Collocations

What Is a Collocation?

A collocation is a pair or group of words that habitually go together and sound natural to native speakers. Native speakers choose these combinations automatically, without thinking — and when learners pick the wrong partner word, the result sounds unnatural even if it is technically understandable.

For example:

• ✓ She made a decision.
• ✗ She did a decision.

Both sentences are understandable, but only the first sounds natural. The word decision collocates with make, not do.

Collocations differ from idioms: an idiom's meaning is hidden (kick the bucket = die), whereas a collocation's meaning is usually transparent — the wrong part is simply which words go together.

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Types of Collocations

Collocations can involve different word combinations:

Type	Pattern	Examples
Verb + noun	verb with its natural noun partner	make a decision, do homework, take a photo
Adjective + noun	adjective with its natural noun	heavy rain, strong coffee, fast food
Noun + noun	noun partnerships	a burst of energy, a piece of advice
Adverb + adjective	adverb intensifying an adjective	deeply concerned, fully aware, bitterly cold
Verb + adverb	verb with its natural adverb	sleep soundly, smile broadly, win easily

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Make vs Do

One of the most common collocation challenges is choosing between make and do.

Make is generally used for creating, producing, or constructing:

make + noun
make a mistake
make a decision
make progress
make an effort
make a phone call
make a suggestion
make friends
make a noise

Do is generally used for tasks, activities, and work:

do + noun
do homework
do the washing
do research
do damage
do your best
do a course
do a favour
do exercise

There is no strict rule — these must be learned as fixed pairs.

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Have, Take, and Get

Other verbs also form strong collocations that learners often confuse:

Have: have a shower, have a meal, have a look, have a break, have a conversation, have fun, have a problem

Take: take a photo, take a risk, take a break, take notes, take an exam, take care, take a seat, take part

Get: get permission, get a job, get angry, get dressed, get lost, get home, get better

Note that have a break and take a break are both acceptable — some collocations allow more than one verb partner.

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Adjective Collocations

Adjectives often have fixed noun partners that may surprise learners:

Adjective	Collocates with	Does NOT collocate with
heavy	rain, traffic, smoker, workload	weather, problem
strong	coffee, wind, accent, evidence	tea (British English uses strong tea, but heavy tea is wrong)
fast	food, car, pace, track	speed (we say high speed, not fast speed)
high	speed, price, risk, quality	tall (for people/buildings)
tall	person, building, tree	high person

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Adverb + Adjective Collocations

Adverbs intensify or modify adjectives in natural-sounding combinations:

• deeply concerned / moved / disappointed
• fully aware / responsible / committed
• bitterly cold / disappointed / regret
• strongly recommend / disagree / believe
• highly recommended / unlikely / skilled
• completely wrong / different / exhausted

Avoid substituting freely: deeply cold and bitterly aware sound unnatural even though both words make logical sense.

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Noun + Noun Collocations

Some nouns pair with a specific partitive noun to describe a quantity or piece:

• a piece of advice / music / furniture / information
• a burst of laughter / energy / applause
• a sense of humour / direction / achievement
• a range of options / products / skills
• a wave of panic / enthusiasm / immigration

Note: you cannot say an advice in English — advice is uncountable, so it always needs a partitive (a piece of advice, some advice).

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How to Learn Collocations

Because collocations are largely arbitrary, they must be learned in context rather than translated:

1. Record words in chunks, not in isolation. Don't write decision — write make a decision.
2. Notice collocations when reading. Underline pairs that strike you as fixed combinations.
3. Use a collocation dictionary (e.g. the Oxford Collocations Dictionary) to check which verbs, adjectives, or adverbs a word naturally takes.
4. Group by key word. Learn all common collocations for make together, then do, then take.
5. Practice in sentences — writing collocations in a sentence cements them better than a list.

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Common Mistakes

• Wrong verb choice: do a mistake → make a mistake
• Wrong adjective partner: strong rain → heavy rain
• Direct translation from another language: Spanish hacer ejercicio → English do exercise, not make exercise
• Treating intensifiers as interchangeable: very freezing → bitterly cold (freezing is already extreme; very weakens it)
• Splitting a fixed pair unnecessarily: make always a decision → always make a decision

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Quick Reference: High-Frequency Collocations

Noun	Natural verb partner(s)
decision	make
homework	do
photo	take
mistake	make
shower	have / take
exam	take / sit
progress	make
risk	take
damage	do / cause
advice	give / take / follow