Common Mistakes : Effort

Effort – Noun

. BAD: The authorities have put a lot of efforts into making the streets cleaner

. GOOD: The authorities have put a lot of effort into making the streets cleaner

When you mean ‘the energy or hard work that is needed to do something’, use effort (uncountable): ‘Digging the tunnel demanded a great deal of effort

.’Compare : ‘All our efforts to persuade Wendell to stay have failed

. BAD: In my opinion, a holiday is a hopeless effort to relax

. GOOD: In my opinion, a holiday is a hopeless attempt to relax

When someone tries to do something, especially without being sure of success, they make an attempt to do it: ‘Having failed to reach the summit last October, the climbers are now getting ready to make a second attempt.’ ‘All attempts to control inflation have failed

. BAD: Little effort has been done to solve the problem

. GOOD: Little effort has been made to solve the problem

. BAD: Sometimes I have to do a great effort not to cry

. GOOD: Sometimes I have to make a great effort not to cry

make an effort (NOT do ): ‘The manager would like to see the whole team making more of an effort

DO • HAVE • MAKE • TAKE

Many phrases begin with a very common very such as do, make, have, or take : ‘I felt very nervous about taking the test but, after having a long talk with Mrs Fisher, I decided I would just do my best and try not to make too many silly mistakes .’ These verbs can be combined with some nouns but not with others and since they do not have a clear meaning of their own, choosing the right combination can be a problem. Phrases which tend to cause difficulty are shown below

HAVE

‘.have a bath (or esp. AmE take ) : ‘She’s probably upstairs having a bath

‘.Have (your) breakfast : ‘We usually have breakfast in the kitchen

‘.Have (your) dinner  : ‘We had dinner and then went for a walk

‘.Have a drink  : ‘ I’ll collapse if I don’t have a drink soon

‘.Have (an) experience : ‘He has no experience of running a large company

‘.Have fun : ‘You can’t stop people from having fun

‘.Have a holiday  : ‘It’s almost a year since we had a real holiday

‘.Have an interview  : ‘I’ve had six interviews but no one has offered me a job

‘.Have a lesson  : ‘ Every morning we have three fifty-minute lessons

‘? Have (your) lunch :  ‘Isn’t it about time we had lunch

.’Have an operation  : ‘Before I had the operation I could hardly walk

‘.Have a party :  ‘On Saturday we’re having a party

‘.Have a picnic  : ‘If it’s sunny we could have a picnic

‘.Have a shower (or esp. AmE take)  : ‘It only takes me a minute to have a shower

TAKE

‘? Take/do an examination : ‘Why do we have to take so many tests

 ‘. Take (your) medicine : ‘Don’t forget to take your medicine

‘. Take a pill : ‘He refuses to take sleeping pills

‘. Take/do a test : ‘The last test I took was a disaster

MAKE

‘.Make an effort :  ‘I had to make a big effort not to laugh

‘.Make a journey : ‘It was the first journey he’d made all on his own

‘.Make a mistake : ‘He has made a serious mistake

‘? Make a noise :  ‘How can one small child make so much noise

‘. Make progress : ‘I made very little progress at the start of the course

DO

‘. Do your best : ‘Don’t worry, Tim. Just do your best

‘. Do (or cause) damage : ‘The storm did a lot of damage to the crops

‘? Do an exercise : ‘Have you done your exercises today

‘. Do an experiment : ‘To do this experiment, you’ll need two eggs

‘. Do (sb) good :  ‘The holiday has done him a lot of good

‘. Do harm :  ‘A scandal would do his reputation a lot of harm

‘? Do your homework : ‘Have you done your homework yet

‘. Do a job :  ‘I’ve got one or two jobs to do this evening

‘. Do the/some shopping : ‘Jake has gone into town to do some shopping

‘. Do research : ‘We need to do a lot more research

‘. Do things : ‘We’ve done lots of different things today

‘? Do your training : ‘Where did you do your training

Note also : do something/anything etc: ‘I can’t come now – I’m doing something.’ He hasn’t done anything wrong