This project aims at a comparative analysis of verbs of putting in three Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese and French. Three near-synonymous verb pairs will be studied: poner/meter (Sp.), pôr/meter (Pt.) and poser/mettre (Fr.) from a synchronic and a diachronic angle. The intra- and cross-linguistic differences in use and the grammaticalization paths of the verbs constitute the focus of this study.