Hi! It's Abbe from MosaLingua.
Today I have a great English grammar hack to share with you
Let's talk about the verbs "make" and "do", two verbs that can be
very helpful but also somewhat tricky!
Some languages have a verb that helps us talk about actions that do
not have their own verb. Here's what I mean. Think about the verb "to appoint".
For example: "the president can appoint members of the government"
The noun for this is "an appointment".
However "an appointment" can also mean the meeting
you set up with your doctor or your banker for example. But for this meaning
the verb "to appoint" is not the right verb to use. We need a sort of helper
verb to express the action of calling the doctor's office or the bank to ask
for a meeting. In this case we "make an appointment".
Many other languages have
just one verb that covers all different situations, such as "hacer" in Spanish
"Fare" in Italian, "faire" in French, "fazer" in Portuguese etc.
How do you translate these verbs into English?
Well, it depends! And this is of course where non-native
speakers often get confused. The two most common English translations for this
idea are: "to make" and "to do" but it can be difficult to decide which one is the
correct translation for a given situation.
Luckily, I have a grammar hack that is easy to remember and works most of the time.
Here it is: ask yourself this simple question.
Is the action creating something new?
If the answer is yes
you will most likely need to use the verb "make". If the answer is no you will
probably need to use "do".
Are you ready for some examples?
Do we make or do a cup of tea?
Remember, ask yourself: are you creating something new? Yes you are
taking hot water and tea leaves, and turning them into a new drink. A concrete
object that was not there before. We "make" tea, coffee, smoothies and other food and drinks.
Next, do we make or do our hair? Are you creating something new?
No, usually we are not adding hair to our head. We are simply rearranging it to
look different. Therefore: we do our hair and our nails.
Next, do we make or do the dishes?
Again, are you creating something new? No you are simply removing dirt from
dishes that already exist. So we do things like the dishes, the laundry, the
housework and the cleaning. Here's one last one for you: do we make or do noise?
Are you creating something new? Yeah you are adding sounds to silence
using your mouth, a guitar or maybe pots and pans. So we make noise and music.
Are you starting to get the hang of it?
As with all hacks, this one does not work
perfectly 100% of the time. But it's a good place to start.
The more you read here and use the verbs "make" and "do", the better you will get at
remembering or guessing which is the correct word to use
and the more fluent you will sound.
I have one last tip for you before I go. If
you are having doubts about which one to use, you can always try to avoid them
altogether. Generally you can find a more precise verb to say the same thing.
For example, if you aren't sure if you "make your homework" or "do your homework",
you could always say "I'm going to work on my homework".
If you are hesitating between "make a cake" and "do a cake", why not say "I'm going
to bake a cake". Is it make a decision or do a decision? Simply say "I'm going to
decide". Paint your nails instead of doing them, earn money instead of making it.
"Finish" is another nice verb that you can use in many situations to replace make and do.
Such as "I need to finish this video". So that's all for today! I will see
you again very soon for the next video.
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See you next time!