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Hello everyone!

Collocations

When I was 29, I did a master's degree at Cambridge in English and Linguistics, and I spent a lot of my time learning about how adults learn foreign languages.

​I discovered two ideas that really changed how I thought about language learning.

The first idea is the idea of learning vocabulary in chunks (groups of words).

These groups of words are called collocations.

Learners understand the meaning easily, but they might not choose those words.

​Here are some common collocations. These are what native English speakers say.

· Make a mistake

· Heavy rain

· A thick book

· Solve a problem

​If you translate each word from your language, it's easy to say something like 'do a mistake' or 'big rain' or 'a plump book' or 'improve a problem'.

All of these are grammatically correct!

But they're NOT what native English speakers say. And they don't sound elegant.

​Collocations are the most important thing to help you sound natural and sophisticated in English and stop translating word for word.

​Today, let’s learn five (more advanced) collocations.

​1: Bow to pressure (to do what someone else wants you to do, although you don’t want to do it)

● The government bowed to pressure from the media and organised a public interview.

2: Strongly inclined (to be very likely to or to really want to do something)

● I really don’t want to go to the party - I am strongly inclined to say no to the invitation.

​3: Trust implicitly (to believe that something/someone is good or reliable, with no doubt)

● He is the most honest person I know. I trust him implicitly.

​4: Casual acquaintance (someone you have met, but less than a friend)

● Most of the people in my contacts list are just casual acquaintances, instead of friends.

​5: Pick a fight (start an argument on purpose)

● The boy was feeling angry so he picked a fight with his friend.

I hope you have a lovely day!

Today, I'd like to write about one idea that I learned when I was studying linguistics at Cambridge.

​It was the idea that we need to learn groups of words (collocations) in English, so that we can sound natural and stop translating every word. So, I'm going to tell you about another idea that I thought was so important.

​It's the idea of how our memories work.

​We often think that we should remember something after we've studied only once or twice, but this isn't true at all!

​In fact, we need a lot of reviews to make a word or a collocation or a piece of grammar automatically; so we can use it without thinking.

​And there are good ways and bad ways to review! (I'll talk more about this later.)

​So, let's review some collocations! Please try to remember the word you need to complete the collocation without looking at the answers.

​The government bowed to __________ from the media and organised a public interview.
I really don’t want to go to the party - I am strongly __________ to say no to the invitation.
He is the most honest person I know. I trust him __________.
Most of the people in my contacts list are just __________ acquaintances, instead of friends.
The boy was feeling angry so he picked a __________ with his friend.






























Answers:

​

The government bowed to pressure from the media and organised a public interview.
I really don’t want to go to the party - I am strongly inclined to say no to the invitation.
He is the most honest person I know. I trust him implicitly.
Most of the people in my contacts list are just casual acquaintances, instead of friends.
The boy was feeling angry so he picked a fight with his friend.
​
I'd also like to let you know about advanced collocations which is a brand new challenge.

Together we'll learn 150 useful modern collocations that will make your English sound amazing, and we'll learn them so well that you'll be able to use them without thinking when you speak.