Collocation refers to a group of two or more words that usually go together. A good way to think of collocation is to look at the word collocation. Co — meaning together — location — meaning place. Collocations are words that are located together. A good answer to «What is collocation?» is: Collocation is a group of two or more words that like to hang out together. Here are some examples of common collocations that you might know:
make tea — I made a cup of tea for lunch.
do homework — I did all of my homework yesterday.
Even though it possible to use other word combinations, understanding collocations help English learners improve their fluency because they are words that usually go together.
Make and Do
I begin with ‘make’ and ‘do’ because they provide perfect examples of why collocation is so important. Generally, ‘make’ refers to things that are made that weren’t there before. ‘Do’ refers to actions that we take or do such as chores.
Collocations with ‘Make’
make a cup of coffee / tea
make noise
make the bed
make a business deal
make a fuss
make sense
make time for someone
Collocations with Do
do the laundry
do the errands
do business with someone
do a chore
do the shopping
Make and Do are perfect examples of verbs that go together with specific nouns. A verb + noun combination that always go together are considered collocations.
Why Do Words Collocate?
There is often no reason for a collocation. People just put certain words together more often than they put other words together. In fact, the use of collocations has become popular in English and language teaching because of corpus linguistics. Corpus linguistics study huge volumes of data of spoken and written English to come up with statistics on how often people use certain words and word combinations. Through this study, corpus linguistics has been able to define what are strong and weak collocations.
Collocations are used especially often in business English and there are dictionaries such as the Oxford Dictionary of Collocations that can help you learn these common collocations.
Strong Collocations
Strong collocations refer to words that almost always go together. It’s possible that people might understand you if you don’t use a strong collocation. However, if you do not use a strong collocation it will sound funny to native speakers. Let’s return to our example of ‘make’ and ‘do’. If you say:
I did a cup of coffee.
native speakers will understand that you mean:
I made a cup of coffee.
Correct use of strong collocations shows an excellent command of the English language, and can certainly help impress native speakers’ of your ability to speak English well. Of course, if you are speaking to other non-native speakers the ability to use collocations correctly all the time becomes less important. That doesn’t mean that correct collocation use is not important, it’s just not AS important as something like correct tense. Imagine for a moment that you are speaking about a future meeting:
Our meeting was on Friday at four o’clock.
I’ve done an appointment at four o’clock for the meeting room on Friday.
In both of these sentences, there are mistakes. However, in the first sentence instead of using a future tense, the past tense is used. If you want your colleagues to come to the meeting, this mistake is very serious and will lead to no one coming to the meeting.
In the second sentence ‘do an appointment’ is a misuse of a strong collocation. However, the meaning is clear: You have scheduled a room at four o’clock. In this case, a mistake in collocations is not nearly as important as a mistake in tense usage.
Here are examples of strong collocations that you might not be familiar with:
high earnings (not big earnings)
long-range planning (not long-time planning)
urban guerrilla (not city guerrilla)
More Information
Why are Collocations Important?
There is an entire world of collocations to explore. Learning collocations is important because you begin to learn words in larger groups or ‘chunks’ of language. Putting together these chunks of language leads to more fluent English.
More information on other word groups in English
Вам знаком термин collocation (коллокация) в английском? Collocations — устойчивые словосочетания в английском языке. В этой статье мы расскажем, какие бывают коллокации, зачем их нужно учить и какими ресурсами при этом пользоваться.
Что такое collocations в английском языке и зачем их учить
Collocations или коллокации — это грамматически и лексически правильные словосочетания. Причем такие выражения есть во всех языках. Например, русский язык: пирожок лежит на столе, но кувшин стоит на столе, зато мы можем принять душ и в то же время принять лекарство и т. д. В английском языке словосочетания «работают» так же: мы говорим high temperature (высокая температура), а не tall temperature; take a photo (сфотографировать), а не make/do a photo; tell the truth, а не say/speak the truth.
Мы должны учить collocations, чтобы:
- Говорить естественно
Вы учитесь говорить правильно и естественно, изучая устойчивые словосочетания в английском. Так, например, словосочетания do a mistake (делать ошибку) и make exercises (делать упражнения) грамматически правильные, однако для носителей языка они будут звучать неестественно, ведь нужно говорить make a mistake и do exercises.
- Легче запоминать слова
Учить слова в отрыве от контекста сложнее, чем в устойчивых словосочетаниях. Наш мозг гораздо быстрее запоминает связанные блоки информации, а не разрозненные отрывочные знания. К тому же, когда вы учите отдельные слова, вы не знаете, как их в итоге использовать. То есть вы получаете набор материала, из которого непросто бывает собрать устойчивую конструкцию. Заучивая collocations, вы получаете шаблоны, по сути, целые отрывки предложений, из которых легче построить фразу.
