I
noun
1
BAD : The fire caused a lot of damages.
GOOD : The fire caused a lot of damage.
BAD : The car crashed into a tree and suffered a severe damage.
GOOD : The car crashed into a tree and suffered severe damage.
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In its usual meaning, damage is an uncountable noun: 'The insurance company will pay for any damage.' 'The ceiling had suffered a great deal of damage.'
damages (plural noun) = a sum of money that someone is awarded in a court of law: 'She was awarded $3000 in damages.' 'She claimed damages of £2000 for wrongful dismissal.'
2
BAD : The floods made a lot of damage.
GOOD : The floods did/caused a lot of damage.
BAD : Most of the damage has been produced by acid rain.
GOOD : Most of the damage has been caused by acid rain.
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do/cause damage (NOT make or produce ): 'According to local farmers, the rabbits do a lot of damage to the crops.' 'It's the gas from fridges that causes most of the damage.'
DO · HAVE · MAKE · TAKE
Many phrases begin with a very common very such as do, make, have, or take : ‘I felt very nervous about taking the test but, after having a long talk with Mrs Fisher, I decided I would just do my best and try not to make too many silly mistakes .’ These verbs can be combined with some nouns but not with others and since they do not have a clear meaning of their own, choosing the right combination can be a problem. Phrases which tend to cause difficulty are shown below.
HAVE
have a bath (or esp. AmE take ) ‘She’s probably upstairs having a bath.’
Have (your) breakfast ‘We usually have breakfast in the kitchen.’
Have (your) dinner ‘We had dinner and then went for a walk.’
Have a drink ‘I’ll collapse if I don’t have a drink soon.’
Have (an) experience ‘He has no experience of running a large company.’
Have fun ‘You can’t stop people from having fun.’
Have a holiday ‘It’s almost a year since we had a real holiday.’
Have an interview ‘I’ve had six interviews but no one has offered me a job.’
Have a lesson ‘Every morning we have three fifty-minute lessons.’
Have (your) lunch ‘Isn’t it about time we had lunch?’
Have an operation ‘Before I had the operation I could hardly walk.’
Have a party ‘On Saturday we’re having a party.’
Have a picnic ‘If it’s sunny we could have a picnic.’
Have a shower (or esp. AmE take) ‘It only takes me a minute to have a shower.’
TAKE
Take/do an examination ‘Why do we have to take so many tests?’
Take (your) medicine ‘Don’t forget to take your medicine.’
Take a pill ‘He refuses to take sleeping pills.’
Take/do a test ‘The last test I took was a disaster.’
MAKE
Make an effort ‘I had to make a big effort not to laugh.’
Make a journey ‘It was the first journey he’d made all on his own.’
Make a mistake ‘He has made a serious mistake.’
Make a noise ‘How can one small child make so much noise?’
Make progress ‘I made very little progress at the start of the course.’
DO
Do your best ‘Don’t worry, Tim. Just do your best.’
Do (or cause) damage ‘The storm did a lot of damage to the crops.’
Do an exercise ‘Have you done your exercises today?’
Do an experiment ‘To do this experiment, you’ll need two eggs.’
Do (sb) good ‘The holiday has done him a lot of good.’
Do harm ‘A scandal would do his reputation a lot of harm.’
Do your homework ‘Have you done your homework yet?’
Do a job ‘I’ve got one or two jobs to do this evening.’
Do the/some shopping ‘Jake has gone into town to do some shopping.’
Do research ‘We need to do a lot more research.’
Do things ‘We’ve done lots of different things today.’
Do your training ‘Where did you do your training?’
Note also: do something/anything etc: ‘I can’t come now – I’m doing something.’ ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong.'
3
BAD : The bomb caused extensive damage of the surrounding buildings.
GOOD : The bomb caused extensive damage to the surrounding buildings.
BAD : We all know about the damage that smoking can do in our health.
GOOD : We all know about the damage that smoking can do to our health.
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(cause/do) damage to sth : 'Lack of oxygen can cause serious damage to the brain.' 'The scandal did a great deal of damage to his reputation.'
II
verb
BAD : The driver was very lucky and was only slightly damaged.
GOOD : The driver was very lucky and was only slightly hurt.
BAD : During the protests, some students were killed and others were seriously damaged.
GOOD : During the protests, some students were killed and others were seriously injured/wounded.
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Damaged is used in connection with things or parts of your body (NOT people): 'The engine was too badly damaged to be repaired.' 'The cause of the oil leak was a damaged pipeline.'
People are hurt or injured (badly hurt) in an accident, earthquake, hurricane etc: 'The scaffolding collapsed, killing one of the construction workers and injuring two passers-by.'
Someone who is injured by a weapon, such as a gun or knife, is wounded : 'He is accused of wounding a fellow prisoner.' 'The wounded soldiers were sent home for medical treatment.'