l did/made a big mistake. Can either word be used? Thanks.
T Tan Elaine Key Member Joined Jun 29, 2008 Member Type Student or Learner Native Language English Home Country Hong Kong Current Location Hong Kong Mar 24, 2014 #1 l did/made a big mistake. Can either word be used? Thanks.
R Rover_KE Moderator Staff member Joined Jun 20, 2010 Member Type Retired English Teacher Native Language British English Home Country England Current Location England Mar 24, 2014 #2 No. 'I made a big mistake.'
MikeNewYork VIP Member Joined Nov 13, 2002 Member Type Academic Native Language American English Home Country United States Current Location United States Mar 24, 2014 #3 In some contexts, you can use "I did make a big mistake".
emsr2d2 Moderator Staff member Joined Jul 28, 2009 Member Type English Teacher Native Language British English Home Country UK Current Location UK Mar 24, 2014 #4 Mike's version uses emphasis which would be appropriate in some contexts, but the grammatical rule you need to remember is that it's "to make a mistake", not "to do a mistake".
Mike's version uses emphasis which would be appropriate in some contexts, but the grammatical rule you need to remember is that it's "to make a mistake", not "to do a mistake".