Make and Do

Look at these sentences:

He's done his best, but he's still made a lot of mistakes.
Do me a favour, will you, and make an appointment at the doctor's

What is the difference between make and do, if both verbs have the same meaning in Spanish "hacer"?

In general we can say that the verb make goes with some words and the verb do with other words. So what can you do to help you learn which of the two verbs is used with which other words? The best solution is to try to memorize the common fixed expressions that use the words.
Apart from that, there are some rules of usage for make and do that can help you:

• Do is used to describe an action without saying exactly what the action is: What are you doing?

• Do is used to talk about work and jobs: I usually do the housework during the week.
  Have you done your homework?

• Make is used to speak about building, constructing, producing, creating etc.: We made a tree house for the children.
  Who made this chocolate cake?

So, as a general rule we can say that do tends to relate to actions, make to causing, creating or constructing.

Here is a list of the commonest expressions, excluding phrasal verbs, for reference:

	DO				MAKE
better	good	repairs		an appointment	a report	arrangements
best	harm	right		friends	room (for)	fun (of)
business	homework	a service		preparations	certain (of)	a fuss
damage	an injury	wrong		a speech	a guess	a choice
a job	work	justice		sure	a change	progress
an exercise	a favour	an operation		a complaint	a journey	a trip
				a mistake	trouble	a decision
				money	use	a voyage
				a difference	war	an effort
				peace	an excuse	an offer