Make the bed means to tidy the sheets and covers on a bed or to put clean bedding on it. You say it both when you straighten the duvet after sleeping and when you put on fresh sheets. The is often replaced with your or my: make your bed.
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make the/your bed; make up a bed for + person; change the sheets
- I always make my bed before breakfast, even when I'm running late.
- In most hotels, staff make the beds while guests are out for the day.
- My aunt made up a bed for me on the sofa when I visited her.
What changed
First versionEvery morning I do the bed before I leave for work.
RevisionEvery morning I make the bed before I leave for work.
Many household chores take do, as in do the dishes, which leads to do the bed. But make here means to prepare, as in make dinner or make coffee: you prepare the bed for sleeping, so it is make the bed.
Make up a bed means to prepare a place for someone to sleep, usually a guest and where there was no bed before: We made up a bed for my cousin in the study. Replacing the bedding is change the sheets.
Your turn
Before my parents arrived, I ___ the bed in the spare room with fresh sheets.
Show the answer
made — Putting fresh sheets on a bed is make the bed, so made is correct. Did comes by analogy with do the dishes, but with a bed in this sense English uses make.
Describe your weekday morning. Say when you make your bed and what you do right after that.
On weekdays, I make my bed as soon as I get up, and then I put the kettle on.
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