Put yourself in their place

Meaning

To put yourself in someone's place is to imagine you are in their situation, so you can understand how they feel or why they acted the way they did. It is the core of empathy. The picture is a swap: you step out of your own spot and stand where they stand. The pronouns change with the person: "put yourself in my place", "I put myself in his place".

It is neutral and works at home, at work and in serious talks. You'll hear it often in the same sentence as a conditional: "If you put yourself in her place, you'd see why." The more common version in American English is "put yourself in someone's shoes", which means the same thing. As advice, it's kind. In an argument, "Put yourself in my place" is a strong request to be understood.