This is the Business English Podcast, episode 490, Doing Business or Making Business.
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Hey, Aubrey, how's your day going so far?
Great.
How are you?
Good.
Glad to be on the microphone.
But Aubrey, do you speak any languages where make and do are actually the same verb?
Yes.
Yeah.
This is the case in French, faire, and Spanish, hacer.
But it's also the case in Italian, right?
Fare.
And German, machen.
All of these verbs.
And in English, we've split them.
We have make and do.
So this is very difficult for the speakers of many languages.
Yeah.
And that makes sense now that you've mentioned all these languages why we hear mistakes with this all the time.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
A recent mistake that I saw written was someone meant to say doing business in the UK.
I'm doing business.
And they said making business in the UK.
This is a very common mistake.
I remember students in my French classes saying I need to make my homework.
I'm like, oh, you got to do your homework.
Right.
This happens all the time.
So this really is something that our listeners might be aware of that they need to focus on.
But today we're going to really get into it.
A quick little tutorial on this.
And maybe listen to this episode a couple of times guys, to make sure you fully understood these differences.
Yes, exactly right.
There are other common mistakes.
We might hear he did a mistake when it should be he made a mistake.
Or we need to do a decision when it should be we need to make a decision.
So definitely, we're going to dive into make and do with a lot of the common phrases phrases, these chunks we use them with at work in English.
Okay, good.
But before we get into all the rules guys, that you need to know, make sure you hit the follow button.
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All right.
Yes.
Awesome.
Okay, so let's first dive in with make.
So we have separated in English make and do and we use make for creating or producing something, often with a visible result.
So creating, constructing, causing something, for all of these would use the verb make.
Yeah, bringing something into existence kind of in a way, right?
Exactly.
So again, the common expressions that we just need to remember as chunks, make a mistake, right?
We made a mistake in the financial report and now we have to issue a correction.
Make a decision.
Management needs to make a decision about expanding into new markets, right?
Or make money.
Our goal this quarter is to make money through new product lines and increased efficiency.
Make an effort is another one.
If we want to keep our top clients, we need to make a greater effort to meet their expectations.
You can see how all of these will be used so often at work.
We use make with so many phrases, so many expressions.
Make a mess.
The previous manager made a mess of the project budget and now we're behind schedule.
This is interesting because it has more of a literal meaning and a figurative meaning.
This is more figurative to make a mess of something, meaning to disorganize, there are problems.
Because we'll also use it literally like if you... something on the ground and made a mess.
Right.
Or if you're, you know, you make a mess of the table, your food's everywhere, right?
That's who made this mess, right?
Who made this mess?
But here we're taking it and putting it into the business world.
So that's kind of interesting, actually.
Yeah.
And we say this, this way a lot, right?
It's almost a way to lighten, like if someone made a mess of something.
There are sort of more blunt critical, accusatory ways of saying that right.
I don't know who destroyed this project, who made a mess of it.
Sounds a little more lighthearted.
Ruined this project, right?
These are serious words, right?
Yeah.
Other ones that we tend to say, make a plan.
Let's make a detailed plan before launching the new campaign to avoid last minute issues.
Yes.
Or make a choice.
We have to make a choice between investing in technology or hiring more staff, for example.
Mm hmm.
Nice.
OK, these are all kind of chunks that our listeners, I suggest you know, work backwards to understand why make make sense here, but then memorize the chunk.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
And observe English as you are listening to podcasts, reading articles.
Whenever you see make or do, you can take a second to like which which.
What's the noun?
What are we making?
Why am I choosing make instead of do?
I think that's such an important point, Aubrey, because our brains are flexible.
Our brains are plastic.
We can shape our brains by being a little bit more intentional, noting things, right?
Take a minute, like Aubrey said, and think, why did we use that there in that moment?
And then come back to the conversation or back to the listening.
Exactly.
And this is going to get easier as you hear them used correctly.
As you use them correctly, then one will, just because native speakers don't think about this.
They're just used to hearing either make or do, so they know which one to choose.
And this is one of those things that's going to be easier if you're able to do it that way, right?
You've heard it collocated with certain nouns, certain actions.
So, instead of having to think every time okay, is this something that's being created and put into existence, right?
One will just sound correct.
Exactly.
And when we come back from the break we're going to look at do all the collocations that we need to know for do and why we use do.
All right.
Good.
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Okay, Aubrey, let's get into do.
What do we use the word do for instead of make?
Yeah, we use it for tasks. work and activities.
So it's for general actions or obligations.
Okay.
So let's see what the common expressions are, so we can knock those off the list and then we can have those memorized.
Do business.
We prefer to do business with reliable long-term partners.
Yeah.
So this is interesting.
Why would we not say make business, right?
Because there's nothing that's being created, right?
There's no, it's this more general idea, an obligation, a duty, it's work, tasks, activities, right?
When we're doing business.
Yep, exactly.
Do a job or do your job, right?
You know, sometimes you hear that and someone says, do your job, right?
Or she did a great job presenting the quarterly results, right?
Exactly.
Or do your best.
Just do your best during the negotiation.
That's all we can ask.
Do someone a favor like this one.
