Make a decision in Spanish: tomar una decisión

Hice una decisión gets understood, but it's a straight copy of English. In Spanish, you take decisions.

You said

Hice una decisión difícil.

What it means: I built a difficult decision. (a translation)

A local says

Tomé una decisión difícil.

I made a difficult decision.

Why: Decisions are taken, not made: tomar una decisión.

Catching up with a friend in San José, Costa Rica

Hice una decisión: me quedo un año más.

"¿En serio? ¡Qué buena decisión! ¿Y cuándo la tomaste?"

English makes decisions, so hacer una decisión feels like a fair translation. Spanish toma them: tomé una decisión, tenemos que tomar una decisión, todavía no he tomado ninguna decisión. British English also says "take a decision", which is a handy way to remember it. Hacer una decisión gets understood, but it sounds translated, the way "do a decision" would sound in English.

Often you can skip the noun and use the verb decidir: decidí quedarme (I decided to stay), ¿ya decidiste? (have you decided?). It's shorter and very natural. Decidirse, with the pronoun, adds the sense of finally making up your mind after going back and forth: ¡por fin me decidí!, or to a friend stuck in front of the menu, ¡decídete!

Tomar covers a few other English "makes" and "takes": tomar una foto (take a photo, though sacar una foto is just as common), tomar en cuenta (take into account) and tomar el pelo (pull someone's leg, literally take their hair). Meanwhile English make becomes hacer in other phrases: hacer planes, hacer una cita. Learn each pair as a unit, not word by word.

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Also worth knowing

Spanish	English
¿Ya decidiste?	Have you decided?
Hay que tomar en cuenta el precio.	You have to take the price into account.
¡Me estás tomando el pelo!	You're pulling my leg!

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Questions people ask

Is it hacer una decisión or tomar una decisión?

Tomar una decisión. Hacer una decisión is understood but sounds like a word-for-word translation from English.

How do you say I decided in Spanish?

Decidí, or tomé una decisión. Decidí quedarme means I decided to stay. Me decidí suggests you finally made up your mind.

How do you say make up your mind in Spanish?

Decidirse: ¡decídete! (make up your mind!), por fin me decidí (I finally made up my mind).