Learn English – Difference between car brand and car make

differenceterminologyword-choice

I am creating a system that needs car information. What is the difference between the car brand and car make?

If for example I have a Toyota Corolla with plate number AAA 123 that is color red, how do I know the brand and make of it?

This forum states:

A "brand" is a name used by a manufacturer of any product.
Franco-American is a brand of canned pasta (it happens to be one of
several brands Campbell's uses to sell its products).

"Make" is used almost exclusively for cars, and usually in conjunction
with the word "model." Ford Taurus, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Toyota
Celica–the "make" is the first word in the pair, the "model" the
second word. Just as a single company can produce products under
several "brands," an automobile company can produce many makes of
cars; for example, Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln are all makes produced
by Ford Motor Company; General Motors produces Pontiacs, Chevrolets,
Saturns, GMCs, among many others.

You would never ask a person "What brand of car do you drive?" You
would ask, "What make of car do you drive?" For most other products,
you would never ask for them by "make," you would ask for them by
"brand."

I am still confused. Is it just by the way we used the words or does it really have a difference in their meaning?

Best Answer

For your system, the terms you want to use are:

Make: Toyota

Model: Corolla

Year (or "Model Year"): 2015

Plate number: AAA 123

Color: Red

Explaining why you need to use "make" instead of "brand" is harder than I expected, though. The words "make" and "brand" have the same meaning, we just tend to use one more often than the other when talking about certain types of items. There isn't always a good reason for why people use certain words.

When talking about your favorite brand of clothing, peanut butter, software, shampoo, or pretty much anything other than a car, you generally use "brand". For cars, you almost always use "make".

You would never say, "This is my favorite make of clothing".

"This is my favorite clothing-maker" also sounds a little odd.

For cars, people do sometimes say, "Here is a list of top car brands," but that could just as easily be "Here is a list of top automakers".

If asking or describing the manufacturer of a specific car, though, you definitely want make. As the text you posted points out, it just sounds odd to ask someone, "What brand is your car?" even though they would still understand you and answer the question.

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