- Точнее выражать свои мысли и быть понятым
Знание устойчивых выражений позволит вам лучше выражать свои мысли на английском языке и при этом быть понятым собеседником. Так, носителю языка будет понятно, что кто-то нарушает закон, если вы скажете break the law, а не destroy the law. В некоторых случаях употребление несочетающихся друг с другом слов может привести к непониманию между собеседниками.
Какими бывают коллокации в английском языке
В английском есть несколько видов collocations. Знать их нужно для того, чтобы при изучении новых слов понимать, на что нужно обращать внимание: с какими частями речи могут быть сочетания с этими словами. Выделяют следующие основные типы collocations:
- Наречие + прилагательное (adverb + adjective)
- Прилагательное + существительное (adjective + noun)
- Существительное + существительное (noun + noun)
- Глагол + существительное (verb + noun)
- Глагол + выражение с предлогом (verb + expression with preposition)
- Существительное + глагол (noun + verb)
- Глагол + наречие (verb + adverb) и наречие + глагол (adverb + verb)
Оба слова в коллокации характеризуют предмет.
Примеры словосочетаний: utterly stupid — крайне глупый, easily available — легкодоступный, bitterly cold — ужасно холодный, сильный мороз. А еще много сочетаний наречий и прилагательных мы собрали в статье «Intensifying adverbs, или Особенности употребления усилительных наречий в английском языке».
Это сочетание используется, чтобы назвать предмет (существительное) и дать ему характеристику (прилагательное).
Примеры словосочетаний: a powerful engine — мощный двигатель, strong smell — сильный запах, a heavy smoker — заядлый курильщик.
Такие словосочетания часто употребляются с предлогом of, но бывают и без предлогов. В коллокациях типа «существительное + существительное» важно запомнить порядок слов и не менять их местами.
Примеры словосочетаний: a bar of soap — брусок мыла, round of applause — аплодисменты, взрыв аплодисментов, river bank — берег реки.
Пожалуй, самые важные collocations в английском языке — сочетание глагола и существительного. Они выражают действие и называют предмет, над которым это действие производится. Глагол — одна из самых важных частей речи, поэтому от правильного его выбора зависит, поймет ли вас собеседник.
Примеры словосочетаний: to receive education — получить образование, to commit a crime — совершить преступление, to drive a bargain — заключить сделку.
На эти выражения тоже следует обратить особое внимание: они аналогичны предыдущим. Только между глаголом и существительным будет предлог (не всегда логичный для русскоговорящих).
Примеры словосочетаний: to burst into tears — разрыдаться, to drive anybody to crime — довести кого-то до преступления, to fill with joy — наполниться радостью.
Эта группа отличается от предыдущих двух порядком слов: сначала идет существительное, потом глагол. Словосочетания называют предмет (существительное) и указывают, какое действие он выполняет (глагол). Менять части речи местами нельзя, так как в этом случае полностью теряется смысл предложения.
Примеры словосочетаний: a plane takes off — самолет взлетает, a dog barks — собака лает, priсes fall— цены падают.
Эта группа слов называет действие (глагол) и описывает его (наречие).
Примеры словосочетаний: to rain heavily — сильно льет (дождь), to place gently — аккуратно положить, distinctly remember — отчетливо помнить, flatly refuse — категорически отказаться.
Как учить collocations в английском языке
Если мы вспомним, что в английском языке более 500 тысяч слов, и посчитаем, сколько с ними может быть словосочетаний, получится огромная цифра. К счастью, для общения на английском языке вам не нужно знать абсолютно все слова и коллокации с ними. К тому же даже слона можно съесть по кусочкам, а английский и подавно поддастся вам, если разбить изучение collocations на небольшие удобоваримые порции. Мы предлагаем несколько приемов, которые облегчат вашу работу по изучению collocations.
1. Использовать словарь устойчивых английских словосочетаний
Чтобы узнать, с какими словами «сотрудничает» слово, посмотрите в специальный словарь, например, на сайте englishcollocation.com. Ресурс хорош тем, что указаны не просто словосочетания, а примеры предложений с ними. При этом все коллокации разбиты на группы по частям речи, употребляемым с указанным вами словом.
Оксфордский онлайн-словарь коллокаций английского языка — еще один надежный источник информации. Тут также приведены разные части речи, которые могут употребляться с введенным вами словом, а также указаны примеры употребления.
Можно также использовать сайт prowritingaid.com. Введите слово, с которым хотите получить collocations. В открывшемся окне вы увидите список слов, с которыми оно сочетается, разбитых на группы по принадлежности к частям речи.
Еще один проверенный ресурс englishclub.com. Здесь собраны словосочетания в алфавитном порядке. Это не так удобно, как на предыдущих сайтах, но все равно пригодится для обучения. Настоятельно рекомендуем заглянуть и на другую страницу этого сайта, где вы найдете наиболее часто употребляемые collocations. Этот список лучше выучить наизусть, словосочетания пригодятся вам для повседневного общения.
