Collocations Intermediate | Everyday Verbs Make & Do

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Learn the collocations we use with the verbs make and do in this new Collocations Intermediate episode from English Plus Podcast.

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I am using an automatic transcript service as it is not possible for me to do it on my own and I cannot afford human transcription at the moment. The service claims to have about 95% accuracy, which means there will still be some mistakes, so my apologies for having a less than perfect transcript, but I hope I can afford human transcription soon and I will solve this problem. However, the service is pretty good, and the transcript is almost perfect.

Transcript

Welcome to a new episode from English plus podcast. Today’s episode is about colocations intermediate, and that is the second episode in the series. In this episode, we will talk about everyday verbs and we will focus on two verbs make and do, but before we start the episode, Let me remind you that you can find the transcript of the episode in a link.

[00:00:29] I will leave in the description and you will also find a link to Patreon where you can take this link and support English plus podcast. And by supporting us, you will help us continue creating episodes for you and for everybody around the world. And you will get exclusive PDF practice worksheets. With every single episode we release.

[00:00:50] Now with that being said, let’s start with today’s episode. Colocations intermediate to everyday verbs make and do. Now let’s start with make. Now we will look at some examples and these examples, we will see the common colocations we use with the verb. Make. Now, let’s start with the very first example.

[00:01:10] The school can make arrangements for students with special needs. So the first co-location is make arrangements. Now we can say a range of course, but a lot of the times we say, make arrangements or make an arrangement for, but in general, we say, make arrangements. For students with special needs. What else can we use with make?

[00:01:32] We can say the new manager is planning to make some changes. We make changes. Now, here we have make some changes. Of course we can say, make changes or make a change. All of these are possible so we can use, make with changes as well. We can also say, for example, Amelia had to make a choice between her career and her family.

[00:01:54] So when you want to decide on something. You can say, make a choice. You have two choices or more, and you have to make a choice. What else we can say? Would anyone like to make any comments on the talk? Now, when you finish talking about something you can ask, if anybody would like to make any comments, you can make comments.

[00:02:18] What else can you make? She made a useful contribution to the discussion so you can make a contribution to something it could be to the discussion. It could be to some project. It could be to anything. You can make a contribution to something. Now we can also say, I’m glad it’s you, who has to make the decision.

[00:02:39] Not me. That is similar to make a choice. We can make a decision or here, make the decision. Of course you will have to be flexible about the way you use the word that co-located with. Make. Yes. In our example, here we have make the decision, but as I said, we can say, make a decision or make decisions in plural.

[00:02:58] So we can make a decision. What else can we make? Let’s take a look at this example, Michael is really making an effort with his math this term. So you can also make an effort like Michael is doing this term with his math. And now for another example, I’m too tired to go out tonight. Let’s make an excuse and stay at home.

[00:03:22] So we can also make an excuse. Caroline is very good at making friends. So we use make with friends, we don’t get friends, we don’t create friends. We make friends and making friends means to get to know new people and become friends with those people. So this thing is called making friends. Now let’s take a look at another example, repainting the room has really made an improvement so we can make an improvement or of course improvements.

[00:03:53] What else can we make? They’ve made a mistake in our bill. So of course you can make a mistake or mistakes. And here in this case, they’ve made a mistake in our bill and we can also make phone calls. For example, I’ve got to make some phone calls. Before dinner, you make phone calls, the use of make with these words might not make sense to you.

[00:04:16] You might think that you want to use another verb, but that is the power of co-locations. You learn what words go with, what words? And that is the natural way of speaking English. So in our example, here, I’ve got to make some phone calls before dinner. Now what else Holly is making progress with all her schoolwork.

[00:04:39] So you can also make progress. You can make progress with something, whatever that is here at schoolwork, it could be at work or at something else. So with all these co-locations that we used with the very important and very common verb, make let’s move on to talk about, do. What can we do? Of course you can do your best.

[00:05:02] For example, all that matters in the exam is to do your best. You can do your best. You don’t make your best. You do your best. What else you can do some damage or something of course can do some damage. Like in this example, the storm did some damage to our roof. The storm did some damage. You can do damage, not make, not create damage.

[00:05:26] You do damage. And you can do an experiment. For example, we are doing an experiment to test how the metal reacts with water. So we’re doing an experiment or we’re doing experiments. We don’t make experiments. We do them. We can also do exercises, whether it’s sports or we’re talking about some subject at school or at university, for example, we’ll do some exercises practicing these co-locations tomorrow, but I hope so.

[00:05:55] So do can also be used with exercises. What else can we use do with. We can do somebody a favor or do somebody a good term, which means the same thing. So for example, we can say, could you do me a favor and pick me up some milk from the supermarket? Just did me a good turn by lending me her car while mine was in the garage.

[00:06:18] Here, you can do a favor or actually do somebody a favor. And we use that a lot. Could you do me a favor? And that’s a very polite way to ask somebody to do something for you as a favor. You’re not going to pay this person to do that. So do me a favor and the same thing did me a good turn by lending me her car while mine was in the garage.

[00:06:40] So we can do a favor or do a good turn to somebody. A favor or do somebody a good term. What else we can do harm? It’s not always a good thing we do. We can say do good. But the opposite of that of course, is to do harm. For example, changing the rules may do more harm than good. So here we can use, do with harm as well.

[00:07:04] What else can we use? Do we can use do with hair? No, I’m not ready. I haven’t done my hair yet. I still have to do it and make it presentable. I’m not going to leave like that. I haven’t done my hair yet. So that is another co-location with do. And that goes with hair. You can do your homework. For example, my son has to do his homework straight after school.

[00:07:30] Do can also be used with homework. What else we can do the washing? We can do the ironing. We can do a lot of other tasks around the house, which we call in general, the housework and that’s of course different from the homework. Homework is what you do for school. Housework is what you do at home. So I’ll do the washing.

[00:07:50] If you do the irony, maybe a husband and wife are kind of discussing what to do and how to distribute the tasks evenly between them. So maybe the woman goes like, I’ll do the washing if you do the ironing deal. So that is also another co-location with do, do the washing, do the ironing, do the housework in general.

[00:08:09] And finally we can do some work. We can do work. For example, we’ll do some work on our project and then we’ll go to the cinema so you can do work as well. So of course we have a lot of other words we can use with do and make. And I’m sure you know, some of these and you will come across a lot more, but these are some very common examples where we use, make and do with a lot of other words.

[00:08:36] So here we talked about the common collocations for do and make a next time. We will talk about other common verbs. So stay tuned and follow the series of colocations intermediate. That’ll be all for today. Let me remind you that you can find the transcript of this episode in a link. I will leave in the description and you will also find a link to Patreon.

[00:08:56] Please consider becoming a patron of the show because that will support us and that will help us create more episodes. And of course you will get the great benefit of getting the PD. If practice, worksheets, specially designed and custom made for every single episode we release with that being said, this is your host, Danny.

[00:09:16] Thank you very much for listening to another episode from English plus podcasts. I won’t see you next time.

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<a href="https://englishpluspodcast.com/author/dannyballanowner/" target="_self">Danny Ballan</a>

Danny Ballan

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Danny is a podcaster, teacher, and writer. He worked in educational technology for over a decade. He creates daily podcasts, online courses, educational videos, educational games, and he also writes poetry, novels and music.

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