Make and do

grammar game

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What is the difference between make and do?

If you put this query to a teacher, the chances are that s/he will reply something like "It's a question of collocation". While
this may not seem very helpful, it is nevertheless true.
Collocation (in linguistics) refers to expressions in which individual words habitually go together. In other words, the verb
make goes with some words and the verb do with other words.

We made an agreement (NOT did an agreement)

I did my homework (NOT made my homework)

So what can you do to help you learn which of the two verbs is used with which other words? The best solution is to try
and memorize the common fixed expressions that use the words. You could make two lists in your vocabulary book (if
you've got one!) and then refer to them when you are not sure. Basically, the more you read and listen, and indeed, the
more contact you have with English, the more you should remember.
Apart from this, there are some rules of usage for make and do that can help you:
Do is used to describe an action without saying exactly what the action is:
I'm going to do something that you won't believe!

We did some things around the house on the weekend.

Do is used to talk about work and jobs:

I didn't do any work today.

My mother usually does the housework during the week, but my father does most of the chores on the
weekend.
Have you done your homework?

Make is used to speak about building, constructing, producing, creating etc.

Peter made a tree house for his children.

Who made this lovely birthday cake?

We make our own yoghurt.

For more information on do and make, as well as lists of common fixed expressions and quizzes, see the web sites
below:
General rules
http://members.home.net/kayem/printable/do-make1.html
Common fixed expressions
http://www.angelfire.com/tx4/teacher/Make%20vs.%20Do.htm
Quizzes
http://www.eslpartyland.com/quiz%20center/makedo.htm
http://members.home.net/kayem/printable/do-make2.html
http://www.quia.com/jq/17214.html
http://www.better-english.com/grammar/makedo.htm
To see examples of the use of common fixed expressions with do and make, see the Web Concordancer:
http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/scripts/concordance/WWWConcappE.htm
In the 'search string' field, type do, did, done, make or made + the other part of the collocation, i.e. do the housework,
made a decision. Then select any corpus in the 'select corpus' field, and click on the 'search for concordances' button.

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