Если вы собираетесь использовать английский в научных целях, вам пригодится Academic Collocation List, который можно совершенно бесплатно скачать по указанной ссылке. А если вам нужны коллокации для повседневного общения, возьмите на вооружение этот список.
2. Учить коллокации при изучении новых слов
Запомнить любое слово будет легче, если вы будете учить его в сочетании с другими словами. При изучении новой лексики загляните на указанные выше сервисы и выпишите себе несколько словосочетаний.
3. Слушать материалы на английском языке
Чем больше аудиоматериалов вы слушаете, тем больше полезных collocations будете запоминать. Вспомните, ведь словосочетание fast food мы слышим настолько часто, что никому в голову не придет сказать quick food. Вы можете слушать аудиоматериалы на одном из 6 сайтов с подкастами на английском языке или смотреть видео на одном из ресурсов из нашей подборки сайтов с видеоматериалами.
4. Читать материалы на английском
Текст на английском — лучший источник коллокаций. При чтении текста срабатывает зрительная память, а именно она лучше всего развита у многих людей. Вы видите словосочетания в «естественной среде обитания», поэтому они будут легко запоминаться. Наш совет: даже если вы читаете для удовольствия, а не для обучения, старайтесь иногда делать паузы, обращать внимание на то, как используются слова.
5. Составлять интеллект-карты
Проще всего будет учить collocations, взаимосвязанные между собой. Вы можете сгруппировать слова по теме или по слову, которое используется в словосочетаниях. Так, например, можно составить список коллокаций со словом take и нарисовать mind-map от руки, пока вы будете это делать, словосочетания будут запоминаться.
6. Учить словосочетания, как слова
Вы можете воспользоваться одним из 15 предложенных нами приемов изучения английских слов для изучения collocations. Выберите наиболее удобный для вас, и дерзайте!
7. Выполнять тесты
Тесты покажут, насколько хорошо вы знаете коллокации. Например, можно воспользоваться следующим ресурсом better-english.com. На нем приведен небольшой сборник тестов на collocations. Кроме того, почти на каждом обучающем ресурсе найдется парочка тестов на эту тему, поэтому можно просто ввести в поисковик запрос «collocations quiz» и воспользоваться результатами поиска.
Как вы успели убедиться из нашей статьи, изучать collocations или устойчивые словосочетания в английском языке очень полезно и несложно. Пользуйтесь предложенными нами приемами и ресурсами регулярно, и у вас не возникнет никаких проблем с изучением коллокаций. Если же вы хотите изучать язык под руководством опытного наставника, приглашаем учить английский язык по Скайпу в нашей школе.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a series of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, a collocation is a type of compositional phraseme, meaning that it can be understood from the words that make it up. This contrasts with an idiom, where the meaning of the whole cannot be inferred from its parts, and may be completely unrelated.
An example of a phraseological collocation is the expression strong tea.[1] While the same meaning could be conveyed by the roughly equivalent powerful tea, this adjective does not modify tea frequently enough for English speakers to become accustomed to its co-occurrence and regard it as idiomatic or unmarked. (By way of counterexample, powerful is idiomatically preferred to strong when modifying a computer or a car.)
There are about six main types of collocations: adjective + noun, noun + noun (such as collective nouns), verb + noun, adverb + adjective, verbs + prepositional phrase (phrasal verbs), and verb + adverb.
Collocation extraction is a computational technique that finds collocations in a document or corpus, using various computational linguistics elements resembling data mining.
Expanded definition[edit]
Collocations are partly or fully fixed expressions that become established through repeated context-dependent use. Such terms as crystal clear, middle management, nuclear family, and cosmetic surgery are examples of collocated pairs of words.
Collocations can be in a syntactic relation (such as verb–object: make and decision), lexical relation (such as antonymy), or they can be in no linguistically defined relation. Knowledge of collocations is vital for the competent use of a language: a grammatically correct sentence will stand out as awkward if collocational preferences are violated. This makes collocation an interesting area for language teaching.
Corpus linguists specify a key word in context (KWIC) and identify the words immediately surrounding them. This gives an idea of the way words are used.
