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Collocations - E2 English

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17 views

Collocations - E2 English

Uploaded by

Oksana Voitovych
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Collocations

What are
Collocations?
Collocations are words that go together. The
pre4x “co-” means together (as in co-operate,
committee, company). “Location” is a formal word
for “place.” The Oxford Dictionary describes
collocations as words that are “habitually
juxtaposed”. I think it is more helpful to call them
words that often go together.

Why are they called


a collocation?
“Collocation” is an example of language-learning
jargon. Most native English-speakers wouldn’t
know what a “collocation” is. They would simply
call them “words that often go together” if they
recognised them at all. Collocations sound right.
If we put the wrong words together, words that
don’t “collocate” they sound strange or wrong.

Types of collocations
There are many types of collocations. Some of
these are:

noun + apple tree, sheep farm, computer


noun: software

noun + water boils, birds sing, systems crash


verb:

verb + make your bed, take your time, have a


noun: shower

(Americans say “take a shower”. Both collocations


are correct. One is more common in British English
and the other is more usual in American English.
The meaning is exactly the same. The difference is
only about habit and most common usage. It is not
important)

verb + adverb: simmer gently, rain heavily,


upload quickly

adverb + highly unlikely, utterly pointless,


adjective: extremely helpful

adjective + blue sky, French dressing,


noun: second nature

verb + expression leap to conclusions, fall in love,


with preposition: before you know it

verb + verb remember to do something, want


(in2nitive): to know, start to improve

verb + verb remember doing something, look


(gerund): forward to seeing, stop smoking

phrasal verb: take off, get over, look forward to

How to learn
collocations
It is useful to learn new vocabulary with its
associated collocations, both words that come
before and words that come after. For example, if
you were learning the word “dentist”, it would be
good to learn associated collocations such as “go
to the dentist”, “make an appointment to see the
dentist” and “dentist’s chair”. In general it is
always good to learn “chunks” of language” rather
than individual words. It is also good to think of
other collocations from the same word family
such as “dental treatment”, “orthodontist” and
“dental work”.

Learning collocations
as a non-native
English speaker
Sometimes there are collocations in your 4rst
language that are quite different in English and it
can be quite diPcult to break the pattern of
expressing your ideas in the way that you are
used to. In Spanish, people say “ She has thirty
years” rather than “She is thirty” or “She is thirty
years old”. It sounds odd in English and, while
people will probably understand you, it has a
negative effect on their perception of your ability
as an English speaker.

Sometimes people learn a variation of English


that sounds unusual to a native English-speaker.
Many Indian speakers of English often say “each
and every” in situations where it would sound
more natural to say either “each” or “every” not
both. For example, it sounds strange to say “Each
and every village has a place to play cricket”.
“Each and every” is a very infrequent collocation
that should only be used very infrequently for the
purpose of emphasis. It would be much more
natural to say “Each village has a place to play
cricket” or “Every village has a place to play
cricket”. Another frequently-used incorrect
collocation is “belong to”. Learners often say
things like “I belong to India” rather than “I am
from India” or “I come from India”.

Using incorrectly
When we use the wrong collocations, it sounds
very strange. We don’t say “quick food” for
example, even though the meaning is essentially
the same as “fast food”. Similarly, we don’t say
“explode into tears”, “strong rain” or “lose time”,
we say “burst into tears”, “heavy rain” and “waste
time”. People would probably understand your
meaning if you used the words that don’t go
together or “collocate”. However, it would sound
weird and it is not the way a native English-
speaker or pro4cient speaker would say it.

Notice collocations. Practice them and use them.


Before you know it, they will become second
nature.

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