Make or Do: The Complete Guide with Collocations and Examples

Introduction

Make a decision or do a decision? Make homework or do homework? Make the dishes or do the dishes? These pairs are the single most common source of vocabulary errors for A2 and B1 learners — and once you stop translating from your first language, the choice becomes automatic.

This guide gives you the underlying rule, then the four high-frequency collocation lists that cover ~90% of real-world make/do usage. By the end you'll know exactly when to use each one — and which fixed expressions you just have to memorise.

Quick answer: Use make when you create or produce something — a result, a sound, a decision, food. Use do when you perform a task, an activity or an action — work, homework, the dishes, exercise. Both are extremely common in English and they almost never overlap, so getting the right one matters.

The Core Difference

The clearest way to remember the rule is to think about what each verb produces:

Test: ask yourself — am I producing something new (make), or am I performing an activity (do)?

• I'm making a cake. → A cake exists at the end. (make)
• I'm doing my homework. → An activity is being performed. (do)
• She made a mistake. → A new (unfortunate) outcome exists. (make)
• She did her best. → She performed an action. (do)
• He makes a lot of money. → Money is produced. (make)
• He does business in China. → Activity / engagement. (do)

This rule covers ~70% of cases. The other ~30% are fixed collocations — pairs that have to be memorised because the link to the rule is weaker. We'll cover those next.

Make — When to Use It

1. Creating, producing or building something

• make a cake / a meal / breakfast / coffee
• make a film / a song / a website
• make a chair / a dress / a model

Anything that physically exists at the end of the action.

2. Producing a result, decision or change

• make a decision (= decide)
• make a choice (= choose)
• make progress (= advance)
• make a difference / an impression / an impact
• make a profit / a loss / money

These are abstract results, but they all come into existence because of an action.

3. Producing speech, sound or noise

• make a noise / a sound / a comment / a remark
• make a speech / an announcement / a confession
• make a phone call
• make a joke / a suggestion / a complaint

When the result is something said or heard, English uses make.

4. Producing emotions or causing reactions

• make someone happy / sad / angry / nervous / tired
• That song makes me cry.
• She made him laugh.

Causative make + adjective is one of the most common A2/B1 patterns.

5. Producing arrangements and plans

• make an appointment / a reservation / a booking
• make a plan / a list / a schedule
• make a deal / a contract / an agreement

The agreement, list or appointment did not exist before — you produced it.

Do — When to Use It

1. Performing work, jobs and tasks

• do work / a job / a task
• do homework / housework / chores
• do the laundry / the dishes / the cleaning / the cooking
• do business

Anything that is a task or responsibility.

2. Performing activities (especially with -ing nouns or general words)

• do exercise / sport / yoga / karate
• do research / a study / an experiment
• do something / nothing / anything / everything
• What are you doing?

The verb do is the default when the action itself is the focus, not the product.

3. Studying or working in a field

• do a course / a degree / a master's
• do maths / history / chemistry (as in I'm doing maths at university)
• do a test / an exam

In British English especially, do describes which subject or qualification you are pursuing.

4. Fixed expressions

A handful of common do-collocations don't follow the rule and just need to be memorised:

• do your hair / your nails / your makeup
• do the shopping (BrE) / make the shopping list
• do a favour
• do harm / damage / good
• do your best
• do time (slang for serving a prison sentence)

Side-by-Side: Make vs Do in Common Contexts

Notice: make a mess (you create the mess) vs do damage (you perform an action that has a destructive effect). The difference is which side of the cause-and-effect you're naming.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Translating from L1 word-for-word

I will do my homework now. ✓ (correct in English) I will make my homework now. ✗ (calque from Spanish hacer la tarea, French faire les devoirs)

In many languages, one verb covers both make and do. English splits them. Don't translate — memorise the English collocation.

Mistake 2: Make a photo / make a picture

Can you make a photo of me? (German calque: ein Foto machen)

Why it's wrong: In English, photos are taken, not made.

✓ Can you take a photo of me?

Mistake 3: Make sport / make sports

I make sport three times a week. (French calque: faire du sport)

Why it's wrong: Sport is performed, not produced.

