Make vs. Do: The Difference Explained With the Most Common Collocations

Many languages have a single verb for both ideas: Spanish “hacer”, French “faire”, Portuguese “fazer”, Italian “fare”. English splits it into “make” and “do”, and picking the wrong one is one of the most common slips learners make.

The general rule

Make	Do
Create, produce, build	Carry out tasks and activities
The result is something new	The focus is the action, not the result
make a cake, make a plan	do homework, do the dishes

Think of it this way: if at the end there is something that did not exist before, it is “make”. If you just carried out a task, it is “do”.

Combinations with make

• make a decision
• make a mistake
• make money
• make friends
• make a call
• make noise
• make an effort
• make sense
• make a difference
• make the bed
• make progress
• make an appointment

Combinations with do

• do homework
• do the dishes
• do the laundry
• do your best
• do business
• do a favor
• do exercise
• do research
• do well / do badly
• do the shopping
• do your hair
• do damage

Do for general activities

When you do not name the activity, use “do”: “What are you doing?”, “I have nothing to do”, “Do something!”. This is the most frequent use of all.

How to memorize them

Lists help at first, but hearing the combinations in real use is what makes them stick. On TV, “make sense”, “make a mistake” and “do me a favor” come up constantly. When you hear a new combination, save the whole phrase, not just the verb. In Telidioma, clicking the expression shows what that combination means in the context of the line, which is different from translating “make” or “do” alone. For other confusing pairs, see say, tell, speak and talk.