Collocations

A collocation is a natural combination of words; it refers to the way the words are closely associated with each other.

to make a mistake (not do)
to take a break (not make)

Why Are Collocations Important?  

1 Natural Language Use

 strong coffee sounds more natural than powerful coffee

2 Faster Comprehension

 When someone says make a decision, we don’t need to think about what “make” and “decision” mean separately

3 Improved Accuracy

  We know that we don't do a mistake, but make a mistake

Typical collocations are

noun + verb: make progress
adjective + noun: heavy rain
adverb + adjective: completely different
verb + adverb: fail miserably

Give a speech
Make your homework

Win a goal

Have success

Do a job

Lose a chance
Get a baby

Do a decision

Strong rain

Take a coffee

Do a party

Take a risk

Do a mistake

Hard tea