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If someone takes a decision, can someone tell me where they intend to take it? Call me old fashioned or conservative if you like but I was always taught to make a decision and once it's been done it's made. I do not intend to take it anywhere. Verbally speaking there is a great difference between take and make..........just as there is a difference between stick and put. Does anyone have any glue?

Philip
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  • See also http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6431/what-is-the-difference-between-make-decision-and-take-decision?rq=1 – Kate Gregory Dec 26 '14 at 14:41
  • And where exactly do you take care, your time, or ill? Take, like make is quite frequent in various metaphorical phrases, and decisions are taken by native speakers of English every day, just as they are also made by native speakers of English every day. Now you may call me conservative or old-fashioned if you like, but one verb I certainly do not recommend using with decision the way you’ve done it here, is do. Decisions may be either taken or made, but certainly not done. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Dec 26 '14 at 14:58
  • Certainly in the US, "take a decision" would be an unusual construction. One might "take a choice", but even there "make" is the more likely word. Having made a decision one might "take a course of action", or use "take" in some similar context, but "take a decision" would get you strange looks. – Hot Licks Dec 26 '14 at 14:59
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    @Janus Bahs Jacquet: you forgot the quntessential example of the versatility of "take"—take a shit. And then there's its odd counterpart, to give a shit. Anyway, the "question" was clearly rhetorical; a rant disguised as a question. – Brian Hitchcock Dec 27 '14 at 01:43

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In US English, "make" is the more common verb associated with decisions. However, I have heard "take" used also, although not commonly, and mostly by non-US speakers of English, principally presenters and reporters on the BBC. I also know that the associated verb in some of the Mediterranean languages such as French and Spanish, use "take" in the idiom, and I have occasionally heard speakers for whom English is a second language use "take a decision".

My sense is that I'm hearing it more often, though it is nowhere near commonplace yeet.

brasshat
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