PART D

Confusables: Make or do?

Make and do are common verbs in English, but they are often confused by English learners.

We use do for general activities.

We didn't do any baking yesterday.

We use make when we create something. For example:

We made a strawberry shortcake.

There are also many fixed expressions with make and do. Unfortunately, they don't follow any rules, so you have to learn the expressions by heart.

I used to take coats and make sure all the guests through the door were attended to (= oli tapana varmistaa). I made lots of great friends this way (= sain ystäviä).

We do all our own housework and have a chap who comes to tend to the garden (= teemme omat kotityömme). We clean the house together – she does the upstairs and I do downstairs (= hän siivoaa yläkerran ja minä alakerran).