What are collocations? How are collocations different from idioms?
- Amr Ayman
- May 2, 2017
- 2 min read
Collocations is the law that governs what is considered a correct combination of English vocabulary and grammar. Take the following examples: What are the synonyms of the following words? - Start
- Fast
- Soft
- Miss Of course they are: - Begin
- Quick - smooth - Lose In spite of these synonyms, you can say: - Start the car - Fast Food
- Quick Meal - Soft-drink - Miss the bus However, you cannot say: Begin the car Quick Food
Fast Meal Smooth drink Or Lose the bus (which has a different meaning, it means the owner cannot find it) Now ask yourself why? Aren't they synonyms? Why are they still wrong? That is because of collocations.
Collocations are the art of distinguishing between what sounds normal or acceptable to a native speaker versus what doesn't. A very long story short, collocations is like the tradition of the language. Why does it matter? The problem of a lot of students is that they think that knowing vocab and grammar is enough. After that, they tend to proceed to translate from their native languages to English without any regard to whether what they're saying collocates properly. Whether it sounds normal or not. Some examples of common collocation mistakes are: - Our life
- No issue
- Dangerous injury - Take my dinner
- Go to my work - I went to the school All the above should not be wrong, but because of the law of collocations, they unfortunately sound abnormal. The corrections of all the above are:
- Our lives
- No problem/matter - Serious injury - Have dinner
- Go to work - I went to school How do I study collocations? You must read a lot of books and watch a lot of TV. Get a notebook. Now don't just write down new words for vocab like you used to. Now you need to make a different section in your notebook, call it collocations, and write down new combinations of words you haven't thought possible before. Such as: take out. Ask away. By hook or by crook. Thanks a bunch. Much obliged...etc. What is the difference between idioms and collocations? Idioms are one type of collocations. Idioms usually consist of several words that are hard to replace, and they usually mean something very different from what they literally mean. Examples are: Hit two birds with one stone. Meaning: Take care of two matters at once A piece of cake. Meaning: Easy Rain-check. Meaning: Let's postpone that Not my cup of tea. Meaning: Not something I like to do Collocations on the other hand are literal, but these are just words that normally are attracted to each other. In a nutshell, collocations are "word" partners, and are more flexible than idioms. The best way to gather idioms is to practice. For 6 amazingly free resources to practice English, click here. About the Author:
Amr Ayman was a regular pharmacist, until he got an 8.5 in IELTS in all modules and discovered his gift for teaching IELTS. He created Speak2Me, and now teaches English and IELTS full-time. You can try his lesson here for free.
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