This week I have an update about taking a decision versus making a decision.

In a meaty middle about the verb gifting, which I know a lot of you guardians of the

grammar hate.

So let's get started.

In a recent podcast I talked about some differences between British and American English.

When I read a listener comment from an American who lived abroad for several years and noticed

that British friends said, take a decision instead of make a decision.

But then I got a lot of feedback from British people who said they never say or hear take

a decision.

So I did a Twitter poll to try to get more information.

First, only 17% of British respondents said they used take a decision.

6% appear to use take exclusively, and 11% say they use both take a decision and make

a decision.

Most Brits, 83%, said they would say they make a decision.

So that explains why a lot of people responded that take a decision isn't British.

It's definitely a minority of British speakers who say it.

Second, a Google Ngram search also shows that although take a decision is more common

in British English, make a decision is by far the more common phrase in both British

and American English.

A couple of interesting things came up in the comments though.

Multiple people said that although they say they make a decision, when they're using

the past tense they say they took a decision instead of they made a decision.

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