Could you do me a favor and check the numbers before the meeting?
Yes.
Or do nothing, do something.
For example, if we do nothing about customer complaints, we'll start losing clients.
So you can see how this is more about a general action, an obligation, a task.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And ultimately, I think we do want to make sure we just know the chunks, right?
Just because you could probably justify, do a favor, is kind of creating something because you're going and you're kind of You know what I mean.
If you get too much into the rules, you can convince yourself that the other is true, but then the connection has moved on.
That's a good point.
Sometimes it's not that obvious how these fit in one category or the other.
So I've pulled out the most common that we use in business English on the daily.
Really often all of these right
So worth learning these, repeat them a few times, do a little drilling so that one sounds correct.
Love it.
We have a role play for our listeners today, Aubrey.
What is happening in our role play?
Yeah, you and I are co-workers discussing a project in a meeting at work.
You want to start us out?
Of course.
Here we go.
Thanks for meeting on short notice.
We need to make a decision about the vendor for the new software.
No problem.
I reviewed both proposals last night.
They both have pros and cons, but I think Vortex is the safer choice.
Perfect.
That's what I was thinking too.
They've worked with us before and did a solid job.
Let's make a plan to move forward with them by the end of the week.
Sounds good.
Also, I wanted to mention, I think we made a mistake with the project timeline.
We didn't account for the holiday next month.
Oh, you're right.
Good catch.
We'll need to do something about that before the client notices.
I'll update the timeline and send a revised version to the team.
I'll do my best to make it work without delaying the launch.
Thanks.
I really appreciate it.
And one more thing.
Could you do me a favor and review the budget before our 3 p.m. meeting?
Absolutely.
I'll take care of it now.
Nice.
Yeah.
Nice conversation here.
Very typical, right?
All of these phrases do come up in business for sure.
Absolutely.
We used a lot of them here.
Let's go through them.
You first said we need to make a decision about the vendor for the new software.
So we often do say this instead of like, we need to choose a new vendor.
It's more collaborative to say we need to make a decision about this.
Exactly.
And then I said, perfect.
That's what I was thinking too.
They've worked with us before and did a solid job.
So that goes into the category of did a good job, right?
Do a job.
Yeah, we have it in the past tense here, but same thing, right?
Do a good job, do a job, did a solid or a good job.
And then I also said, let's make a plan to move forward.
So let's create a plan, right?
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah, we wouldn't say let's do a plan.
This is something we're creating, putting it together.
We're going to make a plan.
And then what did you say?
I said, I think we made a mistake with the project timeline.
So here we're using make, which it's interesting.
This is something that's created, right?
But one of those that's a little more like I could see this going either way.
Yes, for sure.
Yeah, exactly.
That's why we can't overthink it too much.
It's really just comes down to learning.
The phrases, I think.
Make a mistake should sound right, right?
You should be familiar.
You're taking in a lot of English, so you'll know it's make a mistake.
It's all about the input, right, Aubrey?
Yeah, exactly.
And then I said, oh, you're right.
Good catch.
We'll need to do something about that before the client notices.
Yeah.
So do nothing, do something.
We use these chunks a lot, right?
Instead of saying specifically what needs to happen, often we don't know yet.
We're like, we're going to have to do something.
Do something.
We don't know what, just do something, right?
Yep.
Yep.
And then what'd you say?
I said, I'll do my best to make it work without delaying the launch.
This is a chunk.
We'll say, okay, I'll do my best.
We just want you to do your best.
Do your best.
Also a very valuable chunk to know.
We should know it.
And I said, thanks.
I appreciate it.
And one more thing.
Could you do me a favor and review the budget?
So do someone a favor there.
That's good.
Yes, exactly.
Oh, such good vocab.
We use these so often at work and very common mistake.
It's so easy to switch them up, especially if make and do are one verb in your first language.
Completely.
A good 80-20 use of your time to really, we rarely say memorize something, but memorize these.
Right.
Become very familiar with these.
Okay, memorize them.
Yeah, memorize them.
Just know them, just absorb them.
And then when you hear them, when you're taking in input, remind yourself oh yeah, that's the chunk.
That's right.
And then you can work backwards.
You can work backwards.
Take notes.
Sorry.
No, you go ahead.
Go ahead.
I was just saying, when you are listening to English, reading English, when you see make and do, take note of which noun, what follows it, so that you can start adding these to your arsenal of all the different ways we use make and do.
Exactly.
And the last piece that I would say is don't get tripped up.
You know the rule now, but If you're in the moment and you're not sure what goes with what the make or do, you might lose the connection if you spend your time thinking about it.
So be okay to make a mistake, maintain eye contact, maintain the connection and then correct yourself later, or go back and see if you were right later.
Absolutely, right?
The connection is so much more important than letting this hold you back, right?
It would be the worst case scenario to not speak up in a meeting or participate because you're not positive.
You have the right verb here.
You got it.
Yep.
Connection is always our North Star, Aubrey, on this show.
All right.
Absolutely.
Love it.
So good.
Thanks for being on the show today.
I'll see you soon.
Awesome.
See you next time.
All right.
Bye.
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