The smart way to improve your English Learn Collocations
Hello, I’m Emma from mmmEnglish!
Has a native English speaker ever said to you
“Hmm… What you said doesn’t sound right. "
“We just wouldn’t say it like that.”
Often, this is simply because you’ve used
the wrong words in combination with each other.
There are only a small number of words
that work with a single word in English.
Take the word question for example.
It’s a noun, or it can be a verb, but it’s a noun!
And there are a group of adjectives
that are often used with this noun to help describe it.
An awkward question or a difficult question.
Relevant, probing,
or a burning question.
There are also a group of verbs that are often used with
question.
Ask, answer, face or have.
Now, compare this to the verb, make,
which is not usually used with question.
Certain adverbs and prepositions are also used
with question when others are not.
When words go together like this,
they’re called collocations,
words that frequently occur together
in English sentences.
The reason why native speakers say
that something you said sounds weird or strange
is because they’re not used to hearing
those words together.
They don’t often get said together,
so it sounds a bit strange.
Part of the problem is that you’re probably translating
words from your own language
directly into English.
Words that are commonly used together
in your language
but in English, they’re not.
Hacer una fiesta.
It makes sense in Spanish but
if you translate those words directly, you get
make a party,
which is not the correct way to say this in English.
Can you think of any examples in your own language
that are like this?
Where you translate words directly and it just
doesn’t work in English, it doesn’t make sense.
I’m sure you can think of some that you already know.
It’s likely that collocation is the problem
that you’re just using the wrong words together.
The problem here is that it’s very easy
to get into a bad habit
and use words that sound okay in your own language,
when you translate them in your head,
but they sound strange or even wrong
in that combination in English.
To explore the idea of collocations a little more,
we’re going to focus on just one simple verb, make.
And we’ll explore some of the common collocations
of that verb
specifically, make, with a noun or a noun phrase.
And we just have to start with food.
The verb make is so commonly used with
food, drinks and meals,
like coffee and tea.
Can I make you a coffee?
It’s used with meals like lunch, dinner, breakfast.
I prefer to make breakfast at home on Sundays.
You can use it with food, cake, soup, dessert.
If you’re making dinner, I’ll make dessert!
But there are many other nouns
that collocate with make
and as I read them out,
make a note of the ones that you don’t know
and look them up in the dictionary after this lesson.
First one, decision.
He’s made the decision to quit his job after 15 years.
Excuse. Stop making excuses!
Love.
They made love the night before he left the country.
Offer.
After his interview,
they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse!
Assumption.
We don’t want to make any assumptions yet,
but he appears to be guilty.
Friends.
We’ve made some really good friends
since we moved here.
Phone call.
Can I borrow your phone, I need to make a quick call.
You can make a sound or a noise.
Don’t make a sound!
If we make a noise, they’ll hear us.
You can make your bed.
I make my bed as soon as I get up in the morning.
Complaint.
If you’re unhappy with the service,
you should make a complaint.
And apology.
You need to make him an apology.
Note here, that it’s quite formal
to use make with complaint and apology.
In informal speech and writing,
you can use the verb forms complain and apologise
in the same way.
If you are unhappy with the service,
you should complain.
You need to apologise to him.
You can make a mess.
The kids made a mess
when we went out for dinner last night.
You can make a plan.
Have you made any plans for your summer holidays?
You can also make mistakes.
I’ll admit that we may have made a mistake there.
Profit.
After three years, the business is finally making a profit!
But equally, you can also use make with loss.
After three years, the business is still making a loss.
You can make a speech!
Once the groom made his speech, the music started.
Effort. You can make an effort.
He really made an effort to have fun at the party.
You can make a list.
I think we’ve invited about 200 people..
I really should make a list so I know for sure!
You can make money.
I heard he made his money on the internet.
You can make progress.
Your son has made a lot of progress at school this year.
Make a statement.
He witnessed the fight.
He needs to make a statement to the police.
And change.
After our poor performance last month,
we need to make some changes.
You can make an error, which is similar to a mistake.
Uh ohh.. I think I’ve made an error.
Make a promise.
You made me a promise last year!
Time. She needs to make more time for her family.
So Emma what nouns aren’t used with make?
Well, lots
but some of the common mistakes are
make a party.
He’s making a party on Friday night.
The verbs throw, have
and plan a party are possible
but make doesn’t sound right.
Don’t use make with party in English.
Make a picture.
The artist makes her pictures outside.
The verbs draw, create, paint a picture are possible
but make is not.
Make a barbecue.
We’re making a barbecue in the park tonight,
do you want to come?
The verbs have and cook are possible here
but make just doesn’t make sense.
Make an accident is also incorrect.
I hope they didn’t make an accident.
The verbs have, saw and cause are possible here
but make is not.
The idea of English collocations
can be pretty overwhelming.
We just focused on the verb make
and look at all of the different nouns
that it collocates with.
And that’s not all of them.
But learning words together like this in chunks
in common collocations is a really good idea.
You’re learning and practising a word along with
the other words that it commonly appears with.
Next time you learn a new word, I want you to try it.
Let me show you what I mean.
Let’s say you just heard the noun, innovation,
and you wanted to spend some time exploring
some of the words that it’s commonly used with.
That’s a really smart idea!
And you can easily do that using an English
collocations dictionary.
I’ve got a few links to some good ones
in the description box below
but innovation is commonly used with the adjectives
technical, scientific, educational innovation,
design or product innovation.
Scientific innovations are helping
the team to develop new technologies.
There are some common verbs
that are used with innovation.
Encourage, foster, facilitate
stifle or hinder.
The management team
encourage creativity and innovation.
Occur. How does innovation occur?
And a common preposition used with innovation is in.
Innovations in technology
allowed the research to progress.
Well I really hoped that this lesson helped you to see the
value of learning common collocations together,
learning words in chunks together to train your brain
which words to use with other words.
This type of study is crucial to training your brain
to think in English instead of in your own language.
It helps words come to your mind more quickly
and efficiently without thinking about it too much,
if you’re learning them together.
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I make a new lesson every week.
You can also translate this video very kindly
for your friends
and the link to do that is in the description below.
And of course you can keep practising
with more mmmEnglish lessons, right here.
Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next week
for another lesson. Bye for now!