Make or Do?

A Simple Guide to Preserve Your Sanity!

It can be hard to decide when to use “make” or “do” in English.  Here’s some help:

1. We use “make” when we create or construct something. For example:
   • She made a cake.
   • I’ve made us some coffee.
   • Did you really make those trousers?

    

2. We use “do” for general activities. In this case, ‘do’ is often used with ‘something’, ‘nothing’, ‘anything’ or ‘everything’.   For example:
   • What did you do on the weekend?
   • I didn’t do anything yesterday.
   • She’s fed up with doing everything herself. She needs some help.
   • Are you doing anything interesting during the holidays?

   NOTE: ‘What do you do?’ means ‘what’s your job?’

3. There are many, many fixed expressions with ‘make’ and ‘do’. They are idiomatic and don’t really follow any logical rules, so you have to learn them.

Author: Tom McGee

Tom is the Senior Digital Media Specialist in the Teaching, Learning and Technology Center at Seton Hall. He's the point person for anything WordPress. View all posts by Tom McGee