Lesson 280--make do with/without



If it's good enough for the Bolt

 

 

If you can make do with something, it means that it is sufficient enough to survive.  If you can make do without something, it means that it really isn't necessary.

examples

After checking the fridge, John said that they could make do with the food they had.

Jonathon's salary was small, but he could make do with it.  His life wouldn't be luxurious, but it would be fine.

Dennis was going to store and asked if they needed more milk or if they could make do with what they had.

Although she wanted a PS4, Theresa said she could make do without one.

There were no batteries for the flashlight, so they would have to made do without it.

Philip's phone plan was out of minutes and he didn't know how he was going to make do without his phone.

Lesson 268--make room, time and space

one of these cats needs to make room

 

The word make causes a lot of problems for my students.  I wish it weren't so difficult.  The problem is that make means create, but it also means a lot of other things depending on the collocation.  In today's lesson, I will teach you some collocations where the idea of make means to create something.

 

make room/space  =  create room/space

examples

Jim cleaned out the spare bedroom to make room for the new baby.

Timothy asked his parents to move over and make more space on the couch for him.

If you clean out the fridge you can make more room for food.

 

make time  =  set aside time to do something/ free up time to do something

examples

Pamela drove fast enough that she made time for a long lunch.

My boss asked me to make time for more meetings.

Most doctors recommend making time for breakfast.

Thank you for making time for this blog.

Lesson 208-Recommend

It seems like my students have a lot of trouble using the verb recommend.  Pay attention to the pattern in the following two sentences.

1. I recommend David come to class on time.
2. I recommend coming to class on time.

Notice that the preposition to is not used in this structure.  Also notice in sentence 1, we use the base form of the verb, and when we do not include a person (sentence 2) we follow recommend with a gerund.

More examples

I recommend John quit smoking.

Jin's teacher recommends coming to class on time.

Anthony recommended that Mingi attend A class.

If you want to use the noun (recommendation) you can use these model sentences.  Pay attention to the collocations.

My recommendation is the beer from Unibroue.

I would like to make a recommendation.