The processing of collocations involves a number of parameters, the most important of which is the measure of association, which evaluates whether the co-occurrence is purely by chance or statistically significant. Due to the non-random nature of language, most collocations are classed as significant, and the association scores are simply used to rank the results. Commonly used measures of association include mutual information, t scores, and log-likelihood.[2][3]
Rather than select a single definition, Gledhill[4] proposes that collocation involves at least three different perspectives: co-occurrence, a statistical view, which sees collocation as the recurrent appearance in a text of a node and its collocates;[5][6][7] construction, which sees collocation either as a correlation between a lexeme and a lexical-grammatical pattern,[8] or as a relation between a base and its collocative partners;[9] and expression, a pragmatic view of collocation as a conventional unit of expression, regardless of form.[10][11] These different perspectives contrast with the usual way of presenting collocation in phraseological studies. Traditionally speaking, collocation is explained in terms of all three perspectives at once, in a continuum:
- Free combination ↔ bound collocation ↔ frozen idiom
In dictionaries[edit]
In 1933, Harold Palmer’s Second Interim Report on English Collocations highlighted the importance of collocation as a key to producing natural-sounding language, for anyone learning a foreign language.[12] Thus from the 1940s onwards, information about recurrent word combinations became a standard feature of monolingual learner’s dictionaries. As these dictionaries became «less word-centred and more phrase-centred»,[13] more attention was paid to collocation. This trend was supported, from the beginning of the 21st century, by the availability of large text corpora and intelligent corpus-querying software, making it possible to provide a more systematic account of collocation in dictionaries. Using these tools, dictionaries such as the Macmillan English Dictionary and the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English included boxes or panels with lists of frequent collocations.[14]
There are also a number of specialized dictionaries devoted to describing the frequent collocations in a language.[15] These include (for Spanish) Redes: Diccionario combinatorio del español contemporaneo (2004), (for French) Le Robert: Dictionnaire des combinaisons de mots (2007), and (for English) the LTP Dictionary of Selected Collocations (1997) and the Macmillan Collocations Dictionary (2010).[16]
Statistically significant collocation[edit]
Student’s t-test can be used to determine whether the occurrence of a collocation in a corpus is statistically significant.[17] For a bigram 
, let 
be the unconditional probability of occurrence of 
in a corpus with size 
, and let 
be the unconditional probability of occurrence of 
in the corpus. The t-score for the bigram is calculated as:
where 
is the sample mean of the occurrence of , 
is the number of occurrences of , 
is the probability of under the null-hypothesis that and appear independently in the text, and 
is the sample variance. With a large , the t-test is equivalent to a Z-test.
See also[edit]
- English collocations
- Agreement (linguistics)
- Cliché
- Collocational restriction
- Collostructional analysis
- Compound noun, adjective and verb
- Government (linguistics)
- Irreversible binomial
- Isocolon
- Lexical item
- N-gram
- Phrasal verb
- Phraseology
- Phraseme
- Sketch Engine
- Statistically improbable phrase
- Word sketch
References[edit]
- ^ Halliday, M.A.K., ‘Lexis as a Linguistic Level’, Journal of Linguistics 2(1) 1966: 57–67
- ^ Dunning, Ted (1993): «Accurate methods for the statistics of surprise and coincidence». Computational Linguistics 19, 1 (Mar. 1993), 61–74.
- ^ Dunning, Ted (2008-03-21). «Surprise and Coincidence». blogspot.com. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
- ^ Gledhill C. (2000): Collocations in Science Writing, Narr, Tübingen
- ^ Firth J.R. (1957): Papers in Linguistics 1934–1951. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Sinclair J. (1996): «The Search for Units of Meaning», in Textus, IX, 75–106.
- ^ Smadja F. A & McKeown, K. R. (1990): «Automatically extracting and representing collocations for language generation», Proceedings of ACL’90, 252–259, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- ^ Hunston S. & Francis G. (2000): Pattern Grammar — A Corpus-Driven Approach to the Lexical Grammar of English, Amsterdam, John Benjamins
- ^ Hausmann F. J. (1989): Le dictionnaire de collocations. In Hausmann F.J., Reichmann O., Wiegand H.E., Zgusta L.(eds), Wörterbücher : ein internationales Handbuch zur Lexikographie. Dictionaries. Dictionnaires. Berlin/New-York : De Gruyter. 1010–1019.
- ^
Moon R. (1998): Fixed Expressions and Idioms, a Corpus-Based Approach. Oxford, Oxford University Press. - ^ Frath P. & Gledhill C. (2005): «Free-Range Clusters or Frozen Chunks? Reference as a Defining Criterion for Linguistic Units[dead link],» in Recherches anglaises et Nord-américaines, vol. 38 :25–43
- ^ Cowie, A.P., English Dictionaries for Foreign Learners, Oxford University Press 1999:54–56
- ^ Bejoint, H., The Lexicography of English, Oxford University Press 2010: 318
- ^ «MED Second Edition – Key features – Macmillan». macmillandictionaries.com. Archived from the original on 2020-09-28. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
- ^ Herbst, T. and Klotz, M. ‘Syntagmatic and Phraseological Dictionaries’ in Cowie, A.P. (Ed.) The Oxford History of English Lexicography, 2009: part 2, 234–243
- ^ «Macmillan Collocation Dictionary – How it was written — Macmillan». macmillandictionaries.com. Archived from the original on 2018-12-21. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
- ^ Manning, Chris; Schütze, Hinrich (1999). Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 163–166. ISBN 0262133601.
