machen VS tun? | When do you use which? 🧐

Hallo liebe Deutschlernerinnen und Deutschlerner. Machen oder tun. Two important German verbs which often get confused. Because like in English for example, they both translate to as this to do. But they're used in different situations. And in most cases they are not interchangeable. So let's find out when you have to use machen oder tun. And we start with machen, why? Because machen is way more common than tun. So in case you're not sure which one to use, just use machen. In terms of translation, English translation, the better one is actually this to make instead of this to do. Usually machen means doing something. Like for example an action or a task or an activity. Or creating or building something. And when you create or build something, you do something, you have a direct object. This means in most cases when you have to use machen or when you will use machen, you will use it in combination with an accusative object, a direct object. Like for example in this sentence. Jeden Morgen mache ich einen Kaffee. Every morning I make a coffee. Einen Kaffee ist das Akkusativobjekt, the direct object. Oder können Sie bitte ein Foto machen? Can you take a picture please? Situation you are visiting Berlin and you have a famous site there and you and your friend want to be on this picture with this site, then you can ask somebody there in German this phrase here. Formell, that's a formal version, you want to be polite. Können Sie bitte ein Foto machen? Or können Sie bitte ein Foto von uns, from us, from the two of us, machen? Oder nächstes Jahr macht Rita vier Wochen Urlaub. Schön. Nächstes Jahr macht Rita vier Wochen Urlaub. Next year Rita is taking a four week vacation. Urlaub machen. Oder ich mache jeden Tag zwei Stunden Sport. Ich mache jeden Montag, jeden Montag, nicht jeden Tag, jeden Montag zwei Stunden Sport. I do sports for two hours every day. Sport machen. That's actually not really true. Vielleicht eine Stunde, eine Stunde, nicht zwei Stunden. Oder Tom hat die Prüfung nicht bestanden, weil er zu viele Fehler gemacht hat. Tom hat die Prüfung nicht bestanden, weil er zu viele Fehler gemacht hat. Fehler machen, to do, to make mistakes. Tom didn't pass the exam because he made too many mistakes. Du sprichst so gut Deutsch. Wie machst du das? Du sprichst so gut Deutsch. Wie machst du das? You speak German so well. How do you do that? And here you see this is a kind of a fixed phrase. You can see this as a kind of a fixed phrase or question. Wie machst du das? You can use it in any kind of situation when somebody is doing something in a very good way and you want to know how he or she is doing this. Then you can ask this question. Wie machst du das? And important because we know this is, and you know probably as well, speaking German out loud in life actually is not that easy. So if you came across maybe this question, somebody asked you this question, you are a German learner, somebody asked you this question, Wie machst du das? Du sprichst so gut Deutsch. Please share this with us. Let us know how did you, what did you do to speak so well German? What kind of techniques? Maybe you do have some special techniques. How you learned to speak German? And maybe you want to share this with others in this community here. So schreib einen deinen Tipp, schreib einen Kommentar, schreib deinen Tipp in die Kommentare. I'm very sure others would love to read your special tips or tricks about speaking German. Let's go to tun, which is this to do. And the verb tun is mostly used in some, only two actually, many important separable verbs or fixed phrases or fixed expressions. And we start with the separable verbs, trennbare Verben. As mentioned, es gibt zwei wichtige, there are two important separable verbs. Nummer eins ist wehtun. Wehtun, ein trennbares Verb, means to hurt. Zum Beispiel, mein Bein tut weh, mein Bein tut weh, my leg hurts. Now here, this is singular, we just talk about one leg. If it would be two legs, when you see my legs are hurting, then it's meine Beine tun weh, t-u-n, meine Beine tun weh. And then for most situations, when you use this wehtun like this, this means you either have it in singular for one thing which hurts, or one body part, or plural for two body parts. Ein Bein tut weh, mein Bein tut weh, meine Beine tun weh, mein Finger tut weh, meine Finger tun weh. Of course, you can also use it if you hurt somebody. So you could say, du tust mir weh, you hurt me, you're hurting me, like literally, it can be physical pain or also mentally. Or, habe ich dir weh getan? Did I hurt you? Like this, this is also possible. Did you hurt yourself? First of all, this sentence is imperfect. And this is also special here, because you see this dir here. And this dir means actually, it's also used reflexive. So the verb wehtun is also used in a reflexive, as a reflexive verb. I hurt myself. You hurt yourself. And so on. Wenn dein Rücken wehtut, solltest du ein paar Schritte gehen. If your back hurts, you should take a few steps, meaning you should go for a walk. Especially when you work all day long on your computer, every hour, once in a while, stand up and walk around in the office and talk German to your colleagues, for example. To be sorry. He's sorry that he arrived late. And here you see, it's also special, this leittun, because in English you say he is sorry. So he is the subject, but actually in German, this s is the subject. And he is the dative object, that's why it's this im. So leittun is a dative verb. Es tut ihm leid, means he is sorry. But the most common one, this one is a little bit special, complicated, the