The rule in 20 seconds
English learners in almost every language mix these two up, because most languages have a single verb where English has two. The split is actually logical — most of the time:
- Make is about creating, producing, building — something exists at the end that didn’t exist before. You make a cake, a plan, a decision, a noise, a mistake. The result is the point.
- Do is about performing an activity, task or piece of work — the doing is the point, not a product. You do homework, the dishes, your job, exercise, nothing at all.
A quick test that works surprisingly often: ask “is there a ‘thing’ at the end?” A decision, a cake, money, friends — those are outcomes, so they take make. Homework, shopping, business, a favour — those are activities you carry out, so they take do.
The collocations worth memorising
Roughly 40–60 combinations cover almost everything you’ll ever need. Here are the high-frequency ones, grouped by verb.
Make collocations
| Collocation | Example |
|---|---|
| make a mistake | I made three mistakes in the test. |
| make a decision | We need to make a decision by Friday. |
| make an effort | At least make an effort to be on time. |
| make progress | You’re making real progress with your English. |
| make money | The shop makes money in summer. |
| make friends | She makes friends easily. |
| make a noise | Stop making so much noise! |
| make an appointment | I made an appointment with the dentist. |
| make the bed | Make your bed before you leave. |
| make sure | Make sure the door is locked. |
| make a difference | Ten minutes a day makes a difference. |
Do collocations
| Collocation | Example |
|---|---|
| do homework | He does his homework after dinner. |
| do the dishes | Whose turn is it to do the dishes? |
| do the shopping | I do the shopping on Saturdays. |
| do your best | Just do your best — that’s enough. |
| do harm | One late night won’t do any harm. |
| do damage | The storm did serious damage to the roof. |
| do business | They do business with three countries. |
| do (someone) a favour | Could you do me a favour? |
| do exercise | I try to do exercise every morning. |
| do well / badly | She did well in the interview. |
| do nothing | We sat on the beach and did nothing. |
The classic traps
Four errors come up constantly — usually because a learner’s first language points the wrong way:
- do a mistake → make a mistake — a mistake is a result you produce, not a task you perform.
- make a photo → take a photo — the third-verb trap: photos are neither made nor done in English.
- make sport → do sport / do exercise — sport is an activity, so it goes with do.
- make a party → have a party / throw a party — another case where the real answer is a different verb entirely.
Notice the pattern in the last three: sometimes the fix isn’t choosing between make and do — it’s realising English uses take, have or throw instead. Word-for-word translation is what plants these errors, and only repetition removes them. (If you’d like to know why simply knowing this list isn’t enough, we wrote about why you still make mistakes you already understand.)
Make vs Do exercises: a 12-question quiz
Time to test it. Pick the verb, get instant feedback with a one-line explanation, and watch your streak. The questions mix rule-based cases with the fixed collocations above.
Got 10 or more right? The rule is in your head. The harder question is whether the correct verb comes out at speaking speed, mid-sentence, with no time to think — and that only comes from repetition.
Make it automatic with Engsy
Engsy is a free app for iPhone, iPad and Android built for exactly this kind of confusion. Make/Do is one of its core decks, in the Often Confused category alongside Say vs Tell and In / On / At — and it takes the deck far past a one-off quiz:
- Study mode teaches — every answer, right or wrong, comes with an instant explanation like the ones in the quiz above, so each rep reinforces the rule.
- Assist mode nudges — the hints shrink as you improve, so you rely on the rule less and your ear more.
- Timer mode makes it automatic — speed pressure forces the correct verb out before the translating part of your brain can interfere. That’s the moment make a decision stops being knowledge and becomes habit.
Beyond Make/Do there are 60+ drills covering the other traps on this page’s borders — gerund or infinitive, phrasal verbs, tenses, prepositions — each one short enough to finish with your coffee.
Quick answers
Is it “make a mistake” or “do a mistake”?
Always make a mistake. A mistake is a result you produce, so it takes make. This error is common because many languages use their “do” verb here — which is exactly why it needs drilling, not just reading.
Why is it DO homework but MAKE a decision?
Homework is an activity — a task you perform — so it takes do. A decision is a result that exists because of you, so it takes make. The same contrast explains do the dishes (task) versus make a plan (result).
How many make/do collocations do I need to know?
About 40–60 cover nearly everything in everyday English — roughly the two tables above plus a handful of rarer ones. Don’t try to memorise them as a list: drill them in shuffled order with feedback, and they’ll settle in a couple of weeks.
Does the “result vs activity” rule always work?
No — it explains perhaps 70–80% of cases. Make the bed, do your hair, make money and do business all cut against it. Treat the rule as your default guess and the fixed collocations as vocabulary to memorise.