I understand why this is confusing! it is probably best just to memorise rules as you are doing. However, I think 'to make' is like 'create' and means 'to create an (object)'. e.g. 'To make breakfast': you create the breakfast. The 'doing' verb would be 'eat'. 'To make money': you earn money, therefore 'create' it for yourself, but you don't 'do' anything to money. 'To make an attempt': you think of something to do and try to do it, you create your attempt, therefore you make it. You are the one who created the attempt, without you it does not exist for you to 'do' something to. 'To make a joke': you say a joke and then you have created it, you're not 'doing' anything to a joke, you're bringing it into existence by saying it. 'To make love': you create a connection and relationship with another, you create love together, but you can't 'do' love. You either create it with someone and nurture it (like a child), or you don't. I think in the 'to do' examples it generally means 'to do an action to (object)'. e.g. 'To do the laundry': means 'to clean the laundry'. You are doing an action to an object (laundry), but you are not creating the laundry - it already exists. 'To do business': means running a business. You are doing actions to carry out business deals/transactions. If you wanted to create a business you could say 'I made a business', though most people would say 'I started a business'. 'To do nails': means 'to paint nails'. It is an action done to the object (nails). You are not creating the nails, you are doing the action of 'paint' to the nails. If you wanted to talk about the design you created with the paint you could say 'i made a nail design', though most would say 'i did a design on my nails' ('i painted a design on my nails') which refers to the action, rather than the creation. 'To do the right thing': refers to an action you did, which did not necessarily create anything, but simply says your action was right.

#5 I've decided to consider the topic about 'to do' and 'to make'. For Russian-speaking people, this is a problem, because we only have one verb 'делать'. More precisely, I would say that we do not have such a commitment to the verb 'to do' or to the verb 'to make', we use verbs that denote special actions. For example: 'to make a salad' - 'to cook a salad (готовать салат)', 'to make a cup of coffee' - 'заварить чашку кофе (to brew a pot of coffee)', 'to make a profit' - 'извлекать прибыль derive benefits ', 'to do the laundry' - 'стирать (to wash)' and etc. I studied it for a long time, but I don't remember. So, today I parsed examples of these two verbs and try to remember that: - the verb 'to do' is used to describe housework (to do the laundry), other general work (to do business), in the description of body care (to do nails), to describe good and bad actions (to do the right thing); - the verb 'to make' is used to describe cooking (to make breakfast), describing relationships (to make love), describing transactions with money (to make money), in descriptions of plans and progress (to make an attempt), in descriptions of communication (to make a joke). Photo by Lawrence Makoona