External links[edit]
Look up collocation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Ozdic Collocation Dictionary
- A Small System Storing Spanish Collocations (Igor A. Bolshakov & Sabino Miranda-Jiménez)
- Morphological characterization of collocations and semantic relationships in Spanish (Sabino Miranda-Jiménez & Igor A. Bolshakov)
- Example of collocations for the word «Surgery»
Collocations are important pieces of linguistic detail when it comes to learning a new language. This article vows to dive deep into the realm of collocation starting from the very definition. Take a look at the types, examples and advantages of knowing collocations. Why do certain words collocate and why should anybody care which words they pair with? These usual questions are carefully tackled with proper examples and explanations within this article.
What is Collocation?
Collocation indicates two or more words and word clusters that tend to pop up side by side more often than it could be considered coincidental. The word, “Collocation” is made out of the prefix, “Co-” which means together, and the word, “Location” that indicates spatial position. Collocation means that the words or phrases in contention are almost always seen beside one another. When they come, they come in pairs.
There is an inherent tendency to use familiar sets of words in clusters among speakers of any language. Idioms and quotations are bigger examples of that. The words or phrases collocated beside each other have often been used exactly like that for over a number of years. It is not that changing the sequence of the words would render them unfathomable but it is just that they have been always popping up beside each other for ages. It may be a measure of one’s authority over the English language since knowing a language is about knowing how the natives use the words in the language and they know the secret code of collocation.
Why do Words Collocate?
It must be a valid question invading your head why any set of words come up together more often than others. To be perfectly honest, there is hardly any particular reason why they collocate; rather native English speakers happen to pair them up more frequently than they do other words. Corpus Linguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies a grand number of data with regards to how English speakers use the language and what words they use and how often they combine sets of words while speaking or writing. Corpus Linguistics has enabled us to determine the strong and weak collocations.
Types of Collocations
The two major types of collocations would be based on the strength of the pairs’ bond. These collocations are —
Strong Collocations
Strong collocations refer to the fact that the collocated words almost always pop up together. The strength of the words signifies how closely bound they are when it comes to being used in speech and on paper. The perk of the strong collocations is if someone replaces a portion of the pair mistakenly, chances are that native speakers will still know what they mean and the correct collocation for that. At best, the missed out opportunity to use the strong collocation will spur a nice bit of smirk on the faces of the native English speakers you are dealing with. On the other hand, it will make very little difference whether you use the collocations on-point or not while collaborating with the non-native speakers.
For example, if somebody asks to “start a light” instead of “turn the light on,” it would sound very out of place as the listeners take a few moments to determine what message is actually meant to convey but the right collocation would most certainly pop up in their head soon. That is the strength of the collocation that had continuously been used by millions for a good number of years.
Weak Collocations
In case of the weak collocations, at least one word should be easily alterable since the bond is weaker than that of strong collocations. That means the same set of words tend to be able to collocate with a few different combinations of words. Choosing weak collocations over the strong can be a good trick for the English learners since that opens up the possibility of being right and understandable most of the time. But knowing the weak collocations and being able to use them on spot would always give you some points.
For example, “in broad agreement” and “in broad daylight” would be good examples of how weak collocations work. You cannot tell what must come after “in broad…” unlike what happens in case of strong collocations.
Grammatical Collocations
There are a few more types of collocations in the English language based on their grammatical structure. A few of them are explained and exemplified below —
Verb Collocations
The verb + noun collocations are by far the most common ones in the English language. And these are used non-stop in everyday situations. Below are some of the examples of verb collocations —
- Burst into tears (crying)- She often bursts into tears.
- Lose temper (getting angry)- Let’s not lose our temper.
- Run the risk (risking)- Liars always run the risk of getting caught.
- Take a break (relaxing)- You can take a break.
- Break record (doing something better than the rest)- They broke all records.
- Give a lift (sharing one’s ride)- I decided to give my teacher a lift to school.
- Raise taxes (increasing tax rates)- The government has raised taxes on packaged food.
- Meet expectations (doing as good as anticipated)- The performance didn’t meet the expectations of the fans.
- Got divorced (breaking up a marriage) — They got divorced.
- Keep promise (doing as promised)- Sadly, I couldn’t keep my promise of being punctual.
- Caught a glimpse (seeing something very briefly)- Sharon caught a glimpse of her father.
Adjective Collocations
Adjective collocations are usually very simple since they are composed of one adjective that modifies the noun that comes after in the combination. Below are some of the examples to explain the category better —
- Deep pocket (rich)- We need deep pockets to establish this business.
- Deep sleep (hard to wake up)- He is in dire need of some deep sleep.
- Heavy drinker (who drinks a lot)- Being a heavy drinker takes a toll on the kidneys.
- High quality (great in quality)- This is high-quality
- Strong feeling (positive feeling)- I have a strong feeling about this.
- Strong opinion (hard to change opinions)- Strong opinions are not bulletproof.
Business Collocations
Collocations can be such an inadmissible part of formal collaboration. In specialized settings, collocation is the part and parcel of the daily register of the space concerned. When taken out of their conjoint placement side by side, only misunderstandings prevail. Listed below are some examples of business collocations —
- Open an account (start a collaboration)- Are you here to open an account?
