7/31/2019 The Use of Make and Do

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The Use of Make and Do

Hello, hello Ingls na Ponta da Lngua Fans and Friends. Here we areagain with another episode of our podcast. My names Denilso de Lima,Im an ESL/EFL teacher trainer and book author in Brazil, and the guyresponsible for the blog Ingls na Ponta da Lngua.

Before talking about todays tip I want to thank all of you guys who aregiving ideas to make our podcasts better and better. I am sure this is afantastic way to help you guys improve your English language skills.Remember that you can download the MP3 and PDF files for thepodcasts on denilsodelima.blogspot.com.

Today, I want to tell youabout the words make anddo. In Portuguese, theyboth can be translated asfazer. Of course, there areother meanings, but peoplein Brazil usually think thatfazer is the only option.Because of this, its commonto get confused about using

one word or the other. Thatis, in Brazil, we usually sayfazer um acordo. So, English language learners get stuck and keepsasking if they should use make or do in this combination. In otherwords, should they say make an agreement or do an agreement?

Well, the answer for that is make an agreement. Why is that? Becausein English the word make collocates with the word agreement. So,youd better say make an agreement. Thats how they naturally usethese words, so you have to learn the whole combination (collocation)and thats it.

English language learners and teachers tend to focus on the wordsmake and do. In my opinion, this is a huge mistake. I believe thefocus should be on the other words. For example, imagine you want tosay fazer uma reclamao in English. Instead of asking about makeor do, you should focus on the word complaint. That means youhave to look up the word complaint in a dictionary and see what isused in there. If you have a very good dictionary, youll learn that inEnglish they say make a complaint.

If you focus on the other word - the main word -, youre going to learnsome interesting things. One of these is related to the word party. In

7/31/2019 The Use of Make and Do

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Portuguese, we say fazer uma festa. But in English, they usually saythrow a party, give a party, organize a party, have a party. Theydont say make a party or do a party. These combinations are notcommon. You have to learn that the most common combination - orcollocation - is throw a party.

Keep this in mind: Always focus on the other word. Do not worry aboutmake or do. Let me give you another example. You have to say fazera tarefa de casa. You know that tarefa de casa in English ishomework. So, what you have to do is get a good dictionary, look upthe word homework in it, and find out that in English they say do thehomework. See? What you have to do is to focus on the other word. Ifyou focus on make or do, youll never learn how to combine thewords properly in English.

In case you want more, lets try this with the word coffee. InPortuguese we say fazer caf. In English, they say make coffee. Howabout fazer uma confisso? In English, its make a confession. If youhave to say fazer uma boa ao; then, in English, youll have to saydo a good action. And how do they say fazer um favor? Easy! Its doa favor.

My point here is: there are no rules to help you with that. Its the waywords are naturally combined that will help you learn when you usemake or do. Some people try to create rules for this. One of thesecrazy rules says that if the thing is created, manufactured, etc., youhave to use make. According to this rule, you say make dinner (fazero jantar), make a cake (fazer um bolo), make a salad (fazer umasalada), etc. When it comes to the word do, they say that do has tobe used to describe an activity: do the dishes (lavar a loua), do atranslation(fazer uma traduo), do exercises (fazer exerccios).

Now, think about the word bed. In Portuguese, we say fazer a cama.Its an activity. So, according to the rule, you have to say do the bed.Thats where the rule fails! In English, the correct way to say fazer a

cama is make the bed. That really shows that the rule doesnt work.

In a nutshell, always focus on the other word to be used with make ordo. There are no magic rules. There are no magic tips. There is nomagic at all. Noticing how words combine is the only thing which willreally help you. Thats whats going to make the whole difference.

Thats all for today. Have a nice day, guys. Take care!