easy dreamers do you want to improve
your English vocabulary because this
video is going to show you how to build
your English vocabulary immediately it's
also going to show you how to create
common english expressions and kind of
raise your awareness about how English
really works so if you want to
communicate better create sentences more
easily this is the video for you all
that is coming right up today we're
looking at collocations but what is a
collocation well a collocation is went
two or more words are used together
frequently so for example a hamburger is
a type of fast food
now we don't say quick food or rapid
food or speedy food we say fast food and
that is a collocation so why do you need
to know about collocations firstly it
will help you to express your ideas more
naturally secondly it helps our brains
to remember vocabulary more easily if we
remember chunks of vocabulary it's
easier for us to remember them and to
use them in communication all right for
example let's think of a sentence as
being a house and we have to build that
house now it's much easier to do it in
big chunks or big bricks rather than
individual small bricks so if you can
use collocations like fast food and you
know the phrase fast food you've already
got two bricks to put into your sentence
into your house so learning vocabulary
in chunks is a great way to help you to
create sentences more easily and
therefore to become a more fluent
speaker and also to understand other
people more easily when they are
speaking so that will improve your
listening comprehension now the whole
point of collocations are that they used
frequently their common speech patterns
so you're going to
find them everywhere in all the English
that you listen to that you read you're
going to see collocations
all the time so that's why they're so
important is because they're
high-frequency phrases and that means
that you should really start to learn
them and understand them all right let's
look at some examples let's take the
word rain okay the word rain we use it
as a noun in this case
now what adjectives can we use with rain
that are collocations that we see
frequently well for example we would say
if it's raining a lot we would say heavy
rain
they're expecting heavy rain tonight
heavy rain not strong rain heavy rain
the opposite might be light rain light
rain another way of saying heavy rain is
torrential rain torrential rain now
that's a collocation that you're going
to hear a lot if you're watching the
weather forecasts and they're expecting
rain then they'll probably use heavy
rain or torrential rain and these are
just phrases that we use all the time
because it makes life easier it's a
pattern that everybody knows and
everybody understands so I guess it's
just an easier way for us to communicate
our ideas if I sunny said strong rain
people would understand but it's not a
phrase that we use so we stick to the
phrases and patterns that are most
common to verbs that we might use with
rain it poured with rain so to pour with
rain so our last night it poured with
rain the last night it poured with rain
another one might be forecast
so they forecast rain for this afternoon
they forecast rain for this afternoon so
these are again two verbs that commonly
go with the noun of rain let's use rain
as a verb and what adverbs would we use
so it rained hmm what would you put in
there it rained
it rained heavily all right that's a
good one
it rains steadily okay so continuously
it's another one
it rained non-stop so wait the rain just
continues and it never stops for maybe
the whole time that you're on holiday
for example you're on holiday and you
say oh it rained non-stop and that kind
of means it didn't stop so again these
are common collocations that you will
hear when people are talking about rain
let's take another word party all right
think of the adjectives that go before
the word party can a birthday party we
could have an office party a farewell
party to say goodbye to somebody you can
have a fancy dress party where everyone
wears silly costumes like a monkey or a
banana or Mouse whatever is we could
have a housewarming party so when you
first move into a flat or a house you
have a party to celebrate this is a
housewarming party so there are lots of
adjectives that go before party what
about the verbs though this is often a
tricky one so we've got to have a party
to throw a party which means to organize
and of course organize a party as well
so those are examples of collocations
now let's think about how you can start
to find them to use them let's have a
look okay so the first thing I think is
to first think about language in chunks
okay so not individual words but chunks
of language now let me give you a
sentence and we can kind of create
chunks of language here okay here I'm
organizing a farewell party for my best
friend I'm organizing a farewell party
for my best friend
now there are some big chunks of
language there
for example organize and party those are
connotations okay we organized a party
now it's not just any party it's a
farewell party
okay when we say goodbye to someone so
that's another chunk of language and
then it's four okay my best friend so we
organized a party for someone so the
