A sentence can be grammatically possible and still sound unlike natural English. Collocation is one reason. Words develop preferred partnerships through repeated use, and strong writers learn those partnerships as units.
What is a collocation?
A collocation is a combination that occurs naturally and conventionally: make a decision, pose a threat, heavy rain, deeply concerned, strong evidence. Another combination may be understandable but less idiomatic.
Worked repairs
| Awkward | More natural |
|---|---|
| do a decision | make a decision |
| powerful rain | heavy rain |
| big evidence | strong / substantial evidence |
| highly tired | extremely / deeply tired, depending on context |
| commit a mistake | make a mistake |
The lesson is not that English is perfectly logical. It is that vocabulary knowledge includes knowledge of neighbouring words.
Learn the noun with its verbs
Instead of learning evidence alone, learn a small network: provide evidence, gather evidence, examine evidence, evidence suggests, strong evidence, insufficient evidence. This makes retrieval during writing faster and safer.
Collocation and register
Different contexts favour different partnerships. An essay may raise a concern; friends may simply worry about something. A report may conduct an investigation; a narrative character may look into a mystery.
Do not force memorised phrases
A sophisticated collocation used in the wrong semantic context is still wrong. “A compelling injury” is unnatural because compelling normally describes things that strongly attract belief or attention, such as evidence, reasons or stories.
Build a collocation notebook by function
- Argument: advance a claim, challenge an assumption, draw a distinction.
- Evidence: provide evidence, support a conclusion, reveal a pattern.
- Change: undergo change, trigger a shift, produce an effect.
- Problems: pose a risk, address a problem, reduce harm.
Transfer drill
Repair these combinations: “make research”, “strongly important”, “large possibility”, “give an argument”, “do progress”. Then place each repaired collocation in a complete sentence.
Possible repairs
conduct research, highly important, strong possibility / high probability depending on meaning, make/present an argument, make progress. Notice that the best repair sometimes requires changing the noun because the intended meaning is more precise than the original phrase.
Continue with vocabulary precision, the Vocabulary Learning Hub, or the English Learning Hub.