[Vocabulary] What is the diifference

[tianhang]

Hi,my dear friends and teachers.First of all ,I want to express my appreciation to all of you.You always give me timely help with my English study.
Now,I am cofused with these two verb phrases and your help is needed here again.
1.Girls make up almost 70 percent of the students in this university.
2.Of the total volume of the retail sales, the public and non-public sectors take up 38 and 62 percent respectively.
In the above two sentences,to describe percentages,one uses "make up",while the other uses " take up".Can we use "take up " to replace " make up " in the first sentence and use " make up " instead of " take up " in the second place without changing the meanings of the sentences? Is there any difference between these two phrases?
Thanks for your patience.
I am right here waiting for your answer.:-o

 

[leonwool]

They are different. We could build a list of hundreds of words relating to percentages but we certainly could not say that they were all the same in meaning.

We can find a formal verb to replace the phrasal verbs so that the meanings are not changed too much.

make up - constitute
take up - account for - use -

 

[tianhang]

Thanks a lot.I have a better understanding of them now.
But some English leaners told me we can use " take up " in the first sentence,and " make up " can be used in the second sentence.I don't think they are right.Am I right?
All of you have best understanding and best sense of English.So please give me more guidence. :up:

 

[2006]

But some English leaners told me we can use " take up " in the first sentence,You definitely cannot use "take up" in the first sentence.
'Girls cannot take up almost 70% of the students.....
You could say something like 'Girls take up almost 70 % of the student positions in this university.'

and " make up " Don't leave a space between a word and quotation marks. :-( can be used in the second sentence.I don't think they are right.Am I right?
"make up" is not good for sentence 2. If you use "make up", it would sound like those percentages refer to selling, not buying.

:up:

2006

 

[tianhang]

2006

Now I know the difference between them. I really appreciate your explainations and your suggestions.Thanks again!:up: