1 What is Collocation?

1 WHAT IS COLLOCATION?

Words that occur together frequently 'collocate'.

Words that don't collocate never occur together. If we try, they sound unnatural and wrong:

INCORRECT Time speeds / travels / rides / moves (= they don't collocate)

CORRECT flies / goes by / wears on / passes. (= they collocate)

  • There are no rules we can use to learn collocations. There is often no logical reason why some words are possible and others are not:

We can talk about an academic year. (but not a studying year)

Discussions can be productive or fruitful. (but prolific)

  • We learn a collocation by discovering it, learning it and using it - in the same way as other vocabulary.


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