Make or Do? Common English Collocations Explained

Use do with many activities and tasks, such as do homework and do the washing-up. Use make with many things you create or produce, such as make a cake and make a plan. These patterns help, but the safest habit is to learn the complete phrase: make a mistake, do your best and make progress.

These familiar word partnerships are called collocations. You may know the meaning of every word in “do a decision”, yet English speakers normally say “make a decision”. Learning the whole expression gives you a reliable phrase to use in your own sentence.

A helpful pattern, with limits

Do often focuses on carrying out an activity. Make often focuses on its result. Imagine an afternoon in a kitchen: you do the cooking, and you make a meal. Cambridge's guide to do and make describes this broad distinction.

Treat that distinction as a clue, not an absolute rule. You make your bed when you arrange the sheets; you are not building new furniture. You do someone a favour even though your action may have a clear result. Fixed everyday phrases deserve their own examples.

Everyday phrases with do

Notice the small words. Homework is normally uncountable, so say “do my homework”, without a. In the exercise example, some is natural because exercise means physical activity generally. “Do an exercise” is also possible when you mean one particular activity, such as a question set in a workbook.

Your changes with the person: I do my best; she does her best; we do our best. The collocation stays the same even when its pronoun changes.

Everyday phrases with make

Decision, mistake, plan and phone call are countable here, so they need a or another suitable determiner. Progress is normally uncountable: “make progress” or “make some progress”, rather than “make a progress”. These details belong on your vocabulary card alongside the verb.

See the phrases in a short conversation

Nora: Have you made a plan for tomorrow? Ellis: Yes. I'll do the shopping in the morning and make a cake in the afternoon. Nora: Could you do me a favour and buy some milk? Ellis: Of course. I'll make a note so I remember.

The speakers are describing connected actions, which makes the phrases easier to compare. Write a similar exchange about a real day in your life. You can change the people, tasks and times while keeping the partnerships intact.

Change the form, keep the partnership

The verb must still fit the time and subject. Do changes to does with he, she and it in the present simple; its past form is did. Make changes to makes; its past form is made. For example: “She does the shopping every week” and “She made a plan yesterday”.

After will or can, use the base form: “I'll do my best” and “Can we make a decision now?” When you need help with sentence patterns around these phrases, the grammar learning path provides a useful starting point.

Sort these phrases

Choose do or make for each expression. Answer with the base form; the complete sentences in the next section will give you practice with tense.

Complete the sentences

Use the correct form of do or make. The time words help you choose the form.

Build a personal collocation page

Give your notebook two columns, one for do and one for make. Add a whole phrase and a sentence from your own life to each entry. Keep the examples short enough to say aloud. Later, cover the verb and try to recall it from the rest of the expression.

Start with phrases you expect to use this week. The vocabulary learning path can help you find everyday topics for your examples. If you check a written practice paragraph with Grammar Coach, read the suggested correction and rewrite the sentence yourself rather than simply accepting every change.

Your next action

Choose two do phrases and two make phrases. Write a four-sentence account of tomorrow, then say it without reading. The goal is to have a few useful combinations ready when you describe your own plans.