What is collocations?

What is collocation ? 

A collocation is two or more words that go together. They just sound right and native English speakers use them very often in conversation .

Some examples of collocations:

Why learn collocations?

• Your language will be more natural and more easily understood.
• You will have alternative and richer ways of expressing yourself.
• It is easier for our brain to remember and use language in chunks or blocks rather than as single words.

How to learn collocations

• When learning new words, try to write them down with some collocations .
• Think of them as chunks, not as single words ( make it happen, make amends, right away, right in front). 
• As we were always told in school , reading is the best way to improve your vocabulary so keep reading. Pick a few words from the book that you don't know and learn the meaning. 
• Make sentences out of the new chunks of words you have just learnt ( " Your shoes are  right in front of you.") .

Different types of collocations

• Noun + Verb --The dog started to bark when he heard the cat meow.
• Verb + Noun -- I do my cleaning  after I have set the table
• Verb + Adverb -- She looked around and then carefully walked through the hall. 

Quick Test  

1. Collocations are words that:
a. Look right
b. Go together 
c. are similar 

2. Collocations sound ________ to English native speakers.

a . Unreal 
b. Rare
c. Right 

3. If you learn collocations, your English will sound more :

a. Natural 
b. Clear 
c. grammatical

4. You can learn Collocations by: 
a. Learning single words 
b. Writing words down
c. Reading books

5. Which one is a collocation?
a . Heavy rain
b. Thick rain
c. Low rain

6. Complete the collocation, She had a ________ shower before school.

a. Fast
b. Short 
c.quick

7. Which is an example of a Verb + Noun collocation ?
a. Answer the phone 
b. Open the phone
c. Pick the phone 

8. Which is an example of a Verb + Adverb collocation?
a. Walk fastly
b. Walk briskly
c. Walk quick

End of Lesson .