DO vs MAKE: Top 17 English Vocabulary Phrases

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Make exercise, do exercise, which one's correct?

Let's talk about it.

Do and make are two commonly confused verbs in English, so today I'd like to help you

learn the top seven expressions with do and the top 10 expressions with make.

If you have ever made any of these mistakes I hope you won't do it again after this lesson.

Let's get started with some general principles.

We use do for specific tasks, some obligations, or repetitive activities.

I need to do some housework.

This is an obligation, a duty, to do some housework.

We use make for creating or producing something.

I need to make some soup.

I'm creating the soup.

Today we're going to be in two different locations, one in the woods and one by the stream so

that you can visually remember the difference between these two words.

I hope that it will just add to this experience so that you can enjoy the lesson and also

remember these words.

But this can be tricky because cooking meals is kind of an obligation or a duty, right?

I hope that by talking about some specific expressions with both of these words it'll

help you to remember them, but also it'll help you to keep those words together.

If you hear make soup, make soup, make soup a lot your brain will keep these two words

together.

It's kind of like when you were first starting to learn English you never heard I were happy.

You always heard I was happy.

Because you never heard I were happy you probably didn't create that wrong sentence structure,

so I hope that by hearing this correct sentence structure again and again you're going to

be able to remember if it's do or if it's make.

Let's start by talking about seven expressions using do.

Everyone loves doing chores.

I dream about doing the laundry.

Doing the dishes is my favorite activity.

Okay, maybe that's not true for you.

But here we're using do to talk about this duty, this obligation, this repetitive task.

We use do to talk about almost every household chore.

Do the laundry, do the dishes, except make the bed.

This is an exception, but we often use do to talk about those household repetitive chores.

For more household chores check out my video, 70 Cleaning Expressions In English, up here.

Number two, I can't go play a game because I have to do some work, or maybe because I

have to do some homework.

To do work is a common expression.

Actually I said this to Dan when I was writing this lesson.

He wanted me to play a game, and I said, "I'm sorry, I can't play the game because I have

to do some work," which was writing this lesson.

Number three, Dan, my husband, plays hockey, and after his game he often says the goalie

did a good job, but we still lost, or maybe he could've said the goalie did a bad job.

The goalie did a poor job.

Here we're talking about doing a good job, doing a bad job, doing a poor job.

We're using the word do in the past to say did.

He did a good job.

What do you think about this lesson?

Am I doing a good job explaining these expressions?

Number four, have you done any exercises recently?

Maybe you might say, "Well, I did some Yoga yesterday, and I'm going to do some Pilates

today."

This question uses do in another verb tense.

Have you done any exercises recently?

This can be a little bit tricky to talk about do plus exercise because we often just take

out do completely and say, "Have you exercised recently?"

This is using exercise as the verb.

Have you exercised?

Notice the "ed."

That tells us that this is a verb.

Have you exercised recently?

But in my original sentence, have you done any exercises, this is using exercise as a

noun, and then do is our verb.

So make sure that you use this correctly.

We don't want to have do plus exercise as a verb.

We need to only have one verb here.

Have you done any exercises?

Have you exercised?

Number five, how are you doing?

I'm doing pretty well.

I'm not doing that hot.

This is a common greeting.

You might hear this all the time.

Maybe you say this a lot.

To learn some other common greetings and other ways to start sentences you can check out

this link up here.

How are you doing?

I'm doing great.

I'm not doing that hot, wonderful.

Number six, I always try to do my best.

To do my best is a beautiful expression.

It means you're not perfect, but you try to do your best.

If you said this in a job interview, "I always try to do my best every day at work," wow,

great.

You're hired.

This is a wonderful way to express that you are a diligent worker, you're a hard worker,

and even though you're not perfect you're going to always do your best.

Number seven, please do something, do anything.

Maybe if you have a friend who is single and is always complaining about not going on a

date you might say, "Well, maybe it would be a good idea if you got out of your house

one day.

Maybe you should go to a Yoga class.

Maybe you should go for a walk in the park and talk to someone while you're walking your

dog.

Just do something, do anything."

We often use do with these words, something, anything.

And it's not specific.

Something and anything is not telling a specific activity, but we often use those together.

You can also use this in a less intense situation.

Maybe if your friend's inviting you to go to a Yoga class you might say, "Oh, I can't

go to Yoga class because I have to do something else."

You're not saying what you have to do.

It's kind of mysterious.

You're not saying that other activity that you need to do, but you're just saying, "Oh,

I need to do something else, to do something, do something else."

Now let's go on to make.

These are the top 10 expressions using make, at least according to me.

Number one, Dan makes oatmeal for us every morning.

I like to make green tea in the afternoon.

