In Portuguese the usual phrase for making money, be it a salary or business profit, is “ganhar dinheiro”, which is “win money” (like in a lottery). It says a lot about how much brazillians understand the causes of wealth. I sometimes use “fazer dinheiro” (make money) which most people get, and sometimes “criar dinheiro” (create money) if I’m trying to make a point of it.
Thanks for the answers…
Another thing about the english language I like, is that you have no word of your own for schadenfreude, being happy of someone elses misfortunes. In finnish the term “vahingonilo” and in swedish the term “skadeglädje” are used, and they mean the same thing as schadenfreude.
Envy, hating the good for being the good, and the resulting schadenfreude when voting to steal their money, are the three major cornerstones of the finnish politics and culture, so it’s not surprising that finnish is one of the languages that has a word for schadenfreude.
I’ve this notion that all languages are more or less equivalent. That is to say, anything expressed in one language can be expressed with exactly the same meaning in any other language.
You’ve probably crossed the line from philosophical reflection to scientific hypothesizing. Whatever, I am willing to stake my reputation on the claim that this is a true fact, for good reason.
So how do you say “I rode my motorbike to the shopping mall to buy a USB modem for my laptop” in Ancient Greek? 
So how do you say “I rode my motorbike to the shopping mall to buy a USB modem for my laptop” in Ancient Greek?
Well, I didn’t say that I could say anything in any language. My Ancient Greek is a bit rusty but there are two ways to do it. Recalling that “motorbike” is a compound of “motor” and “bike” which is itself short for “bicycle” using the Greek word κυκλος, we know that languages can take words from other languages (and thus the Greco-Roman yet English word “motorbike”). One could create the words μοτορβικον and μωδεμον that way; or if one had a Greek dictionary, one could do it with more traditional Greek roots. I don’t why we’re using a modem in this day and age, but in the worst case you’d express that as “box that changes discrete representations of sound into continuous ones and back again”. Adrian Hester probably could do it with classical roots in 5 minutes.
In Argie Spanish we still use “ganar plata”, to win silver (we call money silver), that is to earn money. If someone gets welfare it’s “me dan X amount” - “they give me x…”, or just to get.
But, iterestingly enough, we do usethe phrase to make money, particularly when referring to entrepreneurial activities or business, i.e. “se puede hacer mucha plata con esto” - " a lot of money can be made with this " . OR when asking “how much can we make with this”. But we don’t really conjugate the verb to the point of saying “I made money” “Yo hice x plata”, it would be acceptable, but weird.
I also think this is new in the language, but again Argentine Spanish is the most corrupted version of the Spanish you’ll find.