four is a preposition can be a part of
the chunk so I organized a party for
someone and then best friend is also a
collocation it's not a close friend or a
old friend it's my best friend so that
is a collocation so we've got chunks of
language throughout that sentence and if
you can learn these chunks of language
if you can learn these connotations you
can build these sentences so much
quicker so much easier all right
so that's why I think that learning
collocations is really important to
develop your spoken English and your
fluency so the next time you learn a new
word think of it as being a part of a
chunk of language so for example food
food now we've already looked at fast
food but there are so many other
collocation as they go with food organic
food frozen food so if you can learn a
word and then start to try and learn
that the collocations that go with it
you're going to build up your vocabulary
so so much so quickly a great way to do
that is to use the Oxford online
collocation dictionary now this video
isn't sponsored by them but I use it a
lot in my classes and recommending it to
my students I think that this website is
super useful you can type in the word
that you want to look at and it will
give you so many great collocations that
go with that word so you can start to
build up your vocabulary like that I
think reading is another great way to
build up your collocation if you are
reading an article or a book about
something that you love okay so keep an
interest that you love and you can start
to notice patterns in language so again
if you see the word food what's going
before it or what's going after it what
verb are they using or what adjective so
you can start to know
this language as you are reading alright
I think this is a great way to start to
build up your vocabulary spending time
specifically looking for collocations I
think is also a great idea you could do
this in two ways you could choose the
words and look for collocations with
that word as I said before so rain or
food or party and then look for
connotations around that words or you
could do it by topic
so let's say you love sports you could
look at collocation to do with sports so
to take up a sport to play a sport to do
a sport when do we use play and when do
we use do okay so you could learn or
study those collocations depending on
your interests if you love fashion then
look at the collocations to do with
fashion vocabulary it's your choice
so study the English that you're going
to use and that you're going to love
otherwise what's the point there's no
point in learning words or phrases that
you're never going to use that you're
not interested in learn the English that
is going to be useful in your everyday
life or at least in how you would like
to use English in the future that's the
best way to learn ok let's practice
should we practice I think we should are
you ready to play the great collocations
game
[Music]
here we go with the great collocations
game now the way it works is I am going
to give you a word and I want you to
think of a collocation that goes with
that words now I'm going to put the
answers along the bottom and if your
word is one of those words you get
yourself a point all right so here we go
let's just do a practice so I told you
guys earlier that we looked at the word
rain as a noun now what adjectives go
before rain as a noun and give you five
seconds
[Music]
all right here we go did you get any of
these words along the bottom if you did
you get one point in the great
collocations game all right here we go
with the next words okay number two I
want you to give me an adjective that
goes before the noun drink it's an
additive that goes before the noun drink
give you five seconds again
[Music]
all right let's have a look did you get
any of these words okay these are all
common collocations that we use with a
noun drink did you get any of them
if you did good job guys good job I'm
sure you did well done are you ready for
the last one I want a verb to go before
the word language so language is a noun
I want a verb that we use with language
you have five seconds
all right what did you get did you get
any of these words hmm alright guys well
that's just one way one thing you can do
if you're in a class with an English
teacher maybe or maybe you are an
English teacher maybe you can play that
game in your class guess the collocation
oh no no the great chronic Asian game ok
guys over to you now what I'd like you
to do is to give me some collocations
with one particular word
so choose a word like food or drink or
language or potatoes or
egg whatever you want and give me some
collocation to do with those words
alright give me 3 collocations to show
me that you understand what collocations
are remember going to subscribe to my
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and remember that I release new videos
every Tuesday and every Friday so that
you can develop your English take it to
the next level I'm Tom this has been a
pleasure as always I love teaching you
guys and I love seeing your comments and
your feedback afterwards so I look
forward to seeing that until next time
this is Tom
the chief dreamer saying goodbye