We often use make with food or drinks, and it's a good way to use this naturally.

Number two, if you watch the ad at the beginning of this video I make some money.

Thanks.

Here I'm not creating or producing.

I'm not printing the money myself, but here I'm still acquiring the money.

So I want to know when you were in high school what did you do to make money?

Did you babysit?

Did you walk your neighbor's dog?

Did you do your neighbor's homework?

What did you do to make money.

Sentence number three, it can be tough to make new friends when you move to a new city.

Here we're using the expression make friends.

You're not actually creating your friends like Frankenstein, at least I hope not.

But you're acquiring new friends.

When I think about the friends that I have now, I made one friend at the grocery store.

I made another friend at Yoga class, and I made another friend 10 years ago in college.

As an adult we make friends in a lot of different ways.

Have you ever made a phone call in English?

This can be a little bit scary when you do it, but with practice it gets easier.

We have a couple expressions we use when we talk about using the phone, but when you're

the one dialing the numbers you're the one who's making a phone call.

If you want to use some common expressions for phone conversations make sure to check

out this video up here.

Number five, make a suggestion about what kind of lesson you'd like me to make here

on YouTube in the future.

I'm asking you to make a suggestion.

Give me some ideas.

Number six, when you make a mistake don't make an excuse, just tell the truth.

Here are two for the price of one, make a mistake and make an excuse.

I often hear English learners say I did a mistake, and to them I would say, "Yup, you

did.

You made a mistake."

If you want to use did, you could say, "I did something wrong."

But here this is a beautiful expression you can use instead with make.

I made a mistake.

And if you make a mistake don't make an excuse.

No one likes someone who makes excuses.

Oh, I was tired.

I was hungry.

There was a lot of traffic.

Don't make an excuse.

Just tell the truth and say you're sorry and move on.

Number seven, I often read reviews to help me make a decision before I buy something.

Do you do that?

Do you read reviews before you buy something?

What helps you to make a decision?

Have you ever made a decision that you have regretted.

I hope you don't regret making the decision to watch this lesson.

Study these words so that you can make sure that you use them correctly.

We often say make sure to mean make certain, be certain.

But we don't use that one as much, so forget about that one and just remember make sure.

We often use this as kind of a reminder.

Make sure that you finish your homework.

Make sure that you clean your room.

Make sure, make sure, make sure.

If you use make sure as a reminder to someone else make sure you say it with a smile because

it can be kind of annoying if someone says make sure you do this, make sure you do this,

make sure you do this.

So make sure you say it with a smile.

Number nine, it really makes me happy that you're still watching this video and didn't

click away.

Your actions have an effect on me.

It makes me happy.

Or we could use this in a negative way.

Talking with her about her problems makes me feel drained, or maybe watching these lessons

makes you feel excited about English.

It makes you react in a certain way.

It makes me feel happy.

It makes me feel drained.

It makes me feel excited.

I hope this lesson makes you feel excited because I am sitting on a log suspected over

the creek, and it's not very comfortable, so it makes me happy that you're still watching

this, and that this experience is worth it.

Number 10, try to use English every day.

This advice just makes sense.

If someone told you study English for six hours every Saturday, and you can forget about

English the other six days of the week, this advice doesn't really make sense.

It feels really stressful to me.

So when you use this expression it makes sense.

It doesn't make sense.

We're using this in the sense of sensible.

This is the root word here.

It is sensible advice to study English a little bit every day.

It is not sensible advice to study English just one day for a long period of time.

You feel stressed.

You don't remember things easily.

So it makes sense to study English little by little every day.

I think it makes sense to have a review now, don't you think?

Let's go back and review all of the expressions that we talked about with do and all of the

expressions we talked about with make.

Let's review the seven expressions with do.

Number one, everyone loves doing chores.

I have to do some work.

The goalie did a good job.

I did some exercises yesterday.

How are you doing?

I'm doing pretty well.

I always try to do my best.

I have to do something else.

And now the 10 expressions with make.

Number one, Dan makes us oatmeal.

Number two, I make some money.

It can be tough to make friends.

I need to make a phone call.

Make a suggestion in the comments.

When you make a mistake don't make an excuse.

The reviews often help me to make a decision.

Make sure you clean your room before you go to bed.

It makes me happy that you watched this lesson.

This advice just makes sense.

And now I have a question for you.

What is something that makes you happy?

For me it's nice to be outside, but it really makes me happy to be off of that log, and

here I'm sitting on a rock with my toes in the water.

That makes me really happy.

Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new

lesson here on my YouTube channel.

Bye.

The next step is to download my free e-book, Five Steps to Becoming a confident English

speaker.

You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

Thanks so much, bye.