Sea cual sea tu nivel actual de inglés, seguro que recuerdas a lo largo de las distintas etapas de tu aprendizaje y de los niveles de inglés que has ido superando (nivel B1, B2, C1 de inglés), las cosas que has ido asimilando y que han sido realmente difíciles de dominar.
Te habrás dado cuenta de que por muchos manuales que hayas leído sobre “Cómo aprender inglés más rápido”, “Cómo aprender inglés en casa”, “Cómo aprender inglés gratis con vídeos”, etc… no hay nada como aprender inglés en el extranjero o, lo que es lo mismo, aprenderlo en el contexto natural y, además, escucharlo o repetirlo decenas de veces, incluso en un mismo día.
Cuando aprendemos idiomas, siempre hay aspectos que se nos “atascan”, fundamentalmente porque se usan de distinta manera a como lo hacemos en nuestra lengua materna. Por ello una y otra vez cometemos los mismos fallos, hasta que finalmente automatizamos esas estructuras o palabras y las usamos correctamente y sin necesidad de pararnos a pensar o a buscar ese “truco” que hemos aprendido para recordarlas.
El inglés desde luego no es una excepción. Sobre todo si lo aprendemos en nuestro país, como una lengua extranjera y fuera del contexto natural y de las situaciones en las que se produce la comunicación.
Como ya sabes, hay montones de “False Friends” (palabras que se escriben o suenan parecido en inglés y en español pero cuyo significado es totalmente diferente en cada uno de los idiomas).
Ejemplos típicos de False Friends entre inglés y español son:
- Embarrased (incómodo, avergonzado, turbado) y no embarazada (que es pregnant)
- Carpet (moqueta) y no carpeta (que es folder)
- Exit (salida) y no éxito (que es success)
Dedicaremos otro post a hablar de los False Friends. Hoy queremos hacer hincapié en otro quebradero de cabeza para quienes estáis aprendiendo inglés:
Los verbos Do y Make y sus “Collocations” (las palabras a las que suelen acompañar)
Estos verbos nos crean gran confusión ya que, en la mayoría de los casos, en español se traducen por una única palabra: “hacer”.
Normalmente,
Do se utiliza para hablar de actividades en general:
“Do your homework”, “do your hair”, “do anything”, “do something”, “do business”, “do things right”, “do a course”, “do exercise”, “do well”, “do badly”…
Make se utiliza con actividades que:
-
Implican crear o construir algo:
“make a cake”, “make coffee” “make dinner”, “make a reservation”, “make friends”…
-
provocan una reacción:
“make you happy”, “make eyes water”..
-
están relacionadas con planes:
“make a choice”, “make arrangements”…
-
están relacionadas con hablar:
“make a speech”, “make a comment” “make a complaint”, “make a confession”…
-
se usan para referirse a los materiales de los que está hecho algo:
“ made of steel”, “made of leather”, “made in England”…
Te dejamos una buena lista de palabras y expresiones con DO y con MAKE, que seguro que te vendrán muy bien para preparar tus exámenes Cambridge. Algunas ya las conocerás, porque son muy básicas, pero seguro que hay otras que todavía no sabes y que podrás utilizar en la parte Writing de tus exámenes B1, B2 o C1 de inglés. O que ahora podrás identificar en la parte Reading o Listening.
Expresiones con DO
• a burp
• a course
• a crossword
• a dance
• a drawing
• a fart
• a favor / favour
• a job
• a painting
• a project
• a service
• an assignment
• anything
• badly
• business
• chores
• damage
• everything
• exercises
• good
• harm
• laundry
• nothing
• research
• right (the right thing)
• something
• the gardening
• the housework
• the ironing
• the dishes
• the rest
• the shopping
• the washing
• well
• work
• wrong (the wrong thing)
• your best
• your hair
• your homework
• your job
• your nails
• your work
- Do a double take: look twice at someone or something because you are surprised.
She did a double take when he appeared into the house.
- Do a number on someone: trick someone, cheat someone, hurt someone very badly.
I’m afraid Mary did a number on him when she broke up.
