diff --git a/Cake/ORM/Entity.php b/Cake/ORM/Entity.php
index 15915a45fda..2ad7d0815d0 100644
--- a/Cake/ORM/Entity.php
+++ b/Cake/ORM/Entity.php
@@ -39,6 +39,14 @@ class Entity implements \ArrayAccess, \JsonSerializable {
  */
 	protected $_className;
 
+/**
+ * Holds a list of the properties that where modified after that where added or
+ * modified after this object was originally created.
+ *
+ * @var array
+ */
+	protected $_dirty = [];
+
 /**
  * Holds a cached list of methods that exist in the instanced class
  *
@@ -151,12 +159,21 @@ public function set($property, $value = true, $useSetters = true) {
 			$useSetters = $value;
 		}
 
-		if (!$useSetters) {
-			$this->_properties = $property + $this->_properties;
-			return $this;
-		}
-
 		foreach ($property as $p => $value) {
+			$markDirty = true;
+			if (isset($this->_properties[$p])) {
+				$markDirty = $value !== $this->_properties[$p];
+			}
+
+			if ($markDirty) {
+				$this->dirty($p, true);
+			}
+
+			if (!$useSetters) {
+				$this->_properties[$p] = $value;
+				continue;
+			}
+
 			$setter = 'set' . Inflector::camelize($p);
 			if ($this->_methodExists($setter)) {
 				$value = $this->{$setter}($value);
@@ -320,4 +337,29 @@ public function extract(array $properties) {
 		return $result;
 	}
 
+/**
+ * Sets the dirty status of a single property. If called with no second
+ * argument, it will return whether the property was modified or not
+ * after the object creation.
+ *
+ * @param string $property the field to set or check status for
+ * @param null|boolean true means the property was changed, false means
+ * it was not changed and null will make the function return current state
+ * for that property
+ * @return boolean whether the property was changed or not
+ */
+	public function dirty($property, $isDirty = null) {
+		if ($isDirty === null) {
+			return isset($this->_dirty[$property]);
+		}
+
+		if (!$isDirty) {
+			unset($this->_dirty[$property]);
+			return false;
+		}
+		
+		$this->_dirty[$property] = true;
+		return true;
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/EntityTest.php b/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/EntityTest.php
index dfd5b6beaaf..c9708b76360 100644
--- a/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/EntityTest.php
+++ b/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/EntityTest.php
@@ -447,4 +447,49 @@ public function testExtract() {
 		$expected = ['id' => 1, 'crazyness' => null];
 		$this->assertEquals($expected, $entity->extract(['id', 'crazyness']));
 	}
+
+/**
+ * Tests dirty() method on a newly created object
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public function testDirty() {
+		$entity = new \Cake\ORM\Entity([
+			'id' => 1,
+			'title' => 'Foo',
+			'author_id' => 3
+		]);
+		$this->assertTrue($entity->dirty('id'));
+		$this->assertTrue($entity->dirty('title'));
+		$this->assertTrue($entity->dirty('author_id'));
+
+		$entity->dirty('id', false);
+		$this->assertFalse($entity->dirty('id'));
+		$this->assertTrue($entity->dirty('title'));
+		$entity->dirty('title', false);
+		$this->assertFalse($entity->dirty('title'));
+	}
+
+/**
+ * Tests dirty() when altering properties values and adding new ones
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public function testDirtyChangingProperties() {
+		$entity = new \Cake\ORM\Entity([
+			'title' => 'Foo',
+		]);
+		$entity->dirty('title', false);
+		$this->assertFalse($entity->dirty('title'));
+		$entity->set('title', 'Foo');
+		$this->assertFalse($entity->dirty('title'));
+		$entity->set('title', 'Foo');
+		$this->assertFalse($entity->dirty('title'));
+		$entity->set('title', 'Something Else');
+		$this->assertTrue($entity->dirty('title'));
+
+		$entity->set('something', 'else');
+		$this->assertTrue($entity->dirty('something'));
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/TableTest.php b/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/TableTest.php
index 801dd185f2b..f0ae419c9fd 100644
--- a/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/TableTest.php
+++ b/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/TableTest.php
@@ -1235,7 +1235,8 @@ public function testAtomicSaveRollbackOnFailure() {
 			->will($this->returnValue($query));
 
 		$statement = $this->getMock('\Cake\Database\Statement\StatementDecorator');
-		$statement->expects($this->once())->method('rowCount')->will($this->returnValue(0));
+		$statement->expects($this->once())->method('rowCount')
+			->will($this->returnValue(0));
 		$connection->expects($this->once())->method('begin');
 		$connection->expects($this->once())->method('rollback');
 		$query->expects($this->once())->method('executeStatement')