"take a decision" vs. "make a decision"

[Torsten]

Hi, where do you see the difference between "take a decision" and "make a decision"? I take it both are strong collocations? Running both phrases through the British National Corpus revealed the following:

"take a decision": 27 results
"make a decision": 249 results

Prof. Google says:
"take decision": 870,000 entries
"make a desion": 15,400,000 entries

So, "make a decision" seems to be more popular but what exactly does this mean if anything?

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[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

I think the meanings are essentially the same. I myself have never used "take a decision."

Amy
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Alan]

Hi Torsten,

I don't want to be a nitpicker but I can see a shade of difference between the two. Accepting that they both mean decide. Make a decision suggests make your mind up rather than as it were sit on the fence. Take a decison is make your mind up and follow through. The reason why I pick on this is that I hear the expression used as follows: A country takes the decision to go to war. And then the war starts.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Tom]

[Torsten]

Hi Tom,

I'm sure you know how to find the answer to your question? I mean you certainly know how to use Google?

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[Yankee]

Hi Tom

Torsten's right. The British National Corpus (BNC) is easy to find with Google. The BNC is a good resource for seeing how words and phrases are used in context/sentences in British English. This is where you can do your search:
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/

This is what you can find regarding make/take a/the decision:

http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/saraWeb?qy=Take+a+decision
http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/saraWeb?qy=make+a+decision
http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/saraWeb?qy=take+the+decision
http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/saraWeb?qy=make+the+decision

The American National Corpus is still being developed:
http://www.americannationalcorpus.org/about.html

By the way, I consider the use of 'take a decision' to be something you're more likely to hear in "British English" rather than in "American English".
.
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Harry Smiith]

[Prezbucky]

"To make a decision" is way more common here in the US. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever heard "to take a decision" used in its place, though I could see where it might be acceptable (Alan's explanation).
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Robster]

I am a native speaker of British English, and the normal thing to say is "make a decision". Using "take a decision" seems to have become very common with the media and politicians in the last few years, but I've never heard anyone say it in conversation.

So if you are learning English "make a decision" is what you should say if you want to sound more native. If you were talking about yourself you could just say something like "i need to decide" eg "i need to decide which kind of chocolate cake I want for my party"

Hope this helps

[MrPedantic]

For me, "to make the decision" describes the act, while "to take the decision" also focuses on the responsibility.

MrP

[Haihao]

And my two cents is, "to make a decision" implies taking some efforts from his/her own will or need (to make a decision) while "to take a decision" just taking the responsibility or obligation from an external cause (to make a decision).

[Howard]

I realise this thread is a bit old now, but I have only just joined, so I'll give my penny's worth.
To me make a decision implies a more personal involvement - I have to decide within myself what is to be done.
Take a decision sounds like making a choice form a predetermined set of options.
But, frankly I'm not sure that there really is any difference beyond personal preference.
Keep up the good work,
Howard

[Amk]

Sir,

I am amk. I'm very much interested to learn English. I have lot of doubt when I am speaking to others especially 'phonic conversation. .

Here few sentences are :

' May i speak to xxxx
'x is available ' .
'X is there .
the word avilable is correct or not
or instead of available what words is used .

thanks

[Jamie (K)]

[Torsten]

You've got a point there, Jamie.

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