COLLOCATION
A collocation is two or more
words that often go together.
Some collocation examples
are “pay attention”, “fast food”, “make an effort”, and “powerful engine”.
Collocations make it easier
to avoid overused or ambiguous words like “very”, “nice”, or “beautiful”, by
using a pair of words that fits the context better and has a more precise
meaning. Using collocations will help your English sound naturally like a
native speaker.
A familiar grouping of words
which appears together because of their habitual use and thus creating the same
meaning is called collocation. Suppose, when we say heavy rain instead of big
or strong rain, it conveys the meaning that it is raining heavily.
Although in the above
example strong rain or the big rain conveys the same meaning. In fact, both of
them are also grammatically correct. But, the use of big rain or strong rain
will sound strange. Thus, we use heavy rain to sound natural and a lot better
English.
Similarly, there are many
such examples where we use a particular set of groups of words to sound
naturally correct. A group of words that are expected to be together can also
be defined as collocations.
Here you can see types of
Collocation made from combinations of Noun, Verb, Adverb, Adjective and Preposition:
1 ◾Noun +
Noun:
Core values, Corporate
finance, Cottage industry, Creation science, Credit bureau, Credit union…
2 ◾Noun +
Preposition:
Date with, Dealings with,
Difficulty with, Debate on, Information on, Hold on…
◾…
3 ◾Verb +
Noun:
Go on a date, Go on a
picnic, Go on foot, Have a fight, Have a fit, Have a game, Keep quiet, Keep
records…
4 ◾Adjective + Noun:
Internal injury, Internal
organ, Irreparable damage, Joint account, Just cause, Key issue, Key role…
5 ◾Adjective + Preposition:
Comfortable with, Concerned
with, Nasty of, Nervous of, Nice of, Furious about, Guilty about…
6 ◾Verb +
Preposition:
Allow for, Apologize for,
Ask for, Object to, Pray to, Prefer to …
7 ◾Verb +
Adverb:
Go far, Go first, Go
upstairs, Guess correctly, Hit hard, Judge harshly, Know well…
8 ◾Adverb + Adjective:
Fully aware, Happily
married, Highly controversial, Highly effective, Highly probable, Highly
profitable…
9 ◾Adverb + Adverb:
Only just, Pretty well,
Quite a lot, Quite enough, Quite often, Right away…
10 ◾Adverb + Verb:
Badly damage, Deeply rooted
(in), Never knew, Quite agree…
Some collocations we use
daily are follows:
according to, afraid of,
ashamed of, aware of, bad at, capable of, confident of, due to, different from,
exposed to, fed up with, fond of, frightened of, full of, good at, good for,
interested in, involved in, keen on, Pleased with, Prepared for, Proud of,
Ready for, Responsible for, Successful of, Tired of, Used to
in the above examples you may find
some phrase prepositions. Don’t get confused whether these are Collocations or Phrase Preposition
Phrase prepositions are arranged with
a phrase and a preposition like in the words – According to, Due to
Where as Collocation are words which
stick together
Eg:
Take the word “According to” and “Due
to”
We never add any other preposition with
the words “According” and “Due”. We only add the preposition - “To” with them
If we write any other preposition with
it like “According with” or “due on”, does not make sense
The native speakers always use the
preposition “To” with both of these words And we are following it. Even we
attempt to change it, it will look
hideous.
Let us see the example sentences:
- I agree with your proposal
- ◾You are blessed with many talents.
- contrary to my instructions, he submitted his assignment
- Due to heavy rain, the match was canceled.
- Shanker is fond of music
- Saravanan is keen on to score a century in today’s match
- Its really nice to see you
- The chief guest is pleased with the performances of the school students
- I’m really proud of you
- I used to play football in my childhood days