- Do an about face: turn around, return to where someone came from.
As soon as I arrived to school I realized I’d have to do an about face because I’d left my glasses at home.
- Do away with something: prohibit something, make something not available.
They tried to do away with alcohol in some cultures to little success.
- Do justice to something: do successfully and with honor, complete in a befitting manner.
I think that picture doesn’t do justice to him.
- Do one’s duty: complete a responsibility, do something that is expected of you.
I’ll do my duty but nothing more.
- Do one’s part: do something that is required of you.
Do you part and get along and you’ll have no problems at work.
- Do or die: complete a task or utterly fail.
Peter, it’s do or die. Let’s go!
- Do someone good: be beneficial for someone
I think taking some days off will do you good.
- Do something over: repeat an action often because of a poor start.
I’d love to do my performance over if I had the chance.
- Do someone proud: do something so well that another person is proud of you.
Peter did his father proud throughout his good marks in the exams.
- Do someone’s heart good: be good for someone emotionally.
I think listening to some relaxing music would do your heart good.
- Do something by hand: build something on one’s own.
He built his apartment by hand.
- Do something in vain: do something with no reason or chance at success.
Never feel you’re doing something in vain. There’s always a reason.
- Do something on the fly: do something quickly without thinking.
I did it on the fly, it’s something very easy.
- Do something on the run: do something while on the way to somewhere else.
We did it on the run while on the way to our parent’s house.
- Do something on the sly: do something without having other people notice.
Anne did it on the sly. Her parents never had a clue.
- Do the honors: do something like opening a bottle, or giving a speech that is an honor.
I’d like to let our boss do the honors.
- Do the trick: complete the task, function as a solution.
I think this box will do the trick.
Expresiones con MAKE
- make a beeline for someone or something: to go directly to someone or something as soon as you arrive.
They got to the party and made a beeline for Mary.
- make a clean sweep: to get ride of everything or everyone to start anew.
I think you’ll have to make a clean sweep and start over.
- make a comeback: to become successful again after having been away from the scene or society for a long time.
The singer made a comeback in his latest album.
- make a face: contort your face, make a strange expression often used with ‘at someone’.
Peter tasted the coffee and made a face. It must have been awful.
- make a go of it: to become successful, have success in business.
It took my fatrher a few years to make a go of it, but everything’s Ok now.
- make a killing: to earn a lot of money.
Peter has been making a killing as a retail seller.
- make a living: to earn money in a profession or trade.
My grandfather made a living selling insurance to old people.
- make a name for oneself: to become famous.
Jena made a name for herself as an opera singer.
- make a point: to make something understood to others.
The teacher is trying to make a point about your lack of effort.
- make a run for it: to try to escape from a bad situation, or just from the rain or something equally unpleasant.
The bank robbers made a run for it, but the police caught them within two hours.
- make a stink: to complain loudly about something.
Peter made a stink to the barman after he didn’t get a BloodyMary.
- make an example of someone: To do something negative to someone in order that others understand that they should not do the same.
The teacher decided to award him to make an example of him to the other students.
- make ends meet: to earn enough money to pay the bills.
John works as a Maths teacher to make ends meet.
- make fun of: to joke at the expense of someone.
The girl made fun of his suit and she began to get angry.
- make good on something: to do something you have promised or feel you owe someone.
Let me make good on it by taking you out to dinner.
- make light of something: to joke about something serious.
Pet and Sue made light of the mistake and continued with the project.
- make mischief: to do something naughty, to get in trouble.
The boys made mischief over the holidays and were grounded for three days.
- make short work of something: to do something quickly.
Let’s make short work of the housework and go for a walk.
- make someone tick: to be responsible for how someone acts in life.
What makes you tick? What really gets you excited?.
- make something up: to invent something that isn’t true, to tell a false story.
He made up an excuse to get a day off.
- make the grade: to be good enough.
Do you think this car will make the grade at the race?
- make waves: to cause others trouble, often by complaining a lot.
Peter made waves until the jury decided to give him another chance.
¡HASTA PRONTO!