Make or Do? The Eternal Grammar Question
A2–B1 · Vocabulary
Make or Do? The Eternal Question
📖 From my experience:
My first error in formal English wasn’t a grammar mistake. It was ‘I did a mistake.’ In Bengali, French, and many other languages, one verb covers both. In English, ‘make’ and ‘do’ are different animals. The rule, as far as there is one: ‘do’ is for tasks and activities; ‘make’ is for creating or producing something.
My first error in formal English wasn’t a grammar mistake. It was ‘I did a mistake.’ In Bengali, French, and many other languages, one verb covers both. In English, ‘make’ and ‘do’ are different animals. The rule, as far as there is one: ‘do’ is for tasks and activities; ‘make’ is for creating or producing something.
🎯 Language focus:
Make = create, produce, bring into existence
Do = activities, tasks, work (often when the product isn’t the point)
Make = create, produce, bring into existence
Do = activities, tasks, work (often when the product isn’t the point)
Make collocations: make a decision, mistake, plan, effort, progress, noise, money, tea, a phone call
Do collocations: do homework, research, exercise, business, damage, your best, a favour, the shopping, someone good
✅ Quick test:
1. She made a cake for the class. (created something)
2. He did the washing-up after dinner. (activity/task)
3. They made a profit last year. (something produced)
4. I did my best in the exam. (performance, not a product)
1. She made a cake for the class. (created something)
2. He did the washing-up after dinner. (activity/task)
3. They made a profit last year. (something produced)
4. I did my best in the exam. (performance, not a product)
Make or Do?
1. She ___ a mistake in the report. made
2. Can you ___ me a favour? do (do someone a favour — fixed phrase)
3. I need to ___ some research before the meeting. do (do research — activity)
🧒 For younger learners: Make a class ‘mistake museum’ — students write errors they’ve made this week and you display them anonymously. Normalises mistakes.
👩🏫 Cambridge CELTA note: Make/do collocations are one of the most taught A2–B1 items in Cambridge syllabuses. Do not try to explain a rule — there is no complete rule. Teach as lexical chunks. Use a sorting activity: cards to sort into ‘make’ and ‘do’ columns. Then test with gap-fills.
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