Collocation is a term used in English language to describe a predictable combination of words that are often used together in a way that sounds correct to native speakers. Collocations can be made up of any kinds of words such as verbs, nouns, adverbs, and adjectives. There are no rules for collocations in English language, they are just combinations of words that we can become familiar with and then use correctly. Collocations can provide a shortcut to accuracy as you don’t have to learn lots of words and then figure out how to put them together, you just learn one ‘piece of language’ .

Some common types of collocations include:

• Adverb + adjective: completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied)
• Adjective + noun: excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy)
• Noun + noun: a surge of anger

To learn collocations, one can read as much as possible, revise what they learn regularly, and learn collocations in groups that work for them. It is also important to notice collocations whenever you read something in English, such as a book, a news story, or a website, and record them so you can start to use them yourself to learn English.