- Collocations are combinations of words which occur naturally with greater than

random frequency:
o Adjective + noun brilliant idea.
o Noun + prep + noun a sense of pride.
o Noun + noun service charge.
o Verb + noun make a decision.
o Verb + preposition filled with horror.
o Verb + adverb whisper softly.
o Adverb + adjective blissfully unaware.
o Adverb + verb half understand.
- There are two main ways you can find collocations: when you are reading (either
exercises or a text) and when you look a word up in the dictionary: you always need to
go beyond what you are looking for and get information about how else a word or a
group of words are used. You have to get into the habit of making a note of any good
collocations you come across too. The best way to record a collocation is in a phrase or
sentence.
o Here we have a common text with some interesting collocations you should
know:
After giving Mark a lift to the airport, Cathy made her way home.
What an exciting life he led! At times Cathy 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. Cathy 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.
o And, for instance, if we look up the word sharp in the dictionary, we will find
collocations like:
A sharp pain.
A sharp bend/turn.
A sharp contrast/difference/distinction.
A sharp rise/increase/drop.


1. Make ten collocations from the words in the box:
a. Perfect day
b. A cup of tea
c. Train station
d. Make an appointment
e. Pick up people
f. Move slowly
g. Completely new
h. Almost done
i.
j.

2. Underline 11 collocations in this text:
a. My friend Beth is desperately worried about her son at the moment. He
wants to enrol on a course of some sort but just cant make a decision
about what to study. I gave Beth a ring and we had a long chat about it last
night. She said hed like to study for a degree but is afraid he wont meet
the requirements for university entry. Beth thinks he should do a course in
Management because hed like to set up his own business in the future. I
agreed that would be a wise choice.

3. Match the beginning of each sentence on the left with its ending on the right:
Shes having her duty.
Shes taking a lecture.
Shes giving a party.
Shes making good progress.
Shes doing an exam.

4. Correct the eight collocation errors in this text:
a. In the morning I made(did) some work in the garden, then I spent a rest
for(on) about an hour before going out to have(do) some shopping in
town. It was my sisters birthday and I wanted to do(make) a special effort
to cook a nice meal for her. I gave(took) a look at a new Thai cookery book
in the bookshop and decided to buy it.
It has some recipes totally easy and I managed to do(make) a good
impression with my first Thai meal(food). I think my sister utterly enjoyed
(with) her birthday.

5. Put the expressions into the correct category in the table.
to suffer pain to alleviate pain to be cracked with pain to cause pain
to complain of pain to ease pain to experience pain to feel pain
to inflict pain to lessen pain to relieve pain to soothe pain
pain subsides
Making others experience
pain
The experience of being in
pain
Making pain go
away
to be cracked with pain












to suffer pain
to cause pain
to complain of pain
to experience pain
to feel pain
to inflict pain
to alleviate pain
to ease pain
to lessen pain
to relieve pain
to soothe pain
pain subsides