Meaning
做 is one of the most fundamental verbs in Chinese, meaning 'to do' or 'to make.' It's used for a wide range of activities from cooking and creating to performing actions and holding roles. Unlike English where we use different verbs for different contexts, 做 serves as a versatile action verb that can combine with nouns to form verb-object phrases.
Usage
做 is extremely common in everyday speech and combines with countless nouns to form specific actions: 做饭 (cook), 做作业 (do homework), 做生意 (do business). It can also mean to serve as or act as a role (做老师 'to be a teacher'). Native speakers use it constantly and it's one of the first verbs learners master. The tone is consistently fourth tone (falling).
Examples
- 01我在做作业。.I am doing homework.
- 02她做了一个蛋糕。.She made a cake.
Common collocations
- 做饭to cook
- 做作业to do homework
- 做生意to do business
- 做梦to dream
Origin
做 is a phonetic-semantic compound. The left radical 亻(person) suggests human action, while the right side 故 provides the pronunciation. It replaced older forms in vernacular Chinese and became the standard character for 'to do/make' in modern usage.