What is Collocations in English Grammar?

If you have been studying English even for a short time, chances are you have already heard or read hundreds of collocations.

A collocation is a group of two or more words that is almost always used together. Here are a few examples:

heavy rain

big decision

break a habit

make a mistake

It would sound strange if someone said, “huge rain” “large decision” “finish a habit” or “do a mistake.” Most people would understand the meaning, but native English speakers would never combine words in that way. We would not say, for instance, “I’m hoping to hear about the large decision later today.”

The point is that some words go together in English and some do not. There is no grammatical reason why. And that sometimes makes collocations difficult for English learners. If you don’t know, for example, that “big decision” is a collocation, it is not so easy to guess.

"Heavy rain" is a common collocation that describes a type of rainfall. A native English speaker would not say, for example, "huge rain" or "big rain."

Another thing that can make these things tricky is that many English words have several collocations. For instance, the word “decision” can be used in “difficult decision,” “final decision” and many others.

Improving your use of collocations will help your English sound more natural, which will make you more easily understood.

Learn by recognizing

One of the best ways to look for collocations is to read and listen to many things in English. This will help you start to recognize them when you see and hear them.

In this first exercise, you will hear a short story with several collocations. Most in the story begin with common verbs such as have, get, make and take. But note that collocations can be made of any part of speech, not just verbs, but also nouns, adverbs and adjectives.

Now, listen to the story and write down as many collocations as you hear:

We had plans to meet some good friends by 11. So this morning, I took a shower by 9. As I was making the bed, I could hear heavy rain outside. I checked the weather and saw it was going to be a cold, wet day. So I got dressed in warm clothes.

My husband made breakfast. The pancakes were tasty but whenever he cooks, he makes a mess! But he did wash the dishes so I can’t complain. So anyway, we took the train and met our friends at a holiday market. We had a great time but probably spent too much money!

So, what did you find?

Here are the verb-noun collocations:

have plans, make the bed, take a shower, check the weather, make breakfast, make a mess, wash the dishes, take the train, have a good time and spend money.

collocation അടുത്തടുത്തായി ചേര്‍ത്ത്‌ ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്ന പദം

tricky കൗശലമുള്ള

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