DO and MAKE. 37 Common Expressions (Business English)

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Are you sometimes unsure about whether you’re using ‘Do’ and ‘Make’ correctly?

A common challenge for English learners of all levels is how to use ‘Do’ and ‘Make’ in the correct way.

This is especially the case for language speakers of Latin languages like Portuguese and Spanish because they have only one word which means both ‘Do’ and ‘Make’ – Fazer (Portuguese) and Hacer (Spanish).

‘Do’ and ‘Make’ are commonly used words in the English language and there are many collocations (fixed expressions) which include them. Therefore, it’s worth spending some time learning how to use them correctly to support your vocabulary repertoire and grammar use.

‘Do’ is used as an auxiliary verb (e.g. ‘I don’t want it’, ‘Did you go out last night?’ etc), but in this post, we’re going to focus only on the fixed expressions.

I teach you 37 commonly used expressions for using ‘Do’ and ‘Make’ in a work and business context. You’ll find that there are more expressions for ‘Make’ than ‘Do’.

Guidelines on How to Use ‘Do’ and ‘Make’

‘Do’ is normally used to talk about tasks, jobs, and work.
‘Do’ is used to talk about general activities.
‘Make’ is used to talk about constructing, making, and creating things.

Although there are some general rules about when to use ‘Do’ and ‘Make’, there are many expressions with ‘Do’ and ‘Make’ which do not adhere to any rules.

Let’s take a look at the expressions.

37 Expressions with ‘DO’ and ‘MAKE’

‘Do’:

1. anything / everything / nothing / something
We need to do something about the growing competition in our market.

2. badly
Sales for the flagship product have done badly this month.

3. your best
I can see that you are doing your best to resolve conflict within your team.

4. business
It’s been great doing business with you, and I look forward to a long term partnership.

5. a course
He is doing a leadership course in preparation for his promotion as a manager.

6. damage
The recent bad press has done huge damage to the reputation of our brand.

7. a/the job
To do the job well you need to get rid of all distractions.

8. a/the report
Have you done the report yet?

9. research
The first stage of the project involves doing lots of research.

10. well
The new employee is doing very well.

11. work
I don’t mind if you stay at home as long as you do the work.

‘Make’:

12. an appointment
I’ve made an appointment to see the doctor on Thursday so we need to schedule the meeting for another day.

13. arrangements
I’ve already made arrangements on Friday, so let’s schedule the meeting on Monday.

14. a change
I think we have to make a change otherwise we risk a fall in sales.

15. a choice
Have you made a choice between the two interview candidates?

16. clear
You didn’t make it clear to me. I still don’t understand exactly why you want to change the approach.

17. a comment
That concludes my talk. Would anybody like to make a comment or ask any questions?

18. a comparison
After making a comparison between our price and the competitors’, I’m very optimistic that we’ll go on to reach our sales goals.

19. a complaint
I called the supplier to make a complaint about the late delivery.

20. a decision
This is the most important decision I have ever made.

21. a difference
When I decided to embark on a career in Human Resources, I wanted to make a difference to the working environment as a whole.

22. an effort
We have had to make a huge effort to achieve our goals this year.

23. an error
You have made several errors in the PowerPoint presentation. The first one is…

24. a list
Could you make a list of the priorities we need to resolve before the trip?

25. a loss
The company made a loss of $1 million last year.

26. a mistake
I made a mistake when I accepted this price in the negotiation.

27. an offer
We have made them an offer and are now waiting for them to get back to us with an answer.

28. a payment
For the rest of today, I will be focusing on making payments.

29. plans
We are currently making plans for next year’s sales and marketing event.

30. a point
You made an interesting point about the company’s decision to outsource customer service.

31. a presentation (‘give’ a presentation is also possible)
I’m making a presentation about our marketing strategy next week.

32. a profit
Our company made a profit of $10 million last year.

33. progress
We have made significant progress on the new building this year.

34. a sale
How many sales have you made this quarter?

35. a speech
The speech you made last night was inspiring.

36. a suggestion
I’d like to make a suggestion regarding the high staff turnover rate.

37. sure (‘be’ sure is also possible)
Make sure that you have included all the details in the report.

Check out more posts about improving vocabulary and business English:

How to Improve English Vocabulary (5 Step Strategy)

15 Phrasal Verbs with ‘Get’ for Work & Business

5 Phrases to Avoid for Confident Spoken English

Common Mistakes Related to ‘Do’ and ‘Make’

Here are some typical mistakes which I frequently hear English learners making:

Mistake: Make a question.
Correction: Ask a question.

Mistake: Make/do a research.
Correction: Do research.

Mistake: Do a meeting.
Correction: Have a meeting.

Mistake: Do a list.
Correction Make a list.
*although it is correct to say ‘a to-do list’, it is incorrect to say ‘to do a list’.

Take Action

In this article, I have shown you 37 commonly used expressions for using ‘Do’ and ‘Make’ in a work and business environment.

So now that you have seen them, think back to when you use English and select the most common ones which apply to your day-to-day and the situations you use English for.

Then write some sentences down and customize them so that you could use them in future real-life settings. Next, practice saying them aloud.

Finally, store these expressions on a digital flashcard such as Anki, Flashcard Deluxe or Quislet to review and test yourself.