# US & UK: ''Making a decision'' vs. "taking a decision"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 13, 2008, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491 "2008-02-13T20:16:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2008, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/1 "2008-02-13T20:16:15Z")
The background:
I once heard a linguistic purist railing about the phrase “making a decision.” His contention: One does not “make” a decision. “Making” implies creating it. You’re not “creating” it. You are simply choosing (i.e., “taking”) one option over another.
Eh. . . many words do have more than one meaning, and there are things called “idioms,” so that’s not really the question.
Anyway, I recently saw the Kubrick’s “Lolita,” and one phrase that stuck with me was where James Mason tells someone [my paraphrase] “Not every decision in this house is taken by the girl’s mother.”
The GQ: I’d say in the States, “making a decision” is by far the phrase more commonly used. “Taking a decision” is pretty uncommon in my experience. Is that situation reversed in the UK?
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/2 "2008-02-13T20:19:56Z")
Nope.
I believe When a decision happens then it has been Made. The linguistic Purist is simply wrong. You can choose an option and in doing so _make_ a decision. There is a decision where previously there wasn’t one, so it has been made.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/3 "2008-02-14T00:35:32Z")
I’ve only started hearing “take a decision” in the States fairly recently, and always in contexts where it was clearly a borrowed affectation from across the pond. In America we \*make \* decisions.
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/4 "2008-02-14T00:41:49Z")
I don’t believe I’ve ever heard ‘Take a decision’.
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### Author:  [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/5 "2008-02-14T10:55:29Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves]
I’ve only started hearing “take a decision” in the States fairly recently, and always in contexts where it was clearly a borrowed affectation from across the pond. In America we \*make \* decisions.
[/QUOTE]
Don’t know where they’re borrowing it from then because i’ve never “taken” a decision in my life, and i can’t remember any of my friends and family ever having done so either.
I suspect it may be one of those things that some people in the US _think_ is a Britishism and therefore use to make them sound clever but actually isn’t (or as, at best, laughably archaic).
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### Author:  [@shefDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shefDave)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/6 "2008-02-14T11:09:49Z")
A bit of googling shows that both [“take the decision”](http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22take+the+decision%22&btnG=Search&meta=) and [“took the decision”](http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22took+the+decision%22&btnG=Search&meta=) are both fairly commonly used in the UK - but mainly in political contexts. I certainly wouldn’t find it odd to hear a politician say, “we _took_ the decision to stop kicking babies” as opposed to “we _made_ the decision…”
Of course, “making decisions” is used widely over here as well. I wouldn’t say that one’s more common than the other, and I certainly wouldn’t be arrogant enough to suggest that either were wrong. But that’s just me.
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/7 "2008-02-14T11:14:03Z")
I’ve never heard “taking a decision” in normal conversation either.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/8 "2008-03-30T21:35:26Z")
OK, I saw UK-produced movie “Operation: Crossbow” a few days ago on TCM. The phrase \*“taking a decision” appeared again. So far, it’s UK 2, USA 0. It looks like a trend, though possibly an obsolete one.
\*Technically, it was in the passive in both this movie and the aforementioned “Lolita,” (". . . the decision was taken. . ."). Maybe it is/was a more common rendering in passive voice?
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2008, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/9 "2008-03-30T22:18:00Z")
What about “reaching a decision?” How does that fit in?
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### Author:  [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/10 "2008-03-30T22:23:34Z")
Am I a freak? “Taking a decision” sounds pretty normal to my (Scottish/British) ears. It has something to do with “to take” as in “select” or “choose”.
Normally, though, I’d say “make”.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/11 "2008-03-30T22:25:02Z")
[QUOTE=Alessan]
What about “reaching a decision?” How does that fit in?
