
how to pronounce clothes
Clothes is a tricky one to pronounce, a lot of my students have difficulty pronouncing it. Let me start by giving you some background…
‘Clothes’ is a plural word e.g. Put some clothes on. If you want to make it singular, we would say ‘an item of clothing’
e.g. You lost that round! Remove an item of clothing.
You can also refer to the item itself using its name e.g.
Take off your shoes please.
BUT…The majority of the time we use the word clothes e.g.
- I need to buy some new clothes.
- What clothes are you wearing to the disco?
- My clothes are wet.
- I’m wearing my brother’s clothes.
So, it’s worth being able to pronounce it correctly.
- The first part of the word ‘clo’ rhymes with no.
- Then we add ‘the’. The ‘th’ sound is voiced. If you don’t know what a
voiced sound is, head to my pronunciation section and find out. - Finally, we add ‘z’ sound.
- Now put it all together and practice saying it quickly.
British English vs American English – clothing vocabulary
Before we begin with the idioms, I thought it would be a good idea to teach you some vocabulary. Some of the words for items of clothes are different in American English.
Take a look at the following slides to see the differences. If you want to see some of the other differences, click here.
clothes and clothing related idioms
Does money burn a hole in your pocket?
Has anyone ever made a below the belt comment to you?
Are you in a white-collar profession?
Who wears the trousers in your household?
Do you like dressing up?
Have you ever got the boot?
Are you struggling to understand these idioms? Then scroll down to find out what they mean and more.
You know what clothes are and how to pronounce the word properly. Clothes also form many idioms and phrases we use in the English language. Let’s learn the most common ones.