- Join forces (teaming up)- Let’s join forces with the marketing team.
- Chair a meeting (presiding over a meeting)- John would chair a meeting
- Attract investors (prompting investors to invest)- We’ll have to strategize well to attract hefty investors.
- Counterfeit money (printing fake money)- Counterfeiting money is a punishable offense.
- Close a deal (sign an agreement)- Let’s close this deal right away.
Emphatic Expressions
Placing intensifiers before verbs express acute emotions. There are “intensifier + verb” expressions that have been used collocated for ages and changing the intensifiers knowingly or unknowingly would not have similar intensity or effect.
- Honestly believe (having faith)- I honestly believe your son would grow up to be a gentleman.
- Positively encourage (cheering up)- The company positively encourages punctuality and sincerity.
- Readily endorse (ready to stand up for)- We will readily endorse peace at all times.
- Sincerely hope (strong expectation)- She sincerely hopes to get selected.
- Strongly recommend (big push)- I strongly recommend choosing this neighborhood.
- Totally reject (dismiss)- The client totally rejected our innovative take on the project.
- Utterly refuse (sincere denial)- I utterly refuse to fall for this trap.
Why Learn Collocations?
Learning collocations in any language would give you an opportunity to use the language in a similar manner as the native speakers do. It proves as a marker of how well you speak or practice a certain language. Using the collocations when necessary and with the utmost expertise would allow you into the fluent English speakers’ club. Since the learners of the English language wish to speak the language as fluent as the native speakers, they make an effort to internalize the word combinations and strong collocations. Though the native English speakers may naturally adopt them, the learners of the language must learn them one by one.
How to Learn and Practice Collocations?
Many educators may choose to put together long lists of collocations for their students so that they can teach them in bunches while keeping track of what they are learning and how. But the foolproof option to learn and practice collocation can be collocation dictionaries available in the market. Collocations dictionaries are not the same as ordinary dictionaries. When ordinary dictionaries focus on providing accurate explanations to the words or terms listed, collocation dictionaries take the responsibility to provide the set of commonly used collocations that go with the keywords to make a great range of collocations. These collocation dictionaries can be the language learners’ best friends.
The collocations are often internalized simultaneously but a little effort can make the words stick at least two times longer. People may downplay the importance of learning and practicing collocations but it is monumentally important to take English language learning to the next level. Knowing about collocations and their importance should do a world of good to your language learning endeavors.
In any language, the value of vocabulary cannot be emphasized. As a result, a greater emphasis is placed on vocabulary comprehension and learning when learning a language.
Collocations, being a significant part of the English vocabulary, is one aspect that you should give importance to.
If you want to know more about the fundamentals of collocations, why we need them, and the different sorts of collocations, please keep reading.
Collocation is a term that refers to a grouping of words that appear together because of their frequent use and hence, have the same meaning.
It is possible that when we use ‘heavy rain’ instead of big or strong rain, we are implying that it is raining heavily.
Although in the example above, the terms ‘strong rain’ and ‘big rain’ have the same meaning. Both of them are, in fact, grammatically valid.
However, using the terms ‘big rain’ or ‘strong rain’ will sound weird. As a result, we employ ‘heavy rain’ to sound more natural and to improve our English.
Similarly, there are other instances where we employ a specific set of words in order to sound organically proper.
Collocations are a term that refers to a group of words that are expected to be used together. To ‘do homework’, ‘make the bed’, ‘take a chance’, and so on are some additional examples of collocations.
There are seven types of collocations in the English language. They are:
- Adverb + Adjective
- Adjective + Noun
- Noun + Noun
- Noun + Verb
- Verb + Noun
- Verb + Preposition
- Verb + Adverb
What are the Different Types of Collocations?
There are various types of collocations with regard to how they are structured. To avoid confusion, it is a must that you familiarize yourself with each kind.
Here are the different types of collocations with examples.
