What is Collocation?
We say that words that occur together frequently “collocate”. Words that don’t collocate almost never occur together. If we try, they sound unnatural and wrong:
- Time speeds / travels / rides / moves (they do not collocate)
- Time flies / goes by / wears on / passes (they collocate)
There are no rules or logical explanations for why some words collocate and others do not. For example, we can talk about an academic year but not a studying year. Discussions can be productive or fruitful but not prolific.
Grammatical Forms
- adverb + adjective: I’m hopelessly addicted to coffee.
- adjective + noun: I remember my formative years.
- noun + noun: The government have just unveiled their policy review.
- verb + noun: We will honour our pledge to reduce unemployment.
- dependent preposition: Personally, I think they should be ashamed of themselves.
- part of a longer phrase: It’s always interesting to delve into the past.
Fixed and Open Collocations
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