In today’s blog, I’m going to explain five situations where to make is NOT the verb you thought it was.
And there will be sex in this blog entry. Just in case you are not into sex.
You have been warned.
And yes, I know. You are horrified, confused and, hey, while we’re at it, BEWILDERED. Not because of the sex, but because you might not know as much about the verb to make as you first thought.
If you’d read the two blog posts I’ve already published about how to classify the verbs to make and to do, you should already have a pretty good idea about which one to use in almost every situation. Right?
But do you? Let’s check out five confusing situations:
1. DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Okay, before we get to decisions, let’s start with choices. We make them every day. Lots and lots of them. According to the internet, (and the internet never lies), on average, a human being will make 35,000 choices a day. Remotely conscious choices. Not everybody agrees about this number. But there is one thing that everybody agrees on.
We make them.
We M.A.K.E. choices.
Now to decisions!
We make 27 important decisions a day. Not ‘take’ as quite a lot of English learners say.
If we assume that it takes us 10 minutes to make each decision, then we spend 270 minutes a day (or just over four hours) every day making decisions. The average person in Ireland lives to around 82 years of age, so you could say that during our lives, we make approximately 29,950 important decisions. Which, as I mentioned before is a LOT of decisions. To MAKE!
And one of them should not be whether to use the verb to make or to take.
Now you know, you have no excuse for making mistakes.
Do NOT say:
When are you going to take the decision?
DO say:
When are you going to make your decision?
I’m glad you made the decision to read this blog entry today. Now it’s time to learn what all this has to do with selfies.
What the hell can they have to do with the verb to make?
2. PHOTOS, PHOTOS, PHOTOS!
The answer is nothing.
Okay. That’s not quite true. If it were, you wouldn’t be reading about them, and I wouldn’t be sitting here at my desk on a cold February Friday writing about them.
In many languages, photos are made. By that, I mean, the foreign language verb which describes using a camera to capture an image forever is often an equivalent of the English verb to make. Spanish tourists who are posing in front of the Molly Malone statue in Dublin will translate hacernos una foto (or take a photo of us) as make us a photo and if you bump into a similar group of Italians, you will also be asked to make or fare (in Italian) a photo.
Clearly, this is the reason why we (native speakers), when we are approached by these foreigners proffering their mobile phones and asking us to make them photos, are initially confused by their request.
Do they want us to ‘fabricate’ a photo out of paper with all the chemicals needed to process the image?
Do they want us to turn them into photos?
What the hell do these crazy foreigners want?
Or, could it be that they just want us to take a photo OF them? Oh! That’s all they want!? That’s easy. Why didn’t they just say so? Honestly, given all the mistakes that a foreign English speaker can make, and that we can usually discern what they mean, this one seems to particularly disconcert native speakers. So, get it right.
English speakers take photos. They take photos of things. If they are selfies, they take photos of themselves. WE TAKE SELFIES. Far too many, if you ask my humble opinion.
Do not say:
Can you make me a photo?
Do say:
Can you take a photo of me, please?
3. QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS
Before I became an English teacher, it had never crossed my mind that foreigners might have any difficulties with what verb they needed to use when posing questions.
Posing questions in English is more complicated than it first appears. There are auxiliary verbs and modal verbs and they are a pain in the neck (to put it mildly). But let’s be honest, most people get these under control, eventually.
So, what’s the problem with questions?
Well, in short. Many English learners use the verb to make because that is the concept that is used in their mother tongue. So, it’s logical for them to translate directly. Right?
WRONG!
English, for all its simplicity and practicality, is not always very logical. So, we don’t make questions, we ask them. We ask questions.
When I tell my students this, I can see their eyes glaze over, or worse still, roll in their heads. I sense waves of confusion and disbelief sweeping over them immediately. But I tell them to just accept it. They can’t change it. But they can learn to use it correctly. Sometimes that’s all you can do.
They can ask me as many questions about ask a question as they like.
I encourage people to ask questions.
In fact, I’d be worried if a student DIDN’T ASK QUESTIONS.
But infinitely MORE worried if they continued to use make.
Never EVER MAKE QUESTIONS.
EVER.
4. FAVOURS, FAVOURS, FAVOURS
When somebody asks you to help them with something, you could say they are asking for a favour.
Once again, the doubt enters your mind and you can’t get away from it.
Which verb is used in English?
Make or Do?
Most languages don’t have this linguistic dichotomy. They have one verb to cover all the ideas encompassed by make and do.
People tell them that English is easy. Simple. Pared back.
But then, they have to choose.
And one of the most difficult and frustrating choices is between make and do.
Especially when it comes to favours.
The subject of favours is a minefield. Not, only because they complicate your life, but also because you have to know two things about them. Firstly, and most importantly for this article, we use the verb to do with favours. And secondly, and just as important, the verb is followed immediately by a person (or object pronouns: me, you, him, her, us, you, them).
Do not say:
I make a favour to you.
I do a favour to Auntie Mary. (Here the verb is correct but the rest of the sentence is wrong)
Do say:
I do you a favour.
You do Auntie Mary a favour.
5. SEX, SEX, SEX
I left sex till the end. Just to make sure you read the whole blog entry.
This is not going to be sleazy, sizzling or salacious, just to use three adjectives often used to describe sex.
In this section, I just want it to be clear that we use neither make nor do when talking, writing or engaging in sex. Having said that, we do say making love if we want to describe the sexual act as a more emotional activity. So what do native English speakers say when they want to talk about it. You, know… doing it!
No. Not Do! I've already told you that!
We use the verb to have. In English we have sex. How often, I cannot say. That is something for you to look up on the internet, if you are so inclined. Suffice to say, from today onwards you know the correct verb to use when you need to talk about sex, and it isn’t make.
End of story!
Well, I hope this clears up any lingering doubts you had about the verb to make.
The important thing now is to use these verbs as often as you can. At least, where appropriate.
Don’t be nervous, unsure or confused.
You’ve got it!
We make decisions.
We take selfies.
We ask questions
We do (people) favours.
We have sex.
Enjoy doing all of them.
Until next time.
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