25 Collocations With "Make" You Can Use Today

Here is a small confession from a teacher. If I could go back in time and change one thing about how my students learned vocabulary, it wouldn't be more words. It would be this: every time they wrote down a noun, they'd write down its verb partner too. Not decision. Make a decision. Not mistake. Make a mistake.

Why? Because you already know the word make. You've known it since your first year of English. And yet make is hiding inside dozens of phrases you can't produce, which means one tiny verb is quietly blocking a huge amount of your speaking. Today we unblock it.

If you've read my post on make vs do, you know my position: there's no reliable rule, only partnerships. English says make a decision the same way it says heavy rain. It's not logic. It's habit. So this post isn't a grammar lesson. It's a delivery of 25 ready-made phrases, sorted into groups, with real sentences. Learn them as whole pieces and they'll come out of your mouth as whole pieces. That's the entire method.

01 · The Big Idea

The Big Idea

Before the list, one instruction that changes everything:

Your brain hates long lists and loves themes. A group of five phrases about talking, learned together, sticks far better than 25 random lines. And your mouth needs to physically say each phrase, at least once, today. Reading a collocation trains your eyes. Speaking it trains the thing you actually want.

Right. Here's the delivery.

02 · Group 1: Decisions and Plans

Group 1: Decisions and Plans

The thinking group. These five run your work life and most of your arguments at home.

• make a decision – Stop researching and make a decision. Any decision.
• make a choice – You can't have both desserts. Make a choice. (Or order both. I'm a teacher, not a doctor.)
• make a plan – Let's make a plan for Saturday before Saturday makes one for us.
• make up your mind – I can't make up my mind about the blue one or the black one.
• make arrangements – She's making arrangements for the trip: hotel, tickets, everything.

Notice make up your mind. Three words, one meaning, completely fixed. Don't rearrange it. It's furniture, not Lego.

03 · Group 2: Talking and Communication

Group 2: Talking and Communication

The meeting-room group. If you work in English, these five earn their rent immediately.

• make a suggestion – Can I make a suggestion? Let's finish early.
• make a point – She made a good point about the budget.
• make a comment – He made a comment about my haircut. We're no longer friends.
• make a promise – Don't make promises you can't keep.
• make a phone call – Give me two minutes, I need to make a quick phone call.

Yes, a phone call is an activity, and yes, it's still make. We discussed this. English has been to too many parties.

04 · Group 3: Mistakes, Noise, and Mess

Group 3: Mistakes, Noise, and Mess

The honest group. These describe most of daily life, if we're being truthful.

• make a mistake – Relax. Everyone makes mistakes. That's how learning works.
• make a mess – The kids made a mess in the kitchen. The kids are always the kids, even when it was me.
• make noise – The neighbours were making noise until 2am.
• make a fuss – It's a small delay. Don't make a fuss.
• make trouble – He's not dangerous, he just likes making trouble in meetings.

The star here is make a mistake. If you learn one single chunk from this whole post, take this one, because "do a mistake" is probably the most common make/do error in the world, and after today it's not yours anymore.

05 · Group 4: Money and Work

Group 4: Money and Work

The serious group. LinkedIn English, basically.

• make money – The café finally started making money this year.
• make a living – She makes a living teaching online.
• make progress – You're making real progress with your English. (You are, by the way.)
• make an effort – He didn't win, but he made a real effort.
• make a deal – Let's make a deal: I cook, you wash up.

Careful with make progress: no article. Not "make a progress." Progress is uncountable in English, like advice, like information, like most things learners want to count. That's a different post, but the chunk protects you anyway. Learn it without the a and the problem never exists.

06 · Group 5: Feelings and People

Group 5: Feelings and People

The human group. These are the phrases friendships run on.

• make friends – It's harder to make friends as an adult. True in every language.
• make someone happy – Small things make me happy. Coffee. Silence. Correct grammar.
• make someone laugh – She always makes me laugh, even on terrible days.
• make a difference – Ten minutes of practice a day makes a huge difference.
• make sense – Does that make sense, or should I explain again?

Make sense might be the most useful chunk in this entire post. You'll hear it daily and need it weekly: "That makes sense." "It doesn't make sense." "Am I making sense?" Learn all three forms out loud, today, and you've bought yourself a genuinely native-sounding phrase for the price of one minute.

07 · How to Actually Learn These (Not Just Read Them)

How to Actually Learn These (Not Just Read Them)

Reading a list feels like learning. It isn't. Here's the five-day plan, and it costs about three minutes a day.

Pick one group per day. Today, Group 1. Read the five phrases out loud twice. Then close the page and make one true sentence about your own life with each phrase, spoken, not written. "I need to make a decision about my holiday." Your life, your sentences. Personal sentences stick roughly twice as well as example sentences, because your brain files them under "me," and your brain finds "me" extremely interesting.

Then, and this is the part almost everyone skips, review. Tomorrow, before Group 2, spend thirty seconds retrieving Group 1 from memory. Not re-reading. Retrieving. Cover the list and pull the phrases out of your head. The pulling is the learning. If you only remember three of five, perfect: now you know exactly which two need attention. Five groups, five days, one small review each morning, and by next week these 25 phrases are yours, not the list's.

08 · Common Mistakes

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: "Do a mistake," "do a decision." The two classics. Both are make. If you drill only two chunks from today, drill these.

Mistake 2: "Make a progress," "make a noise about nothing." Progress takes no article: make progress. (Noise can take a in some phrases, but keep it simple: make noise works.)

Mistake 3: Learning all 25 in one evening. You'll feel productive tonight and remember six by Friday. Five a day with review beats 25 at once. Every time. I've written a whole post about why cramming loses.

Mistake 4: Silent studying. If your mouth never says make a suggestion, your mouth will not offer it in a meeting. Out loud. Yes, even on the bus. Quietly is fine. Silently is cheating.

09 · Try This Today

Try This Today

Fill the gaps from memory. All answers use a phrase from this post.

1. Can I make a _______? Let's order pizza instead. 2. Sorry, I made a _______ in the report. I've fixed it now. 3. Does my explanation make _______? 4. Practising a little every day makes a big _______. 5. I can't make up my _______. Tea or coffee?

Then the real action step: choose your group for today and do the three-minute routine. Out loud. Right now, ideally, before the motivation from reading this post evaporates. It always evaporates. Use it while it's here.

10 · One Verb, Unblocked

One Verb, Unblocked

Back to my time-travel confession. I can't go back and fix how my old students learned vocabulary. But you're at the start of your list, not the end of it, and you now have 25 phrases where this morning you had one verb and a lot of guessing.

That's what chunk learning is. Not more words. Better packaging for the words you already have. Make was never the problem. Loneliness was. Words, like people, work better in company.

Answers: 1. suggestion 2. mistake 3. sense 4. difference 5. mind

WordCat delivers vocabulary exactly like this: real collocations in themed groups, reviewed at the right moments until they're automatic. Try it at wordcat.app.

Keep reading:

• Heavy Rain, Strong Coffee: Why Collocations Are Not Logical