Adverb + Adjective
| Collocations | Example Sentences |
|---|---|
| conveniently located | “The shop was conveniently located across a university.” |
| deeply offended | “He looks deeply offended by her remarks.” |
| desperately eager | “The police were desperately eager to solve the case.” |
| eternally grateful | “She is eternally grateful to her neighbors for helping her put off the fire.” |
| fully aware | “She was fully aware that she was speeding.” |
| highly unusual | “It was highly unusual for him to be late for work.” |
| perfectly normal | “The fact that she got high marks in the exam is perfectly normal.” |
| richly decorated | “The lawn is richly decorated for tonight’s party.” |
| totally unbelievable | “I find her story totally unbelievable.” |
| utterly stupid | “That is such an utterly stupid thing to do!” |
Adjective + Noun
| Collocations | Example Sentences |
|---|---|
| big disappointment | “The son thought he was a big disappointment to his parents after failing the exam.” |
| deep sleep | “He went into a deep sleep after the nurse injected him with tranquilizers.” |
| heavy traffic | “I will be late for the meeting because of the heavy traffic.” |
| irresistible food | “The new restaurant offers irresistible food.” |
| joint account | “The couple decided to sign up for a joint account.” |
| loud music | “He was not able to focus on his studies because of the loud music from the adjacent room.” |
| maiden voyage | “The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage.” |
| rich history | “China is a country known for its rich history.” |
| strong accent | “I can’t barely understand what she was saying because of her strong accent.” |
| stunning view | “The tourists were amazed by the stunning view.” |
Noun + Noun
| Collocations | Example Sentences |
|---|---|
| account executive | “He works as an account executive at the city’s largest shopping center.” |
| action movie | “My dad is fond of watching action movies.” |
| beauty parlor | “I need to go to the beauty parlor for a manicure.” |
| cable car | “He has never been in a cable car so he was excited.” |
| debit card | “I had to use my debit card because I ran out of cash.” |
| election fraud | “The senator was being accused of election fraud.” |
| group dynamics | “The group dynamics of the team is admirable.” |
| jury system | “We trust that the jury system will give the right verdict.” |
| panic attack | “She was experiencing panic attacks the night she was brought to the hospital.” |
| search warrant | “The police were not able to get into the property because they do not have a search warrant.” |
Noun + Verb
| Collocations | Example Sentences |
|---|---|
| accident takes place | “An accident took place on the highway last night.” |
| battery drains | “My phone’s battery drains easily; I need a new one.” |
| bee stings | “The bee stung my hand and now it’s swollen.” |
| bomb explodes | “The bomb exploded and left at least four people injured.” |
| car crashes | “We saw a car crashing into a lamppost last night.” |
| crisis develops | “Crisis develops every now and then, but the company has always been prepared.” |
| dog barks | “I was not able to sleep well last night because of the dog’s barking.” |
| plane takes off | “He closed his eyes and hoped to fall asleep as the plane took off.” |
| time runs out | “She answered the exam as best as she could as the time ran out.” |
| water drips | “The sound of the water dripping annoys her.” |
Verb + Noun
| Collocations | Example Sentences |
|---|---|
| break the law | “You will be sentenced to jail if you break the law.” |
| catch a cold | “My mom told me not to play in the rain because I might catch a cold.” |
| come to a decision | “We need to come to a decision by tomorrow.” |
| do your best | “Do your best on your exams.” |
| get a job | “She needs to get a job to support her studies.” |
| have a drink | “Would you like to have a drink?” |
| make money | “He makes money by selling properties.” |
| pay attention | “You need to pay attention to what the teacher is explaining.” |
| save energy | “He needed to save his energy for the match later that night.” |
| take notes | “He took notes as he listened to the professor.” |
Verb + Preposition
| Collocations | Example Sentences |
|---|---|
| agree with | “I totally agree with you; that is such an excellent idea.” |
| believe in | “You need to believe in yourself.” |
| concentrate on | “She needs to concentrate on improving her grades.” |
| confess to | “The man confessed to robbing the bank and was sentenced to five years in prison.” |
| get rid of | “You need to declutter to get rid of things you do not need anymore.” |
| give up | “She gave up on waiting for the rain to stop.” |
| hear from | “I haven’t heard from him in a long time.” |
| recover from | “The team captain is still recovering from a knee injury.” |
| stare at | “She stared at the old lady across her figuring where she knew her from.” |
| wait for | “I need to wait for my parents before I can leave.” |
Adverb + Verb (Verb + Adverb)
| Collocations | Example Sentences |
|---|---|
| badly need | “She badly needed the money so she asked for help from her friends.” |
| distinctly remember | “I think I met her at a convention last year; I distinctly remember.” |
| firmly believe | “The witness firmly believes that the accident was the white car’s fault.” |
| fully understand | “The employee fully understood the contract so she signed it.” |
| greatly admire | “I greatly admire my parents for raising me and my siblings.” |
| hotly deny | “The officers hotly denied the request of the civilians.” |
| seriously doubt | “I seriously doubt he bought the car himself.” |
| sincerely hope | “She sincerely hoped that her friend would get better.” |
| strongly criticize | “The citizens strongly criticized the president for implementing such law.” |
| totally agree | “The employees totally agree with the manager’s decision.” |
Collocations vs. Phrasal Verbs: What’s the Difference?
Phrasal verbs are collocations by definition; however, not all collocations are phrasal verbs.
A collocation is a term that refers to words that are frequently or always used together.
In a sentence, a collocation can act as different parts of speech. ‘Bunch of flowers’ (noun) or ‘commit a crime’ (verb) are two examples.
On the other hand, a phrasal verb is frequently made up of a verb and a preposition that has a different meaning from the original verb.
