Make vs Do
What is the difference between Make and Do? Many students get confused with these two verbs. Hopefully this episode will make it clearer for you! Enjoy :)
Transcriptions
Hola amigos! You are listening to English Made Simple this is episode number #62! Numero sesenta y dos!
Woohoo! Numero sesenta y dos! Wow!
Hello chicos, a big hello from Melbourne, we are lucky to have another sunny day in Melbourne! It’s not very common. Welcome to English Made Simple my name is Milena – thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to listen to my show. I think that just by taking 10 or 15 minutes out of your day is enough time to help you improve your English. So well done to you amigos! Thanks for making the time to listen to English Made Simple.
I have a great idea for my non-Spanish speaking listeners, just for my listeners who don’t speak Spanish, you know, just thinking out loud here, you can do something to impress your friends, you can start practising saying numbers in Spanish just by listening to English Made Simple. How cool is that! If you are interested in learning Spanish, that is.
As you might have noticed, what I normally do in my introductions in each episode is this: I say my episode number in English and then repeat it in Spanish. For example: This episode is number sixty-two, sesenta y dos. Well, really I do this for myself so that I don’t forget Spanish…
Guys, before we begin, I would like to say a quick hello to Ana Rodriguez who left a nice comment on my YouTube channel, she was really excited to see The English Made Simple Podcast finally appear on YouTube. Hola Ana! Como estas? Yes I know, finally, it’s about time English Made Simple is on YouTube. This is one way of reaching my personal goal which is to help 1,000,000 people speak English with confidence or improve their English.
So, English Made Simple now has close to 50,000 downloads – not bad, not bad at all. Getting there slowly, approaching my goal realllly slow…
So why are we here today, amigos? In today’s episode we are going to learn the difference between Make and Do. Both are irregular verbs. How exciting! Both of these verbs are used frequently in the English language.
They are used as Main verbs in English.
The Past Tense of Make is Made and Participle Made.
The Past Tense of Do is Did and Participle Done.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
I am just gonna ask you this silly question: Have you heard of The English Made Simple Podcast? Of course you have. You are listening to it! You are listening to English Made Simple.
The Word MADE in this case is a participle. It could be English Done Simple – but it just doesn’t make sense when you use those words DONE Simple. It just doesn’t flow, it sounds a bit weird, a bit wrong.
If you haven’t noticed I have used a collocation earlier when I said – It Just Doesn’t MAKE SENSE – when something makes sense, then it sounds right, it sounds correct, it sounds natural or logical or sensible. When something makes sense.
Now, I hope you are having a cup of coffee or having an energy drink of some sort, because the verbs Make and Do in this episode, are gonna make you go crazy. These two words are known to confuse any English student. Ok a lot of students get confused with this one.
So what is the difference between these two verbs? What is it? just tell me!
Ok Oh my Godness, there’s just so many things to remember here. Firstly, let’s take a deep breath in and out. Inhale and exhale!
Ok. Ready, here we go!
The word MAKE goes with some words and the word DO goes with other words.
What?
Wow that was genius, really smart Milena. You are a bloody genius! ‘Make’ goes with some words and ‘Do’ goes with other words…..uhm… duuh! Obviously. Very clever Milena. That’s like the majority of words in the English language. They all go with some words. Duh!
Ok everybody just calm down. Relax, Calmate!
Let’s start with the word DO. When do we use DO. Well, There are 3 instances I can think of, where we can use the Word DO.
# 1 – We use DO when we talk about work, jobs or tasks, but we are not producing a physical object. We are not producing anything tangible, anything we can touch. For example:
1. Do your homework. Have you done your homework?
2. I hate doing the dishes. I hate doing housework. Another example:
3. I should be doing some exercise after eating a whole jar of Nutella, I need to burn off those calories. Do some exercise and burn off energy haha my personal example as you can tell. Obviously. Let’s move on.
