What is the difference in usage between 做 and 作 (both pronounced zuò, both meaning "to make, to do.")
In 做饭 (zuò fàn, to cook) it's the former.
In 工作 (gōng zuò, to work) it's the latter.
In "What are you doing?" one uses 作, but a "thing that needs to be done" is 事情要做.
Is 做 more like making, and 作 more like doing? Is there some other distinction?
It's not something you have to worry about because you won't often be using 作 on it's own - only together with other characters: 工作, 作品,作用etc.
做 is the one you want for "do" or "make"
怎么做? = how is it done?
做好了吗？ = has it been done yet?
In "What are you doing?" one uses 作。
Really? I would say "你在做什么？" I think "你在作什么？" is the same meaning but I would have to check that.
In Beijing most people would say 你在干什么？ Or even more likely 干吗？ 干嘛? or 干吗呢你?
Thanks a lot, to both of you.
Really? I would say "你在做什么？
Yes, I withdraw my statement. I thought I had learned it with 作, but I went back to check and it actually was 做. That makes it a little clearer.
干吗呢你?
That's an interesting construction. Is this 吗 meaning 什么? (I read somewhere that this is Northern Chinese dialect.)
Thanks for the links, 889. That will take me a while to plow through. (I'm hitting the point where I can read most of the characters on that page, but I don't know the words they make up. 889 may be a native speaker, but C_Z probably knows what I'm talking about. Long live DimSum software.)
Is this 吗 meaning 什么? (I read somewhere that this is Northern Chinese dialect.)
I was about to say "no", but I suppose you could say that. "干吗" means "What are you doing?" I think one of my books translates it as "Why on earth?" Although that sounds too strong for me. In terms of grammatical structure that is one way of thinking of it.
穿这么少干吗? = Why (on earth) are you wearing such scant clothing?
I think "干吗呢你" usually shows surprise or incredulity at what a person is doing but "What on earth are you doing?" In English shows almost a total disbelief that this could be happening!
If I leave my compound my neighbours will ask me: "干吗去?" Which you could translate as "What are you heading out for?" Don't believe any book which tells you this is merely idle politeness. They want to know!
If I log onto QQ, a friend might start an online chat "嘛呢?" In English we would probably say "What are you up to?"
As an aside/point of (minor) interest, confusion in Cantonese is less likely as the two characters are pronounced differently:
做 - jouh (low level tone)
作 - jok (mid level tone)
As an even further aside, the Hong Kong Legislative Council, a body not particularly known for being useful, once debated at length whether "identity" should be written 身份 or 身分 in Chinese. The twenty-page discussion's reminiscent of some of the sillier threads on this board:
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr97-98/english/counmtg/hansard/971210fe.doc (English, beginning at page 92)
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr97-98/chinese/counmtg/floor/971210cd.doc (Chinese, beginning at page 80)
做is to do or make something, while 作, as CZ pointed out is more of a compound noun, used with another character.
However, we would normally use 作 as a verb when composing a poem, song or essay or other literary pursuit (作曲,作詞,作詩,作文章)
I note that Mr Tsang Yok-Tsing says
Some have commented that the usage of these two words will have implication towards whether one is pro-mainland China or pro-Taiwan, or whether it is a Chinese character or a Japanese word.
I had wondered whether something along these lines was behind the debate. Can anyone clarify how this plays out here? Which is pro-mainland, which Taiwan? Is one a simplified character? And how does Japanese come into it?