Thread: When I should use the verb “make” and when the verb “do”?

Hello, dear friends! I am confused a bit again.

1) I cannot catch the difference between “make” and “do”. I mean situations like this:
He did a little dance…. (Why is there “did” instead of “made” here?)
“I made mistakes” or “I did mistakes” ???????
Does any rule which can define this situation exist? or I should learn these expression by heart only?

2) And another little easy question.
I cannot hear the pronunciation of “Yale” here http://www.merriam-webster.com/. My computer asks me a login and a password. How does this word sound: like «Ель/Йель” or “Яль/Йаль” or “Йаэль”? Could you make an audio of this word?

Thanks a lot.

Both words are used very often, but you use 'do' in a much wider variety of meanings. 'Make' is usually a creative process. The Oxford Russian dictionary translates 'make' as делать but with the additional hints 'fashion', 'create', 'construct', 'build' and similar words.

Does it help to say that 'Yale' rhymes with 'fail', 'tale' etc.?

Don't worry, this is confusing for everybody who learns English...


Made is something MORE CONCRETE.
Did is LESS SPECIFIC. (GENERAL)

Some examples to try to demonstrate:
She made a cake (concrete)
She did some baking (general)

She made a mistake (concrete)
She did a bad thing (general)
She did something stupid (general)

She did not have any friends (un-specific)
She made a new friend (more concrete...)

He made up some rules
She did as he told her

He made some noise
She did not make any sound

YALE
It's used in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h37YaMCJre8
My microphone is not set up, otherwise I would record it.

Robin, Johanna
Thank you so much. Your explanations help me to catch the difference. I will (remind) remember your advice (s) every time when I try to write and to speak something in English. Thank you very much!

Regarding “Yale”
It sounds almost like Russian native speaker do, but closer a bit to the Russian sound “Э”. Russian and English variants are very similar. My doubts blew over. Robin, Johanna, thank you very much!

Originally Posted by ekaterinak

Robin, Johanna
I will remind your advices every time when I try to write and to speak something in English.

You can remind someone of something, as in 'I asked you to do it yesterday'; but you remember advice. And advice is not countable, always singular.

And you're, as always, welcome.

Robin

Вообще говоря, "Do" относится к действию, а "make" относится к "созданию", но есть исключения.

Originally Posted by bitpicker

You can remind someone of something, as in 'I asked you to do it yesterday'; but you remember advice. And advice is not countable, always singular.

And you're, as always, welcome.

Robin

Thank you, Robin very much. I will try not to forget your hint regarding the word “remind”. It was very useful. Большое спасибо!

Originally Posted by Yazeed

Вообще говоря, "Do" относится к действию, а "make" относится к "созданию", но есть исключения.

И Вам, спасибо, Язид. А Вы не помните эти исключения? Тихо надеюсь, что их немного....

You can go over and search that other site