How To Use Make And Do In English Grammar (What’s The Difference?) | Common English Mistakes

I do my homework every night.  No, I make my homework every night.  No.  I do. I make.  Which one is it? Let’s find out! 

 

What’s up guys? My name is Shane. And today we are talking about do and make.

 

These two words cause English learners a lot of problems. But they’re actually quite easy once you understand the feeling and the meaning of the words.

 

For example, do has the feeling of actions and repetitive tasks. And do normally talks about the action itself. For example, do the housework. Do the laundry. 

 

But with the word make, the feeling is producing something, creating something. For example, make a cake. When you started, you didn’t have a cake. You just had the ingredients. You had some flour, some eggs, some milk. But when you finished, you had a cake. 

 

So if you start thinking like this and start getting the feeling of the words, these words will become much easier for you. 

 

But don’t worry if this still sounds a little bit confusing because by the end of the lesson you will understand how to use do and make. 

 

And make sure you watch until the end of the video because there will be a quiz to test your understanding! Okay, let’s get started. 

 

Do

Remember I said in the intro do normally talks about actions and things that are repetitive. Well let’s have a look at a few examples so you can get the feel of the word do.

 

I need to do my homework. Is this something that I do regularly? Often? Yes, probably.

 

Did I make the homework? Did I create it? No. 

 

Is the homework the result of my actions? No.  If I don’t do anything, it will still be there. If I do do something, it will still be there.

 

But do I have to take action to complete it? Do I have to do something to complete it? Yes I do. 

 

So this is why we use do here. Because we’re not creating anything. We’re talking about the action.  We have to get a pen and we have to start writing. We have to DO the homework.

 

Another example. Tomorrow, I’m going to do some exercise. Is exercise something that I do often or regularly? Yes, probably.

 

Did I create the exercise? No, no I didn’t.

 

Do I have to take action to finish the exercise? Yes I do.

 

So this is why we use do with exercise. Because you’re taking action. You’re not creating anything. When you finish the exercise, you haven’t created anything. You’ve just done something.  You have taken some action.

 

One more example. I want to do the right thing. Am I talking about the result of my actions? No.

 

Did I create anything here? No.

 

But, do I have to take action to complete this task? Yes I do. 

 

That’s why we use do here. Because we’re talking about the action. I have to take action. I’m not creating anything, I’m just taking action.

 

So this is the meaning of do. The feeling of the word do is about taking action. Doing something. It’s not talking about a result. You’re not creating anything.

 

And also, we can use it to talk about repetitive tasks. For example, doing exercise.

 

Make

Remember I said the feeling of the word make is creating or producing something? Well let’s have a look at some examples so you can see how we use the word make.

 

I make breakfast every morning. I make breakfast every morning. Did I create breakfast? Yes I did.  Because when I started.  Maybe I made an omelet.  When I started, maybe I had eggs, cheese and butter.  But when I finished, I had created something.  I had created an omelet.  

 

Is breakfast an action?  No it isn’t. 

 

So that’s why we use make here because we are creating something. We started with nothing and we finished with an omelet, with breakfast.

 

Another example, I like to make new friends. I like to make new friends.  When I started, did I have new friends? No. 

 

But when if finished, did I create something?  Did I create some relationships or some friendships?  Yes I did.

 

Is, or are friends an action?  No they are not, they are a thing.

 

So that’s why we use make here because we are creating. We are producing new friendships, new relationships. We started with nothing, we started with no new friends and then we finished with some new friendships. We are talking about the result: what happened at the end. 

 

Another example: I would like to make a reservation. I would like to make a reservation. 

 

Before I called to make a reservation with the restaurant, did I have a reservation?  No. 

 

Did I create a reservation after I called the restaurant? Yes I did.  So I started with nothing.  I started with no reservation but then when I finished, I had a reservation.  I created it. 

 

So we are talking about the end result. What happened in the end?

 

Common ways to use do and make 

Now, I am going to show you five common ways we can use do and five common ways we can use make. 

 

Let’s look at do first. 

 

Do the shopping. Do the shopping.  I want to do the shopping tomorrow.

 

Do business. Do business. We want to do business in Asia. 

 

Do your hair. Do your hair.  I always do my hair before I go out. 

 

Do something. Do something.  Are you going to do something for your birthday? 

 

Do your best. Do your best.  Don’t think too much, just do your best. 

 

So you can see here with all these sentences, we use do because we are talking about the action.

 

Now let’s look at make.

 

Make a salad. Make a salad. I like to make a salad every night for dinner.

 

Make a profit.  Make a profit.  The company makes a profit every year. 

 

Make fun of someone. Make fun of someone.  The kids always make fun of him at school.

 

Make a call. Make a call.  I need to make a call to the insurance company today.

 

Make a decision.  Make a decision. I need to make a decision about how to study English.

 

So you can see here with these sentences because we’re talking about the result. We create something. 

 

For example, salad. We start with nothing. Or we start with the vegetables and then we finish with a salad.

 

Or make a profit.  At the start of the year, we don’t have any profit but at the end of the year, we have a profit.

 

We are talking about the result and something we created. 

 

Quiz

Okay so we have learned the basics of how to use do and make. Now let’s have a little quiz to test your understanding. I will show you a sentence with a missing word and I want you to fill in the missing word with either do or make.

 

Number one.  I always ____ mistakes when speaking English.  I always ____ mistakes when speaking English.  The correct answer is: I always make mistakes when speaking English.  Because the mistake is the end result.  You are creating a mistake. A mistake is not an action. 

 

Number two. Do you like to ___ your nails?   Do you like to ___ your nails?   And the correct answer is do you like to do your nails?   Why do we say do? Because we are talking about the action.  Maybe you paint them. Maybe you cut them. We don’t use make because we are not creating nails.  We already had nails before we went to do our nails, right? 

 

Number three. I want to _____ a suggestion.  I want to _____ a suggestion.  And the correct answer is: I want to make a suggestion.  We say make because we are creating a suggestion. We are talking about the end result. 

 

Number four.  She always asks him to ___ the dishes.  She always asks him to ___ the dishes.  And the correct answer is: she always asks him to do the dishes.  Because doing the dishes is an action. You have to wash them, you have to rinse them, you have to clean them, right? We don’t use make because we didn’t create the dishes. The dishes were already there before we got there. 

 

And last one, number five.  He ____ $500 a week by selling things online.  He ____ $500 a week by selling things online.  And the correct answer is: he makes $500 a week by selling things online.  We use make because we are talking about the result. We’re not talking about the action. We are talking about the result. He does something and this creates the $500. 

 

And that is the end of the lesson today.  If you’re interested in learning about more commonly confused words in English, check out this video right here. And you can write some comments down below with do and make and I will check them for you. 

 

And if you have any questions, you can also comment them down below as well.  If you learned something today, please hit like and please share this with your friends so they can learn the meaning and the feeling behind the words do and make.  And if you haven’t subscribed already, make sure you subscribe right now so you don’t miss any video that can help you understand English like a native speaker.  And for daily quizzes, and weekly posts, videos, lessons and much much more, make sure you are following me on Instagram and I will see you in the next video.  What’s up guys? My name is Shane.  But the feeling of the word make is creating something.