<p>做 here is a verb, according to <em>Oxford</em>, meaning:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>5 充当 be</p>
</blockquote>

<p>they give three examples:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>做个好孩子 
  be a good child </p>
  
  <p>做老实人 
  be an honest person </p>
  
  <p>做秘书 
  be a secretary </p>
</blockquote>

<p>Pleco's <em>PLC</em> dictionary also has this verbal meaning:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>4 be; become</p>
  
  <p>做演员 
  zuò yǎnyuán
  become an actor or actress; go on the stage </p>
  
  <p>后来她做保育员了。 
  Hòulái tā zuò bǎoyùyuán le.
  Later she became a child-care worker. </p>
  
  <p>今天开会由你做主席。 
  Jīntiān kāihuì yóu nǐ zuò zhǔxí.
  You’ll be the chairman at today’s meeting. </p>
</blockquote>

<hr>

<p>做女人 means, as the subtitles correctly translated above, to be a woman.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-06T04:24:05.030Z
2018-06-06T04:24:05.030Z
Mou某
<p>做 is <strong>being</strong>.</p>

<p>是 is <strong>to be</strong>.</p>

<p>做女人 means <strong>being a woman</strong>.</p>

<p>是什麼 means <strong>is what (what is)</strong>.</p>

<p>You don't have to look at those 2 things together!</p>

<p>And if you omit the 做 in the sentence:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>不知道大家觉得女人最大的悲哀是什么？</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It becomes:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>I don't know (I wonder) what everybody think the biggest sorrow of a woman is?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>As opposed to the original meaning</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>I don't know (I wonder) what everybody think the biggest sorrow of <strong>being</strong> a woman is?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Can you see the subtle difference!?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-07T03:28:56.973Z
2018-06-08T00:51:02.763Z
2018-06-08T00:51:02.763Z
Pikachu620
<p>From a <a href="http://mandarincorner.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MandarinCorner.org</a> video <em>I Hate Getting My Period</em> (<a href="http://www.mandarincorner.org/pdfs-audio/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">audio and transcript link</a>; video is also searchable on YouTube), we have the following sentence:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/uQkGK.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/uQkGK.png" alt="不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？" /></a></p>
<p>Bù zhīdào dàjiā juédé zuò nǚrén zuìdà de bēi'āi shì shénme?<br />
不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？<br />
I don't know what you think is the difficult thing about being a woman?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I'm confused as to why 做 is in this sentence; it seems to serve some kind of grammatical function I'm not aware of.  It looks like it could be omitted without problem.  I also feel a bit of a mismatch between both 做 and 是 in the sentence.</p>
<p><strong>Question</strong>: Why is 做 in the sentence 不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？</p>
<p>Looking up 做 using the PeraPera Chinese Popup Dictionary:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ExxEa.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ExxEa.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>to do; to make; to produce; to write; to compose; to act as; to engage in; to hold (a party); to be; to become; to function (in some capacity); to serve as; to be used for; to form (a bond or relationship); to pretend; to feign; to act a part; to put on appearance</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Among many definitions, there's &quot;to be&quot;, &quot;to act as&quot;, and &quot;to produce&quot; on the list, which seem closest in meaning.  The 做 in the given sentence functions something like &quot;is&quot; (approximately &quot;is the greatest annoyance&quot;), which is typically performed by 是 (and this also occurs in the sentence).  However, we obviously can't just interchange 是 and 做 throughout Chinese.</p>
<p>I'm more familiar with using 做 to form a verb (e.g. 做饭 &quot;cook food&quot; and 做工业 &quot;do homework&quot;) rather than in this case 做<a href="http://youdao.com/w/eng/%E6%82%B2%E5%93%80" rel="nofollow noreferrer">悲哀</a> which seems along the lines of &quot;give rise to annoyance&quot;.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-06T03:42:11.613Z
being; acting as; playing the role of.
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-06T03:47:59.780Z
Did you consult any dictionaries?
Mou某
<grammar><word-choice><meaning-in-context>
Why is 做 in the sentence 不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？
# Why is 做 in the sentence 不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-06-06)

From a [MandarinCorner.org](http://mandarincorner.org/) video *I Hate Getting My Period* ([audio and transcript link](http://www.mandarincorner.org/pdfs-audio/); video is also searchable on YouTube), we have the following sentence:

> [![不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？](https://i.sstatic.net/uQkGK.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/uQkGK.png)
>
> Bù zhīdào dàjiā juédé zuò nǚrén zuìdà de bēi'āi shì shénme?  
> 不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？  
> I don't know what you think is the difficult thing about being a woman?

I'm confused as to why 做 is in this sentence; it seems to serve some kind of grammatical function I'm not aware of. It looks like it could be omitted without problem. I also feel a bit of a mismatch between both 做 and 是 in the sentence.

**Question**: Why is 做 in the sentence 不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？

Looking up 做 using the PeraPera Chinese Popup Dictionary:

> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/ExxEa.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/ExxEa.png)
>
> to do; to make; to produce; to write; to compose; to act as; to engage in; to hold (a party); to be; to become; to function (in some capacity); to serve as; to be used for; to form (a bond or relationship); to pretend; to feign; to act a part; to put on appearance

Among many definitions, there's "to be", "to act as", and "to produce" on the list, which seem closest in meaning. The 做 in the given sentence functions something like "is" (approximately "is the greatest annoyance"), which is typically performed by 是 (and this also occurs in the sentence). However, we obviously can't just interchange 是 and 做 throughout Chinese.

I'm more familiar with using 做 to form a verb (e.g. 做饭 "cook food" and 做工业 "do homework") rather than in this case 做[悲哀](http://youdao.com/w/eng/%E6%82%B2%E5%93%80) which seems along the lines of "give rise to annoyance".

**Tags:** grammar, word-choice, meaning-in-context

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: being; acting as; playing the role of.  
> **username_2**: Did you consult any dictionaries?  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-06-06. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

做 here is a verb, according to *Oxford*, meaning:

> 5 充当 be

they give three examples:

> 做个好孩子
> be a good child
>
> 做老实人
> be an honest person
>
> 做秘书
> be a secretary

Pleco's *PLC* dictionary also has this verbal meaning:

> 4 be; become
>
> 做演员
> zuò yǎnyuán
> become an actor or actress; go on the stage
>
> 后来她做保育员了。
> Hòulái tā zuò bǎoyùyuán le.
> Later she became a child-care worker.
>
> 今天开会由你做主席。
> Jīntiān kāihuì yóu nǐ zuò zhǔxí.
> You’ll be the chairman at today’s meeting.

---

做女人 means, as the subtitles correctly translated above, to be a woman.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-06-07. Score: 2

做 is **being**.

是 is **to be**.

做女人 means **being a woman**.

是什麼 means **is what (what is)**.

You don't have to look at those 2 things together!

And if you omit the 做 in the sentence:

> 不知道大家觉得女人最大的悲哀是什么？

It becomes:

> I don't know (I wonder) what everybody think the biggest sorrow of a woman is?

As opposed to the original meaning

> I don't know (I wonder) what everybody think the biggest sorrow of **being** a woman is?

Can you see the subtle difference!?


---

