Collocations: Learn Words With Their Partners

Words have friends

Some words keep company with certain other words, and not with others. English speakers say "heavy rain", not "strong rain". They "make a mistake" but "do homework". They "catch a cold", "take a photo" and "pay a visit". Nothing about the meanings explains these choices. "Strong rain" is perfectly logical. It's not what people say, and a listener hears it right away.

These natural pairings are called collocations. They're the reason a learner with good grammar and a big vocabulary can still sound a little off, and the reason someone with fewer words can sound surprisingly natural.

Why they matter so much

They make you sound natural. Grammar mistakes and collocation mistakes feel different to a listener. A grammar slip sounds like a learner. A wrong collocation sounds like a translation. Getting the partners right is one of the biggest steps toward English that sounds like English.

They make you faster. When you learn "make a decision" as one piece, you don't have to choose a verb in the middle of a sentence. The whole chunk comes out at once. Speakers of any language talk at speed because most of what they say is built from pieces like this, not assembled word by word.

They help you understand. In fast speech, you rarely hear every word clearly. If you know that "take" often goes with "a break", "a seat" and "a chance", your brain fills in the blur. Collocations are part of how listening works.

The common types

Collocations come in a few familiar shapes. You don't need to know the names, but noticing the shapes helps you collect them.

Verb and noun: make an effort, keep a promise, miss the bus, run a business.

Adjective and noun: a tough decision, a close friend, a busy street, a quick question.

Adverb and adjective: completely different, highly likely, deeply sorry, fully booked.

Verb and preposition: depend on, apply for, worry about, agree with.

Noun and noun: a traffic jam, a job offer, a phone call, a coffee break.

The verb and noun type is where most learners' mistakes happen, especially with the very common verbs: make, do, take, have, get, give. These are also the collocations worth learning first.

How to learn them

Never learn a word alone. When you meet a new noun, ask: what verb goes with it? What adjective? Write the word down with at least one partner. "Advice" alone is half a word. "Give someone advice" and "good advice" are ready to use.

Use the word pages. Words & Collocations was built for exactly this. Each page lists the verbs, adjectives, prepositions and phrases that go with a word, with one spoken example for each, and a short drill at the end. When you're unsure whether a pair sounds right, check the page.

Notice them in lessons. Every dialogue on this site is full of collocations. When you shadow a line, pay attention to which words travel together. "I've got a quick question" is one piece, not four words.

Say them, don't only write them. A collocation you've said out loud a few times becomes a single unit in your mouth. That's what makes it available in conversation.

Keep a short list, and use it. Five new collocations a week, used in real sentences, will change how you sound faster than fifty new single words.

When you're not sure

If you're about to say a pair and you're not sure it's right, pick the most common verb or adjective you know. "Have" and "get" fit more nouns than any other verbs, and "big", "good" and "bad" fit more nouns than fancier adjectives. It might not be the perfect partner, but it will sound much less strange than a creative guess.