machen is German's great workhorse. Its base meaning is "to make / to do," but it has spread far beyond either English word into dozens of fixed combinations that a learner must memorise as units. The strategic problem for English speakers is that "make" and "do" each split across German in unpredictable ways: some things you machen, some you tun, and some take an entirely different verb (you don't machen a decision — you treffen one). This page collects the high-frequency machen idioms and shows where the English mapping breaks down.
Why machen feels so broad
English split the labour between "do" (perform an action: do homework) and "make" (create a result: make coffee). German never made that split cleanly. machen covers both — Hausaufgaben machen (do homework) and Kaffee machen (make coffee) — so you cannot decide between two German verbs the way you choose between English "do" and "make." Instead, German hands many would-be "do/make" jobs to machen as a light verb, where machen carries little meaning of its own and the noun does the real work. Learn the noun-plus-machen chunk together, and the grammar takes care of itself.
Everyday activity idioms
These are the bread-and-butter combinations. Note the pattern: capitalised noun + machen, with the noun usually bare (no article) or with an indefinite article.
Wir machen gerade Frühstück, willst du mitessen?
We're just making breakfast, do you want to join?
Lass uns eine Pause machen, ich brauche einen Kaffee.
Let's take a break, I need a coffee.
Dieses Jahr machen wir Urlaub in den Alpen.
This year we're going on holiday in the Alps.
Ich muss noch beim Arzt einen Termin machen.
I still have to make an appointment at the doctor's.
The wider family, grouped by domain:
| Idiom | English |
|---|---|
| Hausaufgaben machen | do homework |
| (einen) Kaffee / Frühstück machen | make coffee / breakfast |
| eine Pause machen | take a break |
| Urlaub / Ferien machen | go on holiday |
| einen Spaziergang machen | go for a walk |
| eine Reise machen | take a trip |
| Sport / Musik machen | do sport / play (make) music |
| Fotos machen | take photos |
| einen Termin machen | make an appointment |
| Feierabend machen | finish work for the day |
Spaß, Sorgen, Schluss: the high-value idioms
A handful of machen idioms are so frequent they function almost as basic vocabulary.
Spaß machen — "to be fun." The thing that is fun is the subject; the person who has fun goes in the dative.
Das Spiel macht den Kindern großen Spaß.
The children find the game great fun.
sich Sorgen / Gedanken / Hoffnungen machen — reflexive idioms of worry and hope, all with a dative reflexive (sich → mir, dir, …) and a capitalised noun:
Mach dir keine Sorgen, das wird schon.
Don't worry, it'll be fine.
Ich mache mir Gedanken über seine Gesundheit.
I'm concerned about his health.
Schluss machen — "to stop / to end it," and with mit + person, "to break up with."
Sie hat letzte Woche mit ihrem Freund Schluss gemacht.
She broke up with her boyfriend last week.
Das macht nichts and the reassurance phrases
This is the cluster competitors skip and natives use constantly. Das macht nichts literally means "that makes nothing" — it is the everyday "it doesn't matter / never mind," the standard reply when someone apologises or frets.
— Entschuldigung, ich habe dein Buch vergessen. — Macht nichts, ich brauche es erst morgen.
— Sorry, I forgot your book. — Never mind, I don't need it until tomorrow.
In the same family: Mach's gut! ("take care," a warm goodbye, literally "do it well"), Mach schnell! ("hurry up!"), and the question Was macht …? asking how something is going.
Tschüss, mach's gut — wir sehen uns nächste Woche!
Bye, take care — see you next week!
Und, was macht die Arbeit? Alles im grünen Bereich?
So, how's work going? All good?
machen as plain "make/do" and as "totals"
machen also keeps its literal sense — to produce a state or a result — and, at the till, "to come to / total":
Kannst du bitte das Licht ausmachen und die Tür sauber machen?
Can you please turn off the light and clean the door?
Das macht zusammen zwölf Euro achtzig.
That comes to twelve euros eighty altogether.
Here sauber machen (clean) and kaputt machen (break) follow the adjective + machen = "make something X" pattern. And machen in totals (das macht … Euro) is the fixed checkout phrase you will hear everywhere.
machen vs tun
Both translate as "do," but they are not interchangeable. machen is concrete and combinatory; tun is more abstract, often a placeholder or used in fixed phrases. A useful rule of thumb:
- Concrete activities and light-verb combinations → machen (Hausaufgaben machen, Kaffee machen).
- Abstract "do" with vague objects, and certain set phrases → tun (Was kann ich für Sie tun? "What can I do for you?", Das tut weh "that hurts").
Was kann ich für Sie tun?
What can I do for you?
Ich habe heute so viel zu tun, dass ich keine Pause machen kann.
I have so much to do today that I can't take a break.
Notice how both verbs sit naturally in the same sentence: the abstract "have things to do" is zu tun, while the concrete "take a break" is Pause machen.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich muss eine Entscheidung machen.
Wrong — a decision is not 'made' with machen.
✅ Ich muss eine Entscheidung treffen.
I have to make a decision.
❌ Ich mache eine Frage.
Wrong — you don't 'make' a question with machen.
✅ Ich stelle eine Frage.
I (will) ask a question.
❌ Mach Sorgen nicht.
Wrong — missing the dative reflexive 'dir'.
✅ Mach dir keine Sorgen.
Don't worry.
❌ Das Spiel macht mich Spaß.
Wrong — the experiencer is dative, not accusative.
✅ Das Spiel macht mir Spaß.
I find the game fun.
❌ Was machst du? (intending: what's your job?)
This asks 'what are you doing (right now)?', not your profession.
✅ Was machst du beruflich?
What do you do for a living?
Key Takeaways
- machen absorbs much of both English "make" and "do," so learn each noun-plus-machen chunk as a fixed unit.
- The reassurance phrases — Das macht nichts, Mach's gut, Mach dir keine Sorgen — are everyday essentials.
- The experiencer in Spaß machen and Sorgen machen is in the dative (mir, dir), never the accusative.
- Not everything is machen: a decision is treffen, a question is stellen, and abstract "do" is often tun.
- Das macht … Euro is the universal checkout total.
Now practice German
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- machen: Full Conjugation and UsageA1 — Complete conjugation of the weak verb machen 'to do / to make' across every tense and mood, with the haben auxiliary, the Spaß-machen idiom family, principal parts, and the errors English speakers make.
- Collocations: Words That Go TogetherB2 — Why German verbs and nouns travel in fixed pairs — eine Entscheidung treffen, eine Frage stellen, ein starker Raucher — and how learning these partnerships as chunks is what makes you sound native rather than merely correct.
- Expressions with habenA2 — Why German 'has' hunger, fear, and luck — the systematic haben-for-be pattern that trips up every English speaker.
- Expressions with geben and es gibtB1 — The invariable es gibt + accusative ('there is/are'), plus the rich family of geben idioms from Bescheid geben to das gibt's doch nicht!
- tun: Full Conjugation and UsageA2 — Complete conjugation of the irregular verb tun 'to do' across every tense and mood, with the weh tun / leid tun dative idioms, register notes, and the errors English speakers make.
- Polite Expressions and FormulasA2 — The fixed phrases of German courtesy — thanks, apologies, requests, and the astonishingly versatile word bitte.