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ENGLISH TIP OF THE WEEK: COLLOCATIONS
- Anders Gröndahl
- 26 jun 2016
- 2 Min. de lectura
What is a collocation?
When we learn a language we often think of grammar (the structure of a language) and vocabulary (the words of a language), but there is another part of language we also need to think about - collocations. Collocations are words that naturally go together or form fixed relationships and will sound "right", on the other hand if you put two words together that do not collocate they will sound wrong. For example "black and white" is a collocation, it sounds right when we say it, but if we say "white and black" it sounds wrong. Some times there is no logical reason for this, it's just the way it is.
For example:
"Strong tea" is a collocation. The word "strong" collocates with the word "tea" they naturally go together.
"Powerful tea" is not a collocation. "Powerful" does not collocate with "tea" i.e. it does not sound natural.
Right collocations:
heavy rain
make a mistake
go shopping
There are thousands of collocations in English but you can start building collocations with the six most common verbs in English; go, get, do, have, take, make.
Here are some common verb collocations:
have: lunch, a bath, a good time, a rest, a day off, coffee
do: work, a favor, business, nothing, the cooking, the housework, my best, my homework
make: a mess, a mistake, a noise, furniture, progress, money, a difference, an effort
take: a break, a look, a rest, a taxi, an exam, a shower, the bus, a seat, control
go: abroad, bad, blind, crazy, by bus, fishing, mad, to war, bankrupt, dark
get: a job, angry, home, married, ready, upset, wet, drunk, lost, dressed,
Now do this exercise. Correct these sentences with the right collocation:
1. She always does the beds in the morning.
2. These are the typical mistakes that students always do.
3. The man got crazy.
4. I did some phone calls.
5. The children always make a lot of homework.
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