Do good means to be helpful or beneficial, or to help other people, while do well means to succeed or perform well. Here good is a noun meaning benefit or kindness: A holiday will do you good. Well describes how something went: She did well in her exams.
do good or do well — can you pick the right one?
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do (someone) good; do more harm than good; do well + in/at + noun
- A week by the sea will do you good after such a stressful month.
- She left her job in banking to work for a charity and do some good.
- Tom did well in his final exams and got a place at a top university.
What changed
First versionI did good in my maths exam, so my parents were happy.
RevisionI did well in my maths exam, so my parents were happy.
Success is expressed with do well, where well is an adverb describing how you did. Good is an adjective, or a noun meaning benefit as in do good, so did good in the sense of “succeeded” is heard only in casual speech. In standard English, and especially in an essay, it counts as a mistake.
A related phrase is do a good job, meaning to do a piece of work well: The builders did a good job on the kitchen. Do more harm than good means to cause more damage than benefit: Too much exercise can do more harm than good.
Your turn
You look exhausted; a few quiet days in the countryside will do you ___.
Show the answer
good — The sentence is about benefit to your energy and health, so the answer is do you good: a few quiet days will be good for you. Well describes how successfully someone did something, and do you well is not used in the sense of “be good for you”.
Write one sentence about last year: something you did well and something that did you good. Use do well and do someone good.
Last year I did well in my Spanish course, and the daily swimming did me a lot of good.
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