TAKE a Decision or MAKE a Decision? What’s the difference?

TAKE a Decision or MAKE a Decision? What’s the difference?

Vocabulary / By

We use “make a decision” for everyday decisions and “take a decision” when the situation is more formal and taken by some authority like a government.

Make a Decision

“To make a decision” is more common than” to take a decision” and is used in informal contexts where the buildup to the decision is also involved.

We use “make a decision” when we are generally deciding something that is not very serious and doesn’t have serious consequences,

You need to make a decision, chocolate or vanilla ice cream?

I can never make a decision, I am always sitting on the fence. 

Take a Decision

We only use “To take a decision” when the situation is formal, and the consequences are serious. 

“Take a decision” is more common in the past simple(took the decision) and almost has a passive voice meaning where the decision is more important than the agent(the person who takes the decision). 

We took the decision to cut funding for education.

It can be more common to hear politicians using “take a decision” when they want to hide some facts about the decision-making process. Remember “take a decision” doesn’t include the before part of the discussion leading up to the decision but rather focuses on the decision itself. This is helpful for people who don’t want to focus on the decision-making process but that is often not necessary when making day-to-day decisions. 

You can use “take a decision” in the passive voice but it sounds like you are trying to say that you had no part in the decision which would absolve you of any wrongdoing. 

A decision was taken to cut funding for education. 

“Take a decision” also has the idea of “this is the final decision” which is why governments or people in authority are more likely to use it.

I took the decision to end the war. 

Conor
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