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I Finally Realized What Was Holding Back My English

noname_19998025
For a long time, I couldn’t understand why my English wasn’t improving. I thought I knew all the basic tenses, so I kept wondering what the real issue was. I just knew that I often struggled to explain things clearly. I would pause a lot because I didn’t know how to express myself or which words to use. I even thought maybe I was forgetting words. Yesterday, while I was on a website learning English, I came across a topic called collocation. I had never heard of it before. After doing some research, I realized that was the problem. It’s not that I don’t know grammar; it’s that I don’t know collocations. Now it all makes sense. We often think grammar is the only key to good English, but the truth is, collocations play a huge role in making your speech and writing sound natural. I also found a really good free PDF book about collocations, so I thought I’d share it here in case it helps someone else like me. https://myigcseworksheets.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/collocations_in_use_intermediate.pdf Also, this book also has an advanced version. But couldn't find it's link.

26 comments

Flam1ng1cecream•
Native speaker here, I've never heard of collocation. What is it?
TestAwkward9422•
In other words (!!) how to string a sentence together. Very important but probably something we with English as our first or only language do without thinking about it.
Queasy-Buffalo-2460•
very helpful! thank you so much!![gif](emote|free_emotes_pack|grin)
SomeAFOL•
Thanks mate, that's super helpful
SkipToTheEnd•
You are absolutely correct. Most modern English language teachers will tell you the same thing: collocation is an essential part of learning a language. It's the core tenet of the lexical approach. People don't learn languages through rules; they learn them through repeated patterns. English speakers don't follow rules - they follow **collocation patterns** that we can then explain as rules. Most of the time, when higher-level speakers sound unnatural, it is because of incorrect collocation.
cabmiller•
A lot of Spanish learning YouTube channels use this approach and they call it “chunking”. It makes sense because it’s more oriented towards conversation rather than individual words.
DarkishArchon•
Wow, that first pdf is an excellent resource, and I really enjoyed reading about collocations from an academic point of view
Vikingsandtigers•
You can also have different fixity in collocations, and sometimes it's not logical like saying black and white - you can say it the other way with no loss of meaning but NA native speakers wouldn't do that. and some are so fixed that to change them would change the implied meaning like phrasal verbs or nouns.
No_Palpitation5894•
Similar idea to **Chunk**. I gained a lot after I realized I should learn English through **chunks**.
marie-antoinette17•
we had a course about it while i was in 12th grade preparing for the university entrance exam (im turkish) i still check my books every now and then its really helpful
CommonRazzmatazz9469•
love that you brought it up! Another word to describe collocation is language chunks. It's actually a popular method to follow among the language learning community on YouTube. Polyglots swear by it
Obito_ryzen•
Thanks for the pdf dude
HalfRadish•
This is fascinating. When I was learning German I realized at one point that in addition to learning grammar and vocabulary, I needed to learn something like *how people normally say things* —but i had never heard the term collocation, and I didn't know there were resources for studying this formally. Cool!
Messup7654•
Thats why i learn grammer it allows me to create sentences that make sense i love grammer compared to other methods
Knife_of_Pi•
Also phrasal verbs, and also idioms, set phrases... English is a giant rabbit hole![gif](emote|free_emotes_pack|facepalm)
tryyourbesti•
I like it, thank you.
listencloud•
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Fabulous_Log_7030•
Yeah collocations are really important. Most people don’t know what they are, but we also ask each other about them to check sometimes. You can get a lot out of your teachers/native friends by asking a lot of questions like this: “Is a telephone call something you can have? Or do? Can I ‘do’ a telephone call to my friend?” “No, you ‘make’ a telephone call!” “If I am angry can I “calm” my anger or “cool” my anger? “You can ‘calm down’ or ‘cool your temper!” The best way to pick up collocations is also reading a lot!! Good luck!!
tHE-6tH•
Would this mean you’re just not consuming enough material made for native speakers? Otherwise you might start to pick up the patterns/collocations
yoyoga_•
Thank you. I will try to read it
Jemi1988•
Exactly. I use those books in my class.
KeyNo5951•
This is interesting. Thanks for sharing your pdf
BarryGoldwatersKid•
I need this but for Spanish
PanbeiAn•
对的！搭配非常重要！意群加语法 才是简单英语的基础
r0se_jam•
I intuited this while trying to learn with Duolingo (native English speaker, learning casually for travel) - I was learning vocabulary, but not getting a sense of how anything naturally stuck together, the way a child would hear and learn their native tongue. I gave up Duolingo, and haven’t traveled much since then anyway, so despite my lightbulb moment, my learning has completely stalled anyway.
omaru_kun•
can i know what site you were leaning/doing English from?