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  • Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • Make exercise, do exercise, which one's correct?

  • Let's talk about it.

  • Do and make are two commonly confused verbs in English, so today I'd like to help you

  • learn the top seven expressions with do and the top 10 expressions with make.

  • If you have ever made any of these mistakes I hope you won't do it again after this lesson.

  • Let's get started with some general principles.

  • We use do for specific tasks, some obligations, or repetitive activities.

  • I need to do some housework.

  • This is an obligation, a duty, to do some housework.

  • We use make for creating or producing something.

  • I need to make some soup.

  • I'm creating the soup.

  • Today we're going to be in two different locations, one in the woods and one by the stream so

  • that you can visually remember the difference between these two words.

  • I hope that it will just add to this experience so that you can enjoy the lesson and also

  • remember these words.

  • But this can be tricky because cooking meals is kind of an obligation or a duty, right?

  • I hope that by talking about some specific expressions with both of these words it'll

  • help you to remember them, but also it'll help you to keep those words together.

  • If you hear make soup, make soup, make soup a lot your brain will keep these two words

  • together.

  • It's kind of like when you were first starting to learn English you never heard I were happy.

  • You always heard I was happy.

  • Because you never heard I were happy you probably didn't create that wrong sentence structure,

  • so I hope that by hearing this correct sentence structure again and again you're going to

  • be able to remember if it's do or if it's make.

  • Let's start by talking about seven expressions using do.

  • Everyone loves doing chores.

  • I dream about doing the laundry.

  • Doing the dishes is my favorite activity.

  • Okay, maybe that's not true for you.

  • But here we're using do to talk about this duty, this obligation, this repetitive task.

  • We use do to talk about almost every household chore.

  • Do the laundry, do the dishes, except make the bed.

  • This is an exception, but we often use do to talk about those household repetitive chores.

  • For more household chores check out my video, 70 Cleaning Expressions In English, up here.

  • Number two, I can't go play a game because I have to do some work, or maybe because I

  • have to do some homework.

  • To do work is a common expression.

  • Actually I said this to Dan when I was writing this lesson.

  • He wanted me to play a game, and I said, "I'm sorry, I can't play the game because I have

  • to do some work," which was writing this lesson.

  • Number three, Dan, my husband, plays hockey, and after his game he often says the goalie

  • did a good job, but we still lost, or maybe he could've said the goalie did a bad job.

  • The goalie did a poor job.

  • Here we're talking about doing a good job, doing a bad job, doing a poor job.

  • We're using the word do in the past to say did.

  • He did a good job.

  • What do you think about this lesson?

  • Am I doing a good job explaining these expressions?

  • Number four, have you done any exercises recently?

  • Maybe you might say, "Well, I did some Yoga yesterday, and I'm going to do some Pilates

  • today."

  • This question uses do in another verb tense.

  • Have you done any exercises recently?

  • This can be a little bit tricky to talk about do plus exercise because we often just take

  • out do completely and say, "Have you exercised recently?"

  • This is using exercise as the verb.

  • Have you exercised?

  • Notice the "ed."

  • That tells us that this is a verb.

  • Have you exercised recently?

  • But in my original sentence, have you done any exercises, this is using exercise as a

  • noun, and then do is our verb.

  • So make sure that you use this correctly.

  • We don't want to have do plus exercise as a verb.

  • We need to only have one verb here.

  • Have you done any exercises?

  • Have you exercised?

  • Number five, how are you doing?

  • I'm doing pretty well.

  • I'm not doing that hot.

  • This is a common greeting.

  • You might hear this all the time.

  • Maybe you say this a lot.

  • To learn some other common greetings and other ways to start sentences you can check out

  • this link up here.

  • How are you doing?

  • I'm doing great.

  • I'm not doing that hot, wonderful.

  • Number six, I always try to do my best.

  • To do my best is a beautiful expression.

  • It means you're not perfect, but you try to do your best.

  • If you said this in a job interview, "I always try to do my best every day at work," wow,

  • great.

  • You're hired.

  • This is a wonderful way to express that you are a diligent worker, you're a hard worker,

  • and even though you're not perfect you're going to always do your best.

  • Number seven, please do something, do anything.

  • Maybe if you have a friend who is single and is always complaining about not going on a

  • date you might say, "Well, maybe it would be a good idea if you got out of your house

  • one day.

  • Maybe you should go to a Yoga class.

  • Maybe you should go for a walk in the park and talk to someone while you're walking your

  • dog.

  • Just do something, do anything."

  • We often use do with these words, something, anything.

  • And it's not specific.

  • Something and anything is not telling a specific activity, but we often use those together.

  • You can also use this in a less intense situation.

  • Maybe if your friend's inviting you to go to a Yoga class you might say, "Oh, I can't

  • go to Yoga class because I have to do something else."

  • You're not saying what you have to do.

  • It's kind of mysterious.

  • You're not saying that other activity that you need to do, but you're just saying, "Oh,

  • I need to do something else, to do something, do something else."

  • Now let's go on to make.

  • These are the top 10 expressions using make, at least according to me.

  • Number one, Dan makes oatmeal for us every morning.

  • I like to make green tea in the afternoon.

  • We often use make with food or drinks, and it's a good way to use this naturally.