[/QUOTE]
UK: I’d suggest that this is much more about a collaborative effort rather than an individual action. A committee reaches a decision, whereas a chairman makes one.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/12 "2008-03-31T04:08:00Z")
I saw “take a decision” all the time in the _Times_ and _The Economist_ when I was London, usually in a government or corporate context. Here in the U.S., never. It would seem an affectation or precious or even (gasp) twee.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/13 "2008-03-31T04:18:26Z")
My exposure to things British is predominantly the _Economist_, which I’ve been reading weekly for 15 years now. They seem to use “take” in all cases even if the people doing the deciding are Americans in America. I don’t believe I’ve ever noted anyone “making” a decision on their pages, regardless of nationality.
Conversely, I’ve never heard anyone in the USA use 'take" except a recently-arrived Brit expat or Indian. Sounded fine to me as long as their accent was thick enough to clearly hear the u in “colour” 🙂 .
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### Author:  [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/14 "2008-03-31T09:36:27Z")
[QUOTE=shefDave]
A bit of googling shows that both [“take the decision”](http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22take+the+decision%22&btnG=Search&meta=) and [“took the decision”](http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22took+the+decision%22&btnG=Search&meta=) are both fairly commonly used in the UK - but mainly in political contexts. I certainly wouldn’t find it odd to hear a politician say, “we _took_ the decision to stop kicking babies” as opposed to “we _made_ the decision…”
Of course, “making decisions” is used widely over here as well. I wouldn’t say that one’s more common than the other, and I certainly wouldn’t be arrogant enough to suggest that either were wrong. But that’s just me.
[/QUOTE]
Although I don’t think I ever speak of ‘taking’ decisions myself, it does sound appropriate in the context of politics. Maybe you ‘make’ decisions for yourself, while someone could ‘take’ decisions on your behalf.
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### Author:  [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/15 "2008-03-31T14:44:24Z")
Color me surprised. I didn’t know that “taking a decision” was correct anywhere. I hear it all the time here in Montreal, from Francophones speaking English. I thought were using a calque of the French phrase, “prendre une décision”. Now I wonder if they’re using an old British form.
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### Author:  [@Epiplexed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epiplexed)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/16 "2008-03-31T22:46:43Z")
It’s also quite possible that the current British use of “take a decision” has been influenced by French. It’s certainly not the case that British English-speakers have always used “take” in that sense – the OED lists an instance of “make a decision” from Caxton in the late 15th century. Wm. Safire wrote one of his “Let’s Fulminate!”-type articles on just this topic a while back; I’ve pasted the link below (and apologies in advance if query-based links like that don’t work when pasted
– I didn’t now how else to incorporate it).
[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFDB113DF935A25757C0A96F948260](http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFDB113DF935A25757C0A96F948260)
]
[QUOTE=xnylder]
Color me surprised. I didn’t know that “taking a decision” was correct anywhere. I hear it all the time here in Montreal, from Francophones speaking English. I thought were using a calque of the French phrase, “prendre une décision”. Now I wonder if they’re using an old British form.
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/17 "2008-03-31T23:29:51Z")
[QUOTE=PaulParkhead]
Am I a freak? “Taking a decision” sounds pretty normal to my (Scottish/British) ears. It has something to do with “to take” as in “select” or “choose”.
Normally, though, I’d say “make”.
[/QUOTE]
Concur. Both “take” and “make” sound perfectly OK to me. I can’t say for sure which one I use more often.
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### Author:  [@telecommunications](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/telecommunications)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/18 "2008-04-01T00:40:03Z")
i think about that a lot and i came to the conclusion that people don’t make decisions, people are subject to fate and probability. they don’t “Take” a decision, they are “Given” one. they don’t “Make” a decision, they are “Allowed” one. think about it.
this message was brought to you by the ministry of truth.
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2008, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/19 "2008-04-02T09:56:14Z")
Brit here and I’ve never heard of anyone taking a decision.
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### Author:  [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-making-a-decision-vs-taking-a-decision/437491/20 "2008-04-02T11:09:51Z")
Kiwi in the UK here. Heard of making a decisions, heard of taking action as a result of making a decision, but never taking a decision.
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