Make friends means to become friends with someone, or to meet people who become your friends. With a specific person, say make friends with someone. Friends is always plural here, even if there is only one new friend.
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make friends (with + person); make new friends; make friends easily
- It's not always easy to make friends when you move to a new city.
- During the language course, I made friends with a student from Brazil.
- My daughter makes friends easily, so she settled into her new school quickly.
What changed
First versionI made friend with my neighbour last year.
RevisionI made friends with my neighbour last year.
With only one new friend, the singular friend seems logical. But in this expression friends is always plural, because you and your neighbour become friends with each other. The correction adds s.
Make friends means to start a friendship; be friends means to be in one already: We've been friends since school. Get along with simply means to have a good relationship, not necessarily a friendship: I get along with my colleagues, but we're not close friends.
Your turn
Anna was nervous about moving to Berlin for work, but within a month she had ___ friends with two colleagues from her team.
Show the answer
made — Becoming friends with someone is make friends with someone, so made is correct. Found may seem natural, as in find new friends, but found friends with someone is not a real pattern.
Think of how you made friends with someone on a trip, at work or at university. Say who it was and where it happened.
I made friends with my flatmate Chen during my first month at university in Manchester.
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