make all the difference

Meaning: (idiomatic)To be acrucialordecidingfactor; to have a verysignificanteffect(often apositiveone).1626,Robert Bolton,Some Generall Directions for a Comfortable Walking with God‎[1], London: Edmund Weaver, page17:We are all framed of the same mold, hewed out of the same Rocke, made as it were, of the same cloth, the sheares, as they say, onely going betweene; it is therefore onely the free loue and grace of God, whichmakes all the difference.1734,Alexander Forbes,Essays Moral and Philosophical, London: J. Osborn & T. Longman, Part I, Chapter 12, p. 100,[2]To assert the Superiority of the Human Spirit[…]above that of other Animals upon this earth, has been the endeavour of many Persons, who[…]have made their System more coherent than those who have endeavour’d to put Men and Beasts upon a level. Some of this last Party indeed acknowledge the advantage that Mankind have from the Frame of the Body and its Organs, which they pretendmakes all the difference.1814May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XVIII, inMansfield Park:[…], volume(please specify |volume=I to III), London:[…][George Sidney]forT[homas]Egerton,[…],→OCLC:How am I ever to look him in the face and say such things? Could you do it? But then he is your cousin, whichmakes all the difference.1943November –1944February (date written; published1945August 17),George Orwell[pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair],Animal Farm[…], London:Secker & Warburg, publishedMay 1962,→OCLC:They knew that life nowadays was harsh and bare, that they were often hungry and often cold, and that they were usually working when they were not asleep. But doubtless it had been worse in the old days. They were glad to believe so. Besides, in those days they had been slaves and now they were free, and thatmade all the difference, as Squealer did not fail to point out.2013February 22, Alison Flood, “Diagram prize shortlist points the way to this year’s oddest book titles”, inThe Guardian:Publishers and booksellers know only too well that a title canmake all the differenceto the sales of a book[…]

Examples:

EN: A year in a nice home with the right inﬂuences... would make all the difference in this boy's life.
ES: Un año en una buena casa, con buenas influencias le cambiará la vida a este chico.
EN: -That would make all the difference.
ES: - Eso cambiaría las cosas.
EN: They take the view that this armor plating of Bomasch's... will make all the difference in the next war.
ES: Consideran que el blindaje de Bomasch podría cambiar... las cosas en la próxima guerra.
EN: It's going to make all the difference to his life.
ES: Va a cambiar la vida de élcompletamente.
ES: Su vida será distinta.
EN: A hot meal would make all the difference.
ES: Una comida caliente haría la diferencia.
EN: It'd make all the difference in the world.
ES: Cambiaría mucho las cosas.
EN: The clothes don't make all the difference.
ES: La diferencia no está en el vestido, sino en mí.
EN: Clinically, the birth of the child could make all the difference... if my theory is correct.
ES: Clínicamente, el nacimiento puede hacer que sea muy diferente, si mi teoría es correcta.
EN: Sir Robert, this will make all the difference to the case, won't it?
ES: Sir Robert, esto hará diferente al caso, ¿verdad?
EN: It will make all the difference!
ES: El dinero extra, ayudará mucho.
EN: It can make all the difference in the world, George.
ES: Así todo sería muy distinto.
EN: It would make all the difference.
ES: Lo cambiaría todo.
EN: A dozen tanks one way or another can make all the difference.
ES: Una docena más o menos de tanques puede marcar la diferencia.
EN: It'll make all the difference to him.
ES: Será muy importante para él.
EN: A little too much and consider that only 3/10 of a degree may make all the difference between genius and nothing.
ES: Un poco más de lo que debiera, y... No se olvide que sólo tres décimas de grado separan al genio de la nada. Es decir, ¿los idiotiza?

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).