  • Number two, if you watch the ad at the beginning of this video I make some money.

  • Thanks.

  • Here I'm not creating or producing.

  • I'm not printing the money myself, but here I'm still acquiring the money.

  • So I want to know when you were in high school what did you do to make money?

  • Did you babysit?

  • Did you walk your neighbor's dog?

  • Did you do your neighbor's homework?

  • What did you do to make money.

  • Sentence number three, it can be tough to make new friends when you move to a new city.

  • Here we're using the expression make friends.

  • You're not actually creating your friends like Frankenstein, at least I hope not.

  • But you're acquiring new friends.

  • When I think about the friends that I have now, I made one friend at the grocery store.

  • I made another friend at Yoga class, and I made another friend 10 years ago in college.

  • As an adult we make friends in a lot of different ways.

  • Have you ever made a phone call in English?

  • This can be a little bit scary when you do it, but with practice it gets easier.

  • We have a couple expressions we use when we talk about using the phone, but when you're

  • the one dialing the numbers you're the one who's making a phone call.

  • If you want to use some common expressions for phone conversations make sure to check

  • out this video up here.

  • Number five, make a suggestion about what kind of lesson you'd like me to make here

  • on YouTube in the future.

  • I'm asking you to make a suggestion.

  • Give me some ideas.

  • Number six, when you make a mistake don't make an excuse, just tell the truth.

  • Here are two for the price of one, make a mistake and make an excuse.

  • I often hear English learners say I did a mistake, and to them I would say, "Yup, you

  • did.

  • You made a mistake."

  • If you want to use did, you could say, "I did something wrong."

  • But here this is a beautiful expression you can use instead with make.

  • I made a mistake.

  • And if you make a mistake don't make an excuse.

  • No one likes someone who makes excuses.

  • Oh, I was tired.

  • I was hungry.

  • There was a lot of traffic.

  • Don't make an excuse.

  • Just tell the truth and say you're sorry and move on.

  • Number seven, I often read reviews to help me make a decision before I buy something.

  • Do you do that?

  • Do you read reviews before you buy something?

  • What helps you to make a decision?

  • Have you ever made a decision that you have regretted.

  • I hope you don't regret making the decision to watch this lesson.

  • Study these words so that you can make sure that you use them correctly.

  • We often say make sure to mean make certain, be certain.

  • But we don't use that one as much, so forget about that one and just remember make sure.

  • We often use this as kind of a reminder.

  • Make sure that you finish your homework.

  • Make sure that you clean your room.

  • Make sure, make sure, make sure.

  • If you use make sure as a reminder to someone else make sure you say it with a smile because

  • it can be kind of annoying if someone says make sure you do this, make sure you do this,

  • make sure you do this.

  • So make sure you say it with a smile.

  • Number nine, it really makes me happy that you're still watching this video and didn't

  • click away.

  • Your actions have an effect on me.

  • It makes me happy.

  • Or we could use this in a negative way.

  • Talking with her about her problems makes me feel drained, or maybe watching these lessons

  • makes you feel excited about English.

  • It makes you react in a certain way.

  • It makes me feel happy.

  • It makes me feel drained.

  • It makes me feel excited.

  • I hope this lesson makes you feel excited because I am sitting on a log suspected over

  • the creek, and it's not very comfortable, so it makes me happy that you're still watching

  • this, and that this experience is worth it.

  • Number 10, try to use English every day.

  • This advice just makes sense.

  • If someone told you study English for six hours every Saturday, and you can forget about

  • English the other six days of the week, this advice doesn't really make sense.

  • It feels really stressful to me.

  • So when you use this expression it makes sense.

  • It doesn't make sense.

  • We're using this in the sense of sensible.

  • This is the root word here.

  • It is sensible advice to study English a little bit every day.

  • It is not sensible advice to study English just one day for a long period of time.

  • You feel stressed.

  • You don't remember things easily.

  • So it makes sense to study English little by little every day.

  • I think it makes sense to have a review now, don't you think?

  • Let's go back and review all of the expressions that we talked about with do and all of the

  • expressions we talked about with make.

  • Let's review the seven expressions with do.

  • Number one, everyone loves doing chores.

  • I have to do some work.

  • The goalie did a good job.

  • I did some exercises yesterday.

  • How are you doing?

  • I'm doing pretty well.

  • I always try to do my best.

  • I have to do something else.

  • And now the 10 expressions with make.

  • Number one, Dan makes us oatmeal.

  • Number two, I make some money.

  • It can be tough to make friends.

  • I need to make a phone call.

  • Make a suggestion in the comments.

  • When you make a mistake don't make an excuse.

  • The reviews often help me to make a decision.

  • Make sure you clean your room before you go to bed.

  • It makes me happy that you watched this lesson.

  • This advice just makes sense.

  • And now I have a question for you.

  • What is something that makes you happy?

  • For me it's nice to be outside, but it really makes me happy to be off of that log, and

  • here I'm sitting on a rock with my toes in the water.

  • That makes me really happy.

  • Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new

  • lesson here on my YouTube channel.

  • Bye.

  • The next step is to download my free e-book, Five Steps to Becoming a confident English

  • speaker.

  • You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

  • Thanks so much, bye.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

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