The Difference Between Make and Do

Buy Make and Do The English Language Coach

The Difference between MAKE and DO

Do you know the difference between  MAKE and DO??  When do we use Make and when do we use Do?

The general rule is

MAKE  usually refers to the result. We make a cup of coffee.  The result is we have a cup of coffee

DO  generally refers to the action itself.  We do the dishes.  The action is we are washing the dishes.

Common Ways We Use Make

FOOD

Make breakfast/lunch/dinner
I’m making dinner – it’ll be ready in about ten minutes.

Make a snack
Could you make me a sandwich?

Make a cup of coffee
Would you like me to make you a
coffee?

Make a reservation
I’ve made a reservation for a
flight and hotel room for the conference.

MONEY

Make money
I enjoy my job, but I don’t make very much money.

Make a profit
If we don’t start selling more this business will never make a profit!

Make a fortune
He made a fortune
when he sold the game app he designed.

Make Money
I make money selling old postcards online.

RELATIONSHIPS

Make friends
It’s hard to make friends when you move to a big city.

Make business connections

He spent a lot of time networking so he could make new business connections.

Make an enemy

He treated his colleague so badly that he made an enemy for life.

Make fun of someone
Everyone knows you are not allowed to make fun of someone in the office.

COMMUNICATION

Make a phone call
I
must make a phone call.

Make a point
John some good points during the meeting.

Make a complaint
We don’t want our customers making complaints about our delivery times.

Make a suggestion
Can I make a suggestion?
I think we should try shorter working hours.

Make a prediction
It’s difficult to make any predictions about the future of
electric cars.

Make an excuse
He made so many excuses for being late that the boss no longer believes him.

Make an observation
I’d like to make an observation about
that business plan – If we put it into practice we will be bankrupt in 6 months.

Make a comment
The
Manager made a few comments to his staff about customer service.

.PLANS & PROGRESS

Make plans
We all plan to go to the international conference next year.

Make a decision/choice
I’ve made my decision. I
’m going to quit my job and travel the world in a camper van.

Make a mistake
You made a few mistakes in your calculations.
You have to pay $500 in taxes not get it back from the tax department.

Make progress
As long as you keep practising you will make progress.

Common Ways We Use DO

HOUSEWORK

Do the housework
On Saturday I have to do the housework.

Do the laundry
I didn’t do the laundry at the weekend so I have no clean clothes.

Do the dishes
After dinner, I have to do the dishes.

Do the shopping
If I don’t do the shopping I’ll have nothing to eat!

GENERAL GOOD OR BAD ACTIONS

Do anything/something/everything/nothing
Are you doing anything special to celebrate your promotion?

No, I’m doing nothing special.

Do well, better or do badly
I think I did pretty well in the interview.
At least I had to have done better than my last one. I did really badly in that one.

Do the right thing
I wanted to do the right thing,
so I let him take the test again.

Do your best
Don’t worry
about what people think – just do your best.

WORK / STUDY

Do work
I always have too much work to do.

Do business
We do business with clients in fifteen countries.

Do a good/great/terrible job
He did a good job organizing the conference.

Do a report
I’m
so busy doing this report that I don’t have time for my other work.

TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF OR OTHERS

Do exercise
I
try to do my exercises every day.

Do someone’s hair
It takes me ages to do my daughter’s hair in the morning.

Do you make up

I have to do my make-up before I go to work.

These are only some of the ways we use Make and Do.   Can you think of other collocations in English where we use MAKE or DO?     

 

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