✓ I do sport three times a week. ✓ (more natural) I exercise three times a week.

Mistake 4: Do a decision / do a choice

I have to do a decision.

Why it's wrong: Decisions are produced, not performed.

✓ I have to make a decision.

Mistake 5: Do a mistake

Don't do mistakes.

Why it's wrong: Mistakes are produced by an action.

✓ Don't make mistakes.

Mistake 6: Make the dishes

I'll make the dishes after dinner.

Why it's wrong: Washing the dishes is a task — do territory. (Though you might make a dish in the sense of cooking a dish — that's about creating food.)

✓ I'll do the dishes after dinner.

Top 30 Make Collocations (Memorise These)

Top 30 Do Collocations (Memorise These)

Quick Reference

Practice Exercise

Fill in make or do:

1. I have to ___ my homework before dinner.
2. She ___ a beautiful cake for the party.
3. Can you ___ me a favour?
4. He ___ a mistake in the report.
5. We need to ___ a decision soon.
6. They ___ business in five countries.
7. ___ your best!
8. Don't ___ so much noise.
9. I'll ___ the dishes after dinner.
10. She ___ a phone call to her mother.

Answers: 1. do | 2. made | 3. do | 4. made | 5. make | 6. do | 7. Do | 8. make | 9. do | 10. made

Practise Make vs Do Now

The fastest way to lock these collocations in is high-volume, mixed practice — flipping between make and do contexts until the right verb becomes automatic. EngQuiz Pro has free collocation exercises at A2, B1, B2 and C1 levels, all of which test make/do alongside other high-frequency verb-noun pairs.

→ A2 Collocations Multiple Choice → → B1 Collocations Multiple Choice → → B2 Collocations Gap Fill →

For more on common A2/B1 errors — many of which are L1 transfer like the ones above — see our common English grammar mistakes post. For business-context vocabulary that builds on top of make/do, see business English phrasal verbs.

Make vs Do on the IELTS, TOEIC and Cambridge Exams

This contrast is a low-stakes test on every major exam — examiners aren't testing whether you can describe the rule, but whether the right collocation comes out automatically under pressure.

• Cambridge A2 Key / B1 Preliminary — multiple-choice gap-fill items test make/do in 5–10 questions per paper. The phrases that appear most often: make a decision, make a mistake, make a phone call, do homework, do the shopping, do business.
• IELTS Speaking Part 1 — when asked about your routine, hobbies or studies, candidates who say I make sport or I do mistakes immediately score lower on Lexical Resource. Practise the natural alternatives until they're automatic.
• TOEIC Part 5 and Part 6 — short context cues almost always tell you which verb fits. Watch for the noun immediately after the blank: decision, choice, plan, mistake → make; homework, work, business, exercise → do.

The Cambridge Dictionary entry on do or make is the cleanest single source for the full collocation list. For the broader vocabulary picture relevant to IELTS Writing Task 2, see our IELTS grammar structures post.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a single rule that always works? Almost. The 80/20 rule: make = produce something new; do = perform an activity. The remaining ~20% are fixed collocations you have to memorise (do your hair, make the bed, do harm, make a fool of yourself).

Why do we make the bed and do the laundry? Make the bed fits the rule loosely — you "create" the made-bed state. Do the laundry fits the rule — laundry is an activity/task. The harder one is make the bed — historically, the verb has been make in this context for centuries and is now fixed.

Are make and do ever interchangeable? Very rarely. Two near-exceptions: (a) in some contexts, do a study and make a study are both acceptable (academic English prefers do/conduct/carry out); (b) do/make a deal — make a deal is far more common, but do a deal exists informally.

What about American vs British differences? Some differences exist. Do the dishes (AmE) vs do the washing-up (BrE). Do the shopping (BrE) vs go shopping (AmE preferred). The core rule is the same in both varieties.

Where do make and do differ from take and get? Take often goes with measured actions: take a photo, take a test, take a break, take a shower. Get often signals a change of state: get tired, get ready, get older. None of them overlaps with make or do in a confusing way — they each have their own collocation territory.

Last updated: 11 May 2026 · Reviewed by the EngQuiz.Pro Editorial Team — see our editorial standards.