Deutsch · A1 · verb · 4 minutes
Machen: present tense
Use a regular verb for tasks, activities, and common expressions.
Understand the choice
Machen is useful but not universal. Learn its established combinations—Sport machen, eine Pause machen, Hausaufgaben machen—while allowing other nouns to select more precise verbs.
Core rule: Machen follows the regular present endings and combines with many activity nouns.
Notice it in context
Am Samstag machen wir Sport und machen danach das Abendessen.
On Saturday we exercise and then make dinner.
Machen agrees with wir in both coordinated actions; am Samstag fronts the time phrase.
Ich mache jeden Abend meine Hausaufgaben.
I do my homework every evening.
Mache agrees with ich; Hausaufgaben is normally plural.
Macht ihr jetzt eine Pause?
Are you taking a break now?
Macht begins the ihr question; eine Pause is the object.
What to remember
- German often uses machen where English uses take: eine Pause machen.
- For a decision say eine Entscheidung treffen, not machen in careful usage.
Common trap: Do not use machen to express becoming: “it gets cold” is es wird kalt.