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Mr. Tom Posted 8 years ago
Vocabulary

They formed a line vs. They made a line

Hi

I checked the difference between "they formed a line" and "they made a line" on Google Ngram Viewer.

Would you say Make a line or They made a line behind the officer is not natural English?

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=they+formed+a+line%2Cthey+made+a+line&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cthey%20formed%20a%20line%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cthey%20made%20a%20line%3B%2Cc0

Thanks,

Tom

  

Top answer

Mr. Tom Would you say Make a line or They made a line behind the officer is not natural English? Not really unnatural; however, to judge by the examples on "the G N Viewer", 'made a line' is more often used like 'drew a line' (as, for example, on a map) than like 'formed a queue', so 'formed a line' seems more natural to my ear.

— CalifJim

  • Mr.
  • Tom Would you say Make a line or They made a line behind the officer is not natural English?
  • Not really unnatural; however, to judge by the examples on "the G N Viewer", 'made a line' is more often used like 'drew a line' (as, for example, on a map) than like 'formed a queue', so 'formed a line' seems more natural to my ear.
  • CJ
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1 Answers
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Mr. TomWould you say Make a line or They made a line behind the officer is not natural English?

Not really unnatural; however, to judge by the examples on "the G N Viewer", 'made a line' is more often used like 'drew a line' (as, for example, on a map) than like 'formed a queue', so 'formed a line' seems more natural to my ear.

CJ

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