Make or Do? The One Question That Decides

Your friend bakes you a beautiful birthday cake!

你的朋友幫你烤了一個漂亮的生日蛋糕！

You want to thank her, so you say, thanks for doing this cake.

你想謝謝她，於是說：「thanks for doing this cake」。

She smiles... but it sounds a little strange.

她笑了……但聽起來有點怪。

Here's the reason.

原因是這樣的。

Make is for creating something new.

「make」用來表示創造新的東西。

Do is for tasks, jobs and activities.

「do」用來表示任務、工作和活動。

Before the cake, there was no cake. So you make it!

之前根本沒有蛋糕。所以用「make」！

Now, what about your homework?

那麼，作業呢？

Nothing new appears. It's just a job on your list.

沒有產生任何新東西。它只是清單上的一件事。

So you do your homework, and you do the dishes.

所以說「do your homework」，還有「do the dishes」。

Wait... make a mistake? Really?

等等……「make a mistake」？真的嗎？

Yes! A mistake is something new that you create.

沒錯！錯誤就是你創造出來的新東西。

Oops! Now there's a mistake that wasn't there before.

哎呀！現在多了一個之前沒有的錯誤。

So next time, ask one quick question.

所以下次，先快速問自己一個問題。

At the end, is there something new?

到最後，有沒有出現新的東西？

If yes, make. If no, do.

有，就用「make」；沒有，就用「do」。

Now make a sentence, and do it out loud!

現在造一個句子，大聲說出來吧！