For instance, ‘put + up with’ means to tolerate something, ‘put + up’ means to return something to its original/proper position (particularly when cleaning), and ‘put + off’ indicates to delay something until a later schedule.
Because the preposition element of a phrasal verb alters the entire meaning, it is better to memorize phrasal verbs in chunks of verb + prep rather than studying the verb definition and then the preposition separately.
Collocations
| Adverb + Adjective | “They may be identical twins but they are completely different.” (adjective) |
| Adjective + Noun | “The strong wind destroyed their treehouse.” (noun) |
| Noun + Noun | “The head teacher is talking to the students.” (noun) |
| Noun + Verb | “The wind howled from all directions as thick clouds covered the sky.” (verb) |
| Verb + Noun | “The staff pay their respects to the founder of the company as he was laid to rest.” (verb) |
| Adverb + Verb | “He vehemently denied all the accusations and pleaded not guilty.” (verb) |
Phrasal Verbs
| “I opt to drop out of college and look for a job instead.” |
| “You need to take off your shoes before entering the temple.” |
| “Do not throw away your old clothes; donate them.” |
| “The son took over as the company’s CEO after his father got sick.” |
| ”It was almost 4 o’clock when we finally checked in at the hotel.” |
How to Learn Collocations?
Collocations will help you sound more natural in English.
However, some words in English go together, and others do not, and there is no grammatical explanation for it.
Collocations might be problematic for English learners as a result of this.
Thus, here are some tips and techniques you can apply as you study and learn about collocations.
- Recognize and learn.
Reading and listening to various things in English is one of the finest ways to hunt for collocations.
This will simplify you to identify them when you see or hear them.
- Use a collocation dictionary.
Using a collocation dictionary can be beneficial, but do not strive to memorize huge lists.
Instead, take note of a few collocations each time you hear one and write a phrase or two about how they apply to your own life.
For example, you could write “I wish I had more free time throughout the week” or “When I visit my family for the holidays, I will finally have free time.”
- Observe and learn.
Observing and noting the collocations found in a few minutes of dialogue on a TV show or movie is one approach to using them. Then, compose a sentence for each that you might use in real life and practice saying it aloud.
- Read.
As much as possible, read. Reading is a fantastic approach to learning vocabulary and collocations spontaneously and in context. Read and study them in groups that are convenient for you. You can study them by theme (time, number, weather, money, and family) or by a specific word (‘take an exam’, ‘take action’, ‘take a chance’).
- Revise.
Regularly review what you have learned. After learning new collocations, practice utilizing them in context as soon as feasible.
This way, you will slowly integrate the collocations into your daily activities, and using them will be natural for you.
What are in the Academic Collocations List?
The Academic Collocation List (ACL) is a collection of 2,469 of the most common and helpful collocations found in academic writing.
It might be thought of as a collocational companion to the Academic Word List (AWL), using collocations (or word combinations) instead of single words.
The ACL was created by Kirsten Ackermann and Yu-Hua Chen with the help of English teaching specialists and the Pearson International Corpus of Academic English (PICAE) to ensure that the collocations chosen would be valuable to English students.
What Are in the Business Collocations List?
When discussing business in English, collocations are commonly used word combinations.
For example, in English, we do business rather than make it. If you are attempting to do business all around the world, that business English collocation can make all the difference.
It is crucial to get the phrase right while making judgments involving large sums of money.
For a list of the different collocations in academics and in business, please click the links below:
- The Academic Collocations List
- The Business Collocations List
Why Do Collocations Matter?
Collocations are the building blocks of a ‘natural language’ and without them, you might still be understood by others, but your words will sound off and weird.
Understanding collocations will help you gain confidence in your abilities in writing and speaking.
As an English learner, your goals are undoubted to improve fluency and sound more natural in spoken and written English.
Your knowledge in collocations can also be quite beneficial to be able to foresee what someone is going to say in the receptive skills (reading and hearing), either to mentally prepare yourself or in case the rest of the sentence or expression is unheard or unclear.
Needless to say that when it comes to acquiring fluency in English, learning collocations is unquestionably an important component of the puzzle.
Additional FAQs – Collocations
What are Collocations in Grammar?
Collocation is referred to as the natural combination of words that are closely related.
By choosing a pair of words that match the situation better and have a clearer meaning, collocations make it easy to avoid adjectives that are overused like ‘very’, ‘nice’, or ‘beautiful’.
What are the 7 Types of Collocation?
The seven types and structures of collocations are :
— adverb + adjective,
— adjective + noun,
— noun + noun,
— noun + verb,
— verb + noun,
— verb + prepositional phrase and
— adverb + verb.
Phrasal verbs are also considered collocations and follow the structure ‘verb + preposition’.
Are Idioms Collocations?
No, idioms are not considered collocations.
Collocations are a group of words that frequently appear in the same context.
Idioms, on the other hand, simply refer to an expression that acts as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be deduced from its individual components.
Additional Reading — ENGLISH GRAMMAR