Make and Do are two very common and quite similar verbs that we use. It can be confusing to know which one to use.
Remember:
We use Make when building, creating or producing something. It focuses on the result or product of an action.
Examples:
Make a plan.
Did you make that dress?
They made a decision.
We use DO when we talk about actions, tasks or general activities. It focuses on the act itself.
Examples:
I am doing some housework.
We will do some shopping tomorrow.
I did well in the interview.
We usually use things, everything, nothing, something, anything etc. when we use DO to talk about general activities.
Examples:
She does everything for me.
I did not do anything to help her.
They are doing nothing.
Below are some expressions with ‘ do‘ and ‘make‘.
Do
| do exercise | I like doing exercise every morning. |
| do the laundry | They do the laundry on weekends. |
| do a job | She does that job well. |
| do nails | Alice likes to do her nails. |
| do research | They have to do more research. |
| do the dishes | You have to do the dishes after dinner. |
Make
| make dinner | I will make dinner tonight. |
| make noise | They always make noises. |
| make a choice | You have to make a choice now. |
| make a payment | I would like to make a payment. |
| make a promise | I made a promise to her. |
| make money | I make money by selling houses. |
There are many standard expressions with ‘make’ and sometimes using ‘do’ makes more sense.
Please make your bed.
Making the bed means to arrange your pillows and sheets after you slept in it. It may make more sense to use do because you are doing the action of arranging your bed.
I will make a call to the client.
Make a call simply means to call someone. Again, it may seem that using do is a better choice because we are talking about the action of calling someone over the telephone.