Have you noticed that in American English people often write (or say) "make a decision," while in British English people say and write "take a decision." I wonder why they do that when there is a perfectly good verb ("decide") which would almost always be more appropriate. Can you think of other expressions of the form take/make a which would be stronger if the verb form of the noun were used to replace the whole expression?

Question

Have you noticed that in American English people often write (or say) "make a decision," while in British English people say and write "take a decision." I wonder why they do that when there is a perfectly good verb ("decide") which would almost always be more appropriate.  Can you think of other expressions of the form take/make a <noun> which would be stronger if the verb form of the noun were used to replace the whole expression?

anonymous · Answer

Well, this is an interesting thing you noticed. But I have no idea about anymore examples. If you find any let me know! :3

anonymous · Answer

I'm not too sure but:
Make a choice - choose
That's all I can think of

larseighner · Answer

Well, let's see.  What about:

make an apology = apologize
make a mistake = err (or just "mistake")
take action = act
make progress = progress
make arrangements = arrange
make plans = plan

There must be many more.

anonymous · Answer

Oh! Right, so like:
Make a statement - state
Make a call - call
Make a point - prove (?)
Make a turn - turn
Make a consolidation - consolidate
Make a correction - correct
Will these do?
And I'm not sure about the make a mistake one. Should it be: Make an error - err?

anonymous · Answer

And I just got some more:
Make an evaluation - evaluate
Make an expansion - expand
Make a contraction - contract

anonymous · Answer

Make a prediction - predict

larseighner · Answer

Excellent.  

Mistake was originally a verb, I think.  You might have to adjust more than the verb, but for "I made a mistake..." "I mistook ..." could be substituted.

anonymous · Answer

So you can use 'made' as well as 'make'?

larseighner · Answer

Well, yes, I suppose if you conjugate the "make a <something>," you can also conjugate the (better) equivalent.

make a decision  -- decide
makes a decision -- decides
made a decision -- decided
had made a decision -- had decided
and so forth.

anonymous · Answer

Oh alright. I thought it was specified to just one tense.

larseighner · Answer

If you revise these verbs, you save characters in a tweet.

anonymous · Answer

So.. this is for a tweet?

larseighner · Answer

It works for any writing that should be concise.

anonymous · Answer

Alright