Common English Collocations with MAKE

Food

make breakfast/lunch/dinner
- I'm making dinner - it'll be ready in about ten minutes.
make a sandwich
- Can you make me a turkey sandwich?
make a salad
- I made a salad for the family picnic.
make a cup of tea
- Would you like me to make you a cup of tea.
make a reservation
- I've made a reservation for 7:30 at our favorite restaurant.

make money
- I enjoy my job, but I don't make very much money.
make a profit
- The new company made a profit within its first year.
make a fortune
- He made a fortune after his book hit #1 on the bestseller list.
make $__
- I made 250$ selling my old CDs on the internet.

make friends
make love
make a pass at (=flirt with someone)
- My best friend's brother made a pass at me - he asked if I was single and tried to get my phone number.
make fun of someone (= tease / mock someone)
- The other kids made fun of Jimmy when he got glasses, calling him "four eyes".
make up (=resolve a problem in a relationship)
- Karen and Jennifer made up after the big fight they had last week.

make a phone call
- Please excuse me - I need to make a phone call.
make a joke
- He made a joke, but it wasn't very funny and no one laughed.
make a point
- Dana made some good points during the meeting; I think we should consider her ideas.
make a bet
- I made a bet with Peter to see who could do more push-ups.
make a guess
make a comment
- She made helpful comments on my work.
- The teacher made a few critical comments on my essay.
make a suggestion
- Can I make a suggestion?
make a complaint
- We made a complaint with our internet provider about their terrible service, but we still haven't heard back from them.
make a promise
- I made a promise to help her whenever she needs it.
make a speech
- The company president made a speech about ethics in the workplace.
make a confession
- I need to make a confession: I was the one who ate the last piece of cake.
make a prediction
- It's difficult to make any predictions about the future of the economy.
make an excuese
make a fuss
- Stop making a fuss - he's only late a couple minutes. I'm sure he'll be here soon.
make an observation
- I'd like to make an observation about our business plan - it's not set in stone, so we can be flexible.

make plans
- We're making plans to travel to Australia next year.
make a decision/choice
- I've made my decision - I'm going to the New York University, not Boston Univeristy.
make a mistake
- You made a few mistakes in you calculatons - the correct total is $5430, not $4530.
make progress
- My students are making good progress. Their spoken English is improving a lot.
make an attempt/effort (=try)
- I'm making an effort to stop smoking this year.
make up your mind
- Should I buy a desktop or a laptop computer? I can't make up my mind.
make a discovery
- Scientists have made up an important discovery in the area of genetics.
make a list
- I'm making a list of everything we need for the wedding: inviations, decorations, a cake, a band, the dress ...
make sure
- Can you make sure we have enough copies of the report for everybody at the meeting?
make a difference
- Getting eight hours of sleep makes a big difference in my day. I have more energy!
make an exception
- Normally the teacher doesn't accept late homework, but she made an exception for me becasue my backpack was stolen with my homework inside it.

make a mess
make the bed
- I got up, dressed, made the bed and left.
make time
make allowance for / make no allowance for
- When we're planning for a trip, we should make allowance for the weather.
- The raw exam results make allowance for social background.
make an effort
- I make an effort to be on time when I meet my friends.