English Collocation

Exercises
1.1 Read A and B and answer these questions.

1 What is a collocation?
2 Which of these words does fast collocate with: car, food, glance, meal?
3 Which of these are compounds: computer, narrow-minded, teapot, ancient monument,
car park?
4 What do we call expressions like pass the buck and be over the moon?
1.2 Make ten collocations from the words in the box.
an effort ancient bitterly make breakfast cold dark
engine forbidden mistakes have make meal monument
pitch powerful strictly substantial TV watch
1.3 Are these statements about collocations true or false?

1 Learning collocations will make your English sound more natural.
2 Learning collocations will help you to express yourself in a variety of ways.
3 Learning collocations will help you to write better English.
4 Using collocations properly will get you better marks in exams.
5 You will not be understood unless you use collocations properly.
1.4 Put the expressions from the box into the correct category in the table below.
make a mistake a storm in a tea cup live music checkpoint key ring

pull somebody’s leg heavy snow valid passport teapot bitterly disappointed
compound collocation idiom
1.5 Underline the collocations in this text.
When I left university I made a decision to take up a

profession in which I could be creative. I could play the guitar,
but I’d never written any songs. Nonetheless, I decided to
become a singer-songwriter. I made some recordings but I
had a rather heavy cold, so they didn’t sound good. I made
some more, and sent them to a record company and waited
for them to reply.
So, while I was waiting to become famous, I got a job in a fast-
food restaurant. That was five years ago.
I’m still doing the same job.
COLIN LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND
English Collocations in Use Intermediate 7

2 Finding, recording and learning collocations
A Finding collocations
There are two main ways in which you can find collocations.
● You can train yourself to notice them whenever you read or listen to anything in English.
Look at the collocations that are worth learning from this short text in English.
After giving Mark a lift to the airport, Julie made her way home. What an exciting life he
led! At times Julie felt desperately jealous of him. She spent her time doing little more
than taking care of him and the children. Now her sister was getting divorced and would
doubtless be making demands on her too. Julie had promised to give her sister a call as
soon as she got home but she decided to run herself a bath first. She had a sharp pain
in her side and hoped that a hot bath might ease the pain.
Tip
Get into the habit of making a note of any good collocations you come across in any English text
you read.
● You can find them in any good learner’s dictionary.

For example, if you look up the word sharp you will find some of these collocations:
a sharp pain
a sharp bend/turn
a sharp contrast/difference/distinction
a sharp rise/increase/drop
Tip
When you look up a new word, make a point of noting it down in several different collocations.
B Recording collocations
The best way to record a collocation is in a phrase or a sentence showing how it is used. Highlight the
collocation by underlining it or by using a highlighting pen.
For example: I don’t have access to that kind of secret information.
Or: Jim gave me a very useful piece of advice.
C Learning collocations
Learning collocations is not so different from learning any vocabulary item. The key things are to:
● regularly revise what you want to learn
● practise using what you want to learn in contexts that are meaningful for you personally
● learn collocations in groups to help you fix them in your memory. You might group together collocations
relating to the same topic. Or you might group collocations based on the same word, for example:
I must find a way to help him.
Can you find your way back to my house?
I learnt the hard way that Jack can’t be trusted.
Please tell me if I’m getting in your way.
You must give way to traffic from the left.
I’ve tried every possible way to get him to change his mind.
8 English Collocations in Use Intermediate
Exercises
2.1 Underline 11 collocations in this text.
My friend Abigail is desperately worried about her son at the moment.

He wants to enrol on a course of some sort but just can’t make a
decision about what to study. I gave Abigail a ring and we had a long
chat about it last night. She said he’d like to study for a degree but is
afraid he won’t meet the requirements for university entry. Abigail thinks
he should do a course in Management because he’d like to set up his
own business in the future. I agreed that that would be a wise choice.
2.2 Match the beginning of each sentence on the left with its ending on the right.
1 She’s having her duty.
2 She’s taking a lecture.
3 She’s giving a party.
4 She’s making an exam.
5 She’s doing good progress.
2.3 Correct the eight collocation errors in this text. Use a dictionary to help you if necessary.
In the morning I made some work in the garden, then I spent a rest for about an hour before
going out to have some shopping in town. It was my sister’s birthday and I wanted to do a special
effort to cook a nice meal for her. I gave a look at a new Thai cookery book in the bookshop and
decided to buy it. It has some totally easy recipes and I managed to do a good impression with
my very first Thai meal. I think my sister utterly enjoyed her birthday.
2.4 Look at this entry for the verb lead in the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. What
collocations could you learn from this entry? Underline or highlight them. Then write one new
sentence for each of them.
lead
See also Unit 3, Using your dictionary.
Over to you
Use a dictionary to find three or four other good collocations for each of these words:
desperately pain wise run
Write the collocations you find in an appropriate way in your vocabulary notebook.
English Collocations in Use Intermediate 9

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Exercises

1.1 Read A and B and answer these questions.

1.3 Are these statements about collocations true or false?

make a mistake a storm in a tea cup live music checkpoint key ring

compound collocation idiom

1.5 Underline the collocations in this text.

When I left university I made a decision to take up a

COLIN LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND

English Collocations in Use Intermediate 7

● You can find them in any good learner’s dictionary.

My friend Abigail is desperately worried about her son at the moment.

See also Unit 3, Using your dictionary.

English Collocations in Use Intermediate 9

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