All German word comparisons · Back to the topic overview
Meaning, sentence patterns and examples
| Word | Core meaning | Typical context | Grammar |
|---|---|---|---|
| machen | make; carry out | Food, plans, activities and familiar expressions | Regular, nonseparable: macht, machte, hat gemacht. |
| tun | do; act | General actions and established expressions | Irregular, nonseparable: tut, tat, hat getan. |
machen
Meaning and usage: Machen is a broad everyday verb. Use it for creating something, completing an activity or causing a result. A speaker can make dinner, do an exercise or make someone nervous with machen. Those English translations already show why “machen always means make” fails. Learning complete combinations is more useful than assigning the verb a physical or abstract label.
Grammar: Regular, nonseparable: macht, machte, hat gemacht. Usually a direct accusative object; jemanden nervös machen combines an accusative person with an adjective.
Heute mache ich eine Gemüsepfanne.
Today I am making a vegetable stir-fry.
Was machst du nach dem Kurs?
What are you doing after the course?
tun
Meaning and usage: Tun focuses broadly on doing or behaving, without necessarily naming a product. Was kann ich tun? asks what action is possible. Fixed combinations such as jemandem einen Gefallen tun and etwas dagegen tun are especially useful. Tun also occurs in everyday placement expressions, but their register and regional frequency vary. Use common neutral combinations first rather than replacing every machen with tun.
Grammar: Irregular, nonseparable: tut, tat, hat getan. Etwas tun takes accusative; jemandem einen Gefallen tun adds a dative recipient.
Kannst du mir einen kleinen Gefallen tun?
Can you do me a small favor?
Wir müssen etwas gegen den Lärm tun.
We need to do something about the noise.
Overlap and context
Was machst du? and Was tust du? can both concern someone’s activity. The choice often reflects the surrounding expression, tone and situation. There is no general rule that machen is concrete and tun abstract: both work across concrete and abstract contexts.
Common mistakes
- Translate do my homework as meine Hausaufgaben machen, rather than mechanically choosing tun because English uses do.
- Use einen Fehler machen and jemandem einen Gefallen tun as whole expressions. Switching the verbs can sound unnatural even when the general meaning is clear.
- Do not mistake tut in Es tut mir leid for a separate verb. It is a form of tun in an established expression.
Memory aid: Collect small verb-and-noun partnerships: a Fehler goes with machen; a Gefallen goes with tun.
Try it
Complete: Kannst du mir einen Gefallen ___: machen or tun?
Show the answer
tun
Einen Gefallen tun is the established expression; mir identifies the dative recipient.