Make room means to free up space, or to move over, so that someone or something can fit. Figuratively, it means to find space in your life or schedule: make room for sport.
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make room for + noun/person; make room in + place/schedule + for + noun
- Could you move your bag to make room for me on the bench?
- We sold the old piano to make room for a desk in the living room.
- I dropped two evening classes to make room in my schedule for exam preparation.
What changed
First versionLet's move the chairs to make a place for the Christmas tree.
RevisionLet's move the chairs to make room for the Christmas tree.
Free space in English is room, with no article. Place is a particular spot or venue: a place to sit, a nice place for lunch. That is why make a place sounds wrong here. And with the article, a room turns back into a room in a house.
Make room is about the space or time you free up: Make room for Grandma on the sofa. Make way more often means to let someone pass or to give way to something new: The old market was pulled down to make way for a car park.
Your turn
The fridge was full, so I threw out some old jars to ___ the cake.
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make room for — You are freeing up space in the fridge, and that is room with no article. Make a room for the cake sounds as if you were building the cake its own room.
Describe how you made room for something new at home or in your schedule. Say what you got rid of and what took its place.
I gave away half of my old books to make room for a small reading chair by the window.
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