most common one, most useful one is definitely, maybe you know it already, es tut mir leid. Es tut mir leid, I am sorry. You can use it in any kind of situation, when you step on somebody's foot, when you push somebody by accident, or when you feel sorry for somebody, somebody maybe had a loss or something, then you can also say, oh, es tut mir leid, es tut mir leid. Or in a complete sentence with a reasoning, es tut mir leid, dass ich die Hausaufgaben vergessen habe. Es tut mir leid, dass ich die Hausaufgaben vergessen habe. I'm sorry that I forgot the homework. Useful sentence in your German class, in case you haven't done your homework and the teacher is asking you and then you can say this sentence, es tut mir leid, dass ich die Hausaufgaben vergessen habe. Then you can actually also add a fixed phrase with tun, to make it sound even better or to give a better reason. So let's go to those fixed expressions. The first one, which you can use in combination with the sentence before, is this viel oder nichts zu tun haben. Viel zu tun haben, to be busy. Nichts zu tun haben, to be not busy. You have nothing to do. Zum Beispiel, heute habe ich viel zu tun. Heute habe ich viel zu tun. Today I have lots to do. Today I am busy. So this sentence you could combine with your excuse from before, if the teacher is asking you, warum hast du die Hausaufgaben nicht gemacht? And you can say, es tut mir leid, ich habe die Hausaufgaben vergessen, weil ich gestern viel zu tun hatte. Haben im Präteritum hatte. Ich habe die Hausaufgaben vergessen, weil ich gestern viel zu tun hatte. Perfect sentence, perfect reasoning and your teacher will be happy and forget immediately about that you just forgot the homework. Oder, heute habe ich nichts zu tun. Heute habe ich nichts zu tun. Today I have nothing to do. I am not busy at all. tun, können, für tun, können, für, can do, for There's actually just one important phrase, which you will hear very often in real life situations in German speaking countries, especially when you go shopping. Shopping mall somewhere or at the grocery store, you hear this question, was kann ich für sie tun? Or at the restaurant. Was kann ich für sie tun? What can I do for you? And then you can order something or you can ask a question about certain clothes or whatever. This is usually the question the people or the person who works there will ask. Was kann ich für sie tun? Nur so tun. Nur so tun is to pretend. Zum Beispiel, hast du wirklich Schmerzen oder tust du nur so? Hast du wirklich Schmerzen oder tust du nur so? Are you really in pain or are you just pretending? Oder hast du wirklich keine Zeit oder tust du nur so? So when you use this phrase, you actually don't believe the other person 100 percent. And then you ask this, oder tust du nur so? Are you just pretending? zu tun haben mit zu tun haben mit, to have to do with Zum Beispiel, das Thema hat nichts mit unserem Projekt zu tun. Das Thema hat nichts mit unserem Projekt zu tun. The topic has nothing to do with our project. For example, you are in a meeting and you are actually guiding this meeting and then your colleague says, oh, I want to discuss something else here. You know, in the cantina, the food lately just got worse. And then you want to stop this and say, there's nothing to do with our meeting here, with our topics. Then you can say the sentence, das Thema hat nichts mit unserem Projekt zu tun. Wir können das gerne später besprechen. We can discuss this. We gladly discuss this later on. Was hat das mit dem zu tun? What does this have to do with it? This is also just kind of an additional useful question, which you can have, what you can use in discussions with friends. Somebody is talking again about something which is absolutely not important or not related to the topic you are discussing. And maybe this person is just saying something, so she or she has said something to, I don't know, sound important. You can say this. It's a little bit, not negative, but it's a little bit harsh. Was hat das mit dem zu tun? What does this have to do with this or with whatever topic you are discussing? Bonus tip! Another one. Es mit jemandem zu tun bekommen. Translate it a little bit freely to get in trouble with somebody. This is a phrase, which is more like used in colloquial German, in spoken German. Not really official, but you might hear it sometimes or you can use it maybe with your kids. If you have kids, then this is a useful phrase. Zum Beispiel, Wenn du so weiter machst, bekommst du es mit mir zu tun. If you continue like this, you will have to deal with me, meaning you will be in trouble. So this might be in terms of parents and kids. Again, this might be the mother or the father, whoever is the more stronger one in the relationship or with the kids or the one who is more harsh with the kids. Then this person can say this. If you continue like this, you will get in trouble with me. Or maybe in school you are the guy, you are the strong guy in the class and you have a good friend and you always get bullied by someone else, by a classmate. Then you can go to this classmate and say, Wenn du so weiter machst, dann bekommst du es mit mir zu tun. And he or she might definitely be afraid after this sentence. And if you don't want to get in trouble in terms of exams, then you should definitely check out this playlist here, where you will get some very important and useful tips and tricks about A1, A2, Prüfung, Goethe Prüfung and higher level will follow. I hope you learned something. I hope this video helped. I hope you liked it. And I hope to see you again. Bis zum nächsten Mal. Tschüss und dabei.