#2 – We use Do when we talk about some activities in general and when we are not being specific. So we would usually add words like thing, nothing, anything or everything and so on. So non-specific things. For example:
1. I am busy recording my show and I can’t do anything else right now. I’m busy.
2. Did you do anything fun on the weekend? Are you doing anything interesting during the Christmas holidays?
3. When we say things like: What do you do? It actually refers to what is your job? What is your profession? For example, what do you do? You can say, I am a pharmacist, I work at a pharmacy or a drugstore if you are in the US. In Australia we say pharmacy.
We usually ask this when we meet somebody, we usually say What do you do? It is a polite way to ask What do you do?What is your profession?
And lastly #3 – The last situation when we would use the word DO is, when we replace it with another verb to state something obvious. And guys this is more common in informal English. This is how native speakers speak. Here are some examples for you to note:
1. Normally, I don’t spend too much time in the morning to do my hair.
2. I like to do my nails though. I go and have a regular pedicure and someone else does my nails, so I look like a lady. That’s what my Mum often says to me, Milena, wear some jewellery, do your makeup, do you nails, do your hair so you look like a lady. Because most of the time you act like a guy. Ok Mum! I’ll do it!
3. I hate doing the paperwork. Paperwork or admin stuff means trámites in Spanish. People in Santiago have to do a lot of paperwork for any minor task, any minor requirement. I remember how frustrating that was when I was there. You have to queue for everything. In Australia most of those things you can do online over the Internet, it’s so much easier.
Anyway, I am getting myself distracted…
Guys, are we clear as mud? Tan claro como el chocolate? Hm… What was that, someone said chocolate? Oh yes please.
Moving right along guys, to work MAKE.
Now amigos, you are going to have another sip of that coffee, actually I am going to have a glass of wine, because I can. You ready?
Put quite simply, we use the word MAKE when we are producing, constructing, creating or building something new. So, for example:
# 1 – It can be used to show the origin of a product or a material for example, Made in China. It’s the most common thing we see on our clothes nowadays – we see a tag or a label that says Made In China or Made in India.
Another example, wine is made from grapes (uvas). Well if that’s the case I will just call it a grape juice not wine. I am drinking grape juice.
#2 – We use Make for producing an action or reaction.
For example:
1. You make me happy. You make me angry. Wine makes me happy.
2. I hope this episode doesn’t make you sleepy. Make you something.
We use MAKE to produce a reaction or emotion.
#3 And, we have a few more situations where we use the word MAKE. We use Make after certain nouns especially about plans or decisions. For example:
1. We have to start making plans for next year, 2017.
2. Amor, should we see the latest James Bond movie or the latest Transformers? I don’t know Milena just make a decision. Ok? Make a decision.
#4 – We use Make about speaking or sounds.
1. My neighbours make so much noise. I can’t sleep. They make so much noise, a lot of noise.
#5 – And lastly we use Make with FOOD, DRINKS and MEALS. Fun stuff!
1. My Mum makes really yummy sweets, or she makes really yummy cakes.
2. My brother usually makes dinner around 7 in the evening. Around 7pm.
3. Mi amor, can you make me a cup of coffee please. For example….
Phew! That’s a lot! Had enough of Make and Do verbs? I hope not, because there is more coming, in the next short and sweet we are going to talk about making New Year’s Resolutions
It’s time to make some New Year’s Resolutions guys! I am going to give you some time to think about this. What is a New Year’s Resolution you might ask yourselves?
According to weon inteligente, and I like this definition it sounds so simple, it goes like this: A New Year’s Resolution is a promise that you make to yourself to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year. So normally people decide, ok next year, from the 1st January, I am going to give up smoking. Ok so they make a promise to themselves that they are going to give up smoking, or stop drinking, or doing something bad. Anything that is bad for them.
And here we are amigos, this is the end.
Remember amigos, all transcriptions are available on my website www.www.englishmadesimple.net.
It’s been awesome jamming with you all – Until next time muchachos and muchachas! Hasta la proxima! Have a great week ahead!