In English, there are many combinations that “make sense but sound unnatural.” Collocations are patterns of words that naturally go together, and they frequently appear in fill-in-the-blank questions, sentence-ordering questions, and written English composition.
Basic Rules
Verb + noun collocations:
- make: make a decision / make an effort / make a mistake / make progress / make sense
- take: take a risk / take responsibility / take advantage of / take into account / take action
- pay: pay attention / pay a visit / pay the price
- draw: draw a conclusion / draw attention
- reach: reach a conclusion / reach an agreement / reach a consensus
Adjective + noun collocations: strong evidence (× powerful evidence), heavy rain (× strong rain), significant difference, widespread concern
Adverb + adjective collocations: deeply concerned / highly unlikely / widely believed / closely related
Many of these combinations cannot be created by directly translating from Japanese, and a typical mistake is writing “decide a decision” instead of “make a decision.”
The committee reached a consensus after hours of debate. (The committee reached an agreement after several hours of discussion.) ← reach a consensus
There is strong evidence that the policy reduced crime rates. (There is strong evidence that the policy reduced crime rates.) ← strong evidence (× powerful)
It is widely believed that early education has a lasting impact. (It is widely believed that early education has a lasting impact.) ← widely believed
Researchers are deeply concerned about the long-term effects of the chemical. (Researchers are deeply concerned about the long-term effects of the chemical.) ← deeply concerned
※ These are combinations that do not arise from direct translation
Points to Note
① The distinction between make / take / do is especially easy to confuse: make a mistake (× do a mistake), take a break (× make a break), do harm (× make harm). Think about the nuances of the verbs (create=make / undertake=take / perform=do).
② Intensifying adjectives are also fixed depending on the word: heavy rain / heavy traffic, but heavy pain sounds unnatural (severe pain is natural). Develop a sense of “this goes with that” through extensive reading and many examples.
③ In free written composition, violating collocations is often a greater cause of lost points than grammar mistakes. “Understandable but unnatural” gives graders the impression that the English is unnatural.
④ As a strategy, whenever you memorize a word, also memorize the verbs and adjectives that are commonly used with it. It is important to develop the habit of checking collocation sections and example sentences in dictionaries.
- make a decision/effort/mistake, take a risk/action, pay attention
- reach a consensus/conclusion/agreement
- strong evidence, heavy rain, significant difference (fixed adjectives)
- widely believed, deeply concerned, highly unlikely (fixed adverbs)
- Many points are lost in free writing because of collocation violations
Practice
- Fill in the blank with the appropriate word: It is important to ___ attention to small details. (pay/take/make)
- Correct the error: The team made a great effort to do a decision quickly.
- Translate “There is strong evidence for the study” into English using strong evidence.