Collocations

Within the area of corpus linguistics, collocation defines a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. The term is often used in the same sense as linguistic government.

Collocation defines restrictions on how words can be used together, for example, which prepositions are used with ("governed by") particular verbs, or which verbs and nouns are typically used together. An example of this (from Michael Halliday) is the collocation strong tea. While the same meaning could be conveyed through the roughly equivalent powerful tea, the fact is that tea is thought of being strong rather than powerful. A similar observation holds for powerful computers, which is preferred over strong computers.

Collocations are examples of lexical units. Collocations should not be confused with idioms although both are similar in that there is a degree of meaning present in the collocation or idiom that is not entirely compositional. With idioms, the meaning is completely non-compositional whereas collocations are mostly compositional.

Source: Wikipedia

Collocations
Tell me who you go with and I'll tell you who you are.

What is a collocation?
A collocation is two or more words that often go together. These combinations just sound "right" to native English speakers, who use them all the time. On the other hand, other combinations may be unnatural and just sound "wrong". Look at these examples:

Natural English... Unnatural English...
the fast train
fast food the quick train
quick food
a quick shower
a quick meal a fast shower
a fast meal

Why learn collocations?
Your language will be more natural and more easily understood.
You will have alternative and richer ways of expressing yourself.
It is easier for our brains to remember and use language in chunks or blocks rather than as single words.

How to learn collocations
Be aware of collocations, and try to recognize them when you see or hear them.
Treat collocations as single blocks of language. Think of them as individual blocks or chunks, and learn strongly support, not strongly + support.

When you learn a new word, write down other words that collocate with it (remember rightly, remember distinctly, remember vaguely, remember vividly).

Read as much as possible. Reading is an excellent way to learn vocabulary and collocations in context and naturally.

Revise what you learn regularly. Practice using new collocations in context as soon as possible after learning them.

Learn collocations in groups that work for you. You could learn them by topic (time, number, weather, money, family) or by a particular word (take action, take a chance, take an exam).

You can find information on collocations in any good learner's dictionary. And you can also find specialized dictionaries of collocations.

Types of Collocation
There are several different types of collocation made from combinations of verb, noun, adjective etc. Some of the most common types are:

Adverb + Adjective: completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied)
Adjective + Noun: excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy)
Noun + Noun: a surge of anger (NOT a rush of anger)
Noun + Verb: lions roar (NOT lions shout)
Verb + Noun: commit suicide (NOT undertake suicide)
Verb + Expression With Preposition: burst into tears (NOT blow up in tears)
Verb + Adverb: wave frantically (NOT wave feverishly)

Source: English Club

Sample Collocations
Collocations List
Collocations Quizz