'make sense of' vs 'get a sense of'

Question

Q1."make a  sense of something" and "get a sense of something" almost have the same meaning, right?Q2. Then why do you use "a" in "get a sense of" while not "a" in "make a  sense of"? Is there any particular grammatical reason?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

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Q1."make a sense of something" and "get a sense of something" almost have the same meaning, right?
Q2. Then why do you use "a" in "get a sense of" while not "a" in "make a sense of"? Is there any particular grammatical reason?

There is no truly grammatical reason because 'sense' can be taken both as countable and uncountable. That means it can take 'a' or not.

The reason has to do with meaning, and the meaning is not the same.

makes sense ~ is logical; is understandable
get a sense of ~ come to have an idea or feeling about (something)

When you make sense of something, you make it have sense (meaningfulness) for yourself. That is, you understand it. You see that it is logical. Usually, though, we say that something "makes sense", which is saying that it's logical.

It only makes sense that if the demand goes up, the price will go up.
(It is logical, of course, that if ...)

The new taxation policy makes perfect sense if you think about it long enough. (The policy is perfectly logical.  It's understandable.)

When you find out who murdered the librarian at the end of the movie, the whole plot finally makes sense.  (The plot is logical.  It can finally be understood.)

The last example could have ended ... at the end of the movie, you can finally make sense of the whole plot. That's a different way of phrasing it.

But if you get a sense of something, a certain idea (among many possibilities) or a certain feeling comes to mind of what it means or what it is like. That's like coming up with a certain interpretation of something, a certain way (among many) of looking at it.

Observing the furniture and the paintings on the wall is an excellent way of getting a sense of the place.
(a way of getting a feeling of what the place is like)

When you visit someone at their home, take a look at the books on their book shelves to get a sense of what interests they have.
(to get an idea of their interests; to have a way of guessing what they might be interested in)

When the realtors come to see the property and give us their impressions, we'll get a better sense of what needs to be done for a successful sale. (We'll get a better idea of what to do in order to sell the place.)

CJ

'make sense of' vs 'get a sense of'

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