做
to do; to make
HSK level
- Pinyin
- zuò
- Part of speech
- verb
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 11
- Register
- neutral
- In episodes
- 1
Stroke order for 做
做 is written with 11 strokes. The animation replays automatically.
What does 做 mean?
做 (zuò) is the general Chinese verb for 'to do / make' — used for activities, work, and creating things.
It covers a wide semantic range: 做作业 (do homework), 做饭 (cook, literally 'make food'), 做生意 (do business), 做朋友 (be friends, literally 'do friends'). The most common HSK 1 question using 做 is 你在做什么？ ('what are you doing?'). The trickiest thing for beginners is that 做 has a near-homophone 作 (also zuò, same tone), which overlaps heavily in meaning.
Modern Chinese has split the work roughly so that 做 handles concrete, physical actions (cook, make a cake, do a task) while 作 handles abstract or compound expressions (作业 homework, 工作 work, 作家 author). When in doubt for everyday speech, 做 is safer. 做 also serves as a copula in some patterns: 当老师 / 做老师 ('be / work as a teacher').
Memory hook: 做 has the 人 (person) radical on the left — 做 is what a person does. Action verb, person doing.
Hear 做 in real episodes
做 appears in 1 Fluentide podcast episode at natural native speed. Each sentence plays at the easiest difficulty it exists in — switch it to hear the same moment at your level, with full pinyin and English throughout.
他想：我也要做一个博物馆。
He thinks: I am going to build a museum too.
A Museum Wouldn't Show George Lucas the Painting He Asked For, So He Spent Fifteen Years and a Billion Dollars Building His Own
Example sentences
你在做什么？
Nǐ zài zuò shénme?
What are you doing?
spoken
妈妈在做饭。
Māma zài zuò fàn.
Mom is cooking.
spoken
我们做朋友吧。
Wǒmen zuò péngyou ba.
Let's be friends.
spoken
我做完作业了。
Wǒ zuò wán zuòyè le.
I've finished my homework.
neutral
Common phrases with 做
Synonyms
作 is the formal / written twin of 做, same pronunciation and tone. Use 作 in fixed compounds (工作 work, 作业 homework, 作家 author, 作为 as). For physical, everyday actions in speech (做饭, 做事), use 做.
Don't confuse 做 with
坐 (zuò, same tone, same pronunciation, similar look) means 'to sit.' 我做飞机 is wrong — you want 我坐飞机 ('I take the plane'). The two are the most common HSK 1 sound-alike confusion. Memorize: 坐 has 土 (earth) at the bottom = sitting down on the ground; 做 has 人 (person) on the left = a person doing something.
Same sound, overlapping meaning. 做 handles concrete physical actions; 作 handles abstract compounds. When unsure in speech, 做 is safer; in writing, look up which compound the phrase belongs to (e.g., always 工作, always 做饭).
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
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