Skip to main content

Make or Do


Make or Do?

With much of the other grammar difficulties falling like flies, how about an explanation for make and do? The native speaker again has an innate sense of the usage, so once again, in distrust of perfection, without a safety mechanism of some sort, there must be a trick. And it is not as if the choice is deliberate. Only when we compare English to other languages do we see that this separate choice of verbs may be covered by one global solution, for example, Fazer in Portuguese or Hacer in Spanish, which presents one hell of a headache for the poor learner from such cultural comparisons.
Now some teachers and teaching methods like to explain the essential difference with arguments like opposing poles of creative actions (make) against the routine ones or even boring ones (do) as the road to success; nevertheless, even with a certain truth to these arguments, I don’t find the argument a conclusive one because this still requires us to think which is right than to simply know. 
The real secret of how anyone assimilates a language, to be able to use it instinctively, without error, comes from exact positioning of the syntax itself. When we simulate words for the first time we try to identify, through production, a mirrored meaning, thus being able to repeat the message, at least, that is the way the brain must deal with it. Creativity does induce a higher movement which corresponds to make, while the tedious tasks of routine actions fall, just like the factual do. To test the idea, I drew up a map of the mouth to see if theory bears out in practice. What results from charting expression comes down to the pure distribution of words within the mouth.

As we can see from our chart of the pronunciation of make and do, the basis for solving the enigma comes from the pronunciation of each. The way the mouth closes is the real key. What we find is that both verbs are close to the central mouth position but while the jaw closes upwards, pushing the verb make upwards, the opposite occurs with the verb do. Logically the two verbs sweep up the complimentary ideas in their paths, with a certain crossover or overlap in the central region. This crossover allows us to see why we can say both to do time (in prison) and make time (in our busy schedule) and, furthermore, understand that each expression carries a completely different direction and therefore meaning.

Again we find that without good pronunciation, we may well create the wrong paths when we learn a new language. This will not only impede the communication process by sending out all the wrong signals but also send the wrong ones to our own brains. No wonder some people have so much trouble learning languages. But really, all we need is a few signposts to show us the way.

Coming back to make and do, we can obviously check further that the translations of the expressions formed by make and do are also mirrored in the students’ languages.
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How the Present Perfect Tense works

Timeline - How the Present Perfect Tense works Experiences The essence of the present perfect tense pulls the verbal expression down, inside us. This movement reflects our experience and even belief and true knowledge, which even in mediaeval times was placed in the heart. The sense we are aiming for is very similar in all of the following three examples: • I have visited the Louvre. • I believe in aliens. • I know it’s true. No Details The movement physically collapses our lungs. For this reason we do not go into detail, because in simple structures, we can not add extensive information. To add detail of past experiences, we typically use the simple and progressive past tense or use an adverb. • There has been a plane crash • A Transatlantic flight out of Paris crashed at 7.45 pm, twenty minutes after take off. Nobody was killed …etc. Recent Time In a similar movement - a slight variation on the theme - the expression is pulled back and released until the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chart of Modal Inflection

With each movement and directional vector (or sense) of each modal, we can start to map out the areas of modal expression. The chart (illustrated above) shows how each aspect is directed;a skill we certainly need to emulate, if we are to give the correct language signals. As the chart shows , the high area is reserved for probability, the degree of which ranges from positive certainty through possibility to uncertainty at the back of the head. The forward area (ahead of the eye) carries the different notions of future modality, rising from the low downward driven decisive intention or acceptance (will) and determination (shall) through obligation(must), permission (may) and advice – or deferred obligation (should) to prediction (will) and desire (will, must, should). The past forms are set back or directed behind us, with past probability looped high in speculation but ending low - so as to combine with the auxiliary have and the past pa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Infinitive or Gerund - Part 1

Infinitive or Gerund - ? The area of infinitive or gerund is as much of a headache for students as it is for teachers. On the other hand, the native speaker has a perfect control over the choice. Again, it all comes down to the instinctive use of language and to how our brains have programmed the information in terms of the positional dynamic of pronunciation.  Back in the classroom, however, many teachers still use the old tedious method of list learning which essentially achieves two purposes: 1. That the teacher, having the lists, is shown to be knowledgeable. 2. That certain students will excel at list-learning, gaining confidence at the expense of others. Assuming that the area needs to be learnt in such a fashion, native speakers would need to learn in the same way and if the area was actually difficult or confusing, many natural errors would, in fact, result. Of course, in reality, no errors are made by native speakers when choosing a gerund or infinitiv...
Post a Comment
Read more