What is the difference between collocation and phrase

In other words, phrasal verbs are common word combinations that can form an action. Examples: Pay attention Look straight Make a difference. See a translation. The one learning a language! Learn about premium features. Tired of searching?

HiNative can help you find that answer you're looking for. Register for free. Why is collocation important? This article gives you examples of the main kinds of collocation, and some ideas about how to improve your ability to use collocation. In the case of grammar, once we know the rules we can make new correct sentences all the time, simply by 'slotting in' new vocabulary in the right places.

But with collocation, there are limits to the changes we can make to a combination of words. In some cases those limits can be very strict, but in others there is more freedom to choose which words can go together. A collocation may consist of two or more words.

Look at this example:. This sentence is made up of nine separate words, but if we look more carefully we can identify four groups of words or 'collocations':. Fixed phrases. The relationship between two or more words can be very close.

For example, the word kith is never seen anywhere but in the company of kin , in the phrase 'kith and kin' a rather old-fashioned way of referring to your relatives. Kin , however, also appears with next in 'next of kin'. But both words have very little freedom to combine with other words in English. If you learn these words, it is best to learn them together, as fixed phrases. Many idioms in English are examples of strong collocations. We can also put together words below the sentence level and create a group of words which also has meaning, for example, 'to chair a meeting'.

We can think of this example in two ways. Collocation This is a collection of two or more words that are normally seen together because that is the way they are used.

Examples include the following:. The problem with collocations, of course, is knowing that we say 'heavy rain' and not 'strong rain'. Strong does not collocate with rain, heavy does.

In the example 'to chair a meeting', the verb 'chair' is used with 'meeting'. We do not use other verbs, such as 'take', because 'take' does not collocate with 'meeting' for this meaning. When experienced readers read a text, they are able to recognise groups of words, such as noun phrases or verb phrases, that go together to create meaning.

This is known as 'chunking' and it is a way of describing how fluent readers are able to read a text. In the example 'to chair a meeting', the reader can 'chunk' this phrase into one meaning, namely a person who is in control of the procedure of a meeting. Thus, being able to 'chunk' effectively is a very efficient approach to reading comprehension. In the following activity, you will see examples of phrases typically used by authors when they are being critical of other writers.

In the two exercises below: i complete the phrases with suitable words from the lists provided. You can copy and paste examples of collocations or phrases in the exercises into your learning log.