50 Common Collocations to Build Your Vocabulary

today I'm going to teach you 50 different collocations that's coming up hey everyone my name is Wes this is interactive English which is all about helping you practice and improve your English skills and today it's all about helping you build your vocabulary because I am going to teach you 50 different collocation and if you don't know what a collocation is it is a word or phrase that is often followed by another word or phrase and there are many different types of collocations but in today's lesson I want to teach you 50 different adjective noun collocations so all of these phrases are adjectives that are commonly followed by different nouns so let's begin with our first collocation using the adjective hi and you might hear people talk about high school this is a time period and a person's education you have middle school high school and then university or maybe somebody's talking about high ground in which case you need to get to a higher or elevated position maybe there's a flood and somebody says we need to get to high ground or high tech this just means advanced technology and you could say wow this this stuff it's it's really high-tech the technology is advanced or somebody could have high standards and that means that they just want the best for themselves and you could say well I have really high standards when it comes to food or when it comes to places to stay hotels you have high standards or a high degree of certainty this means that you really you believe and you know that something is going to happen next we have collocations with the adjective big and we use this to really emphasize the the noun that it's describing for example there could be a big mistake and you're really trying to say that well okay this is a real problem and somebody made a big mistake or maybe there is a big surprise it's not your normal surprise it's a big you could also say something is a big deal this emphasizes that that this thing is very important and you could say it's a big deal a person may also need to make a big decision this is talking about a very important decision and you will often hear somebody say look you know I really have a big decision to make it's very important it's a big decision and finally you could hear somebody say big money which means you're talking about a lot of money that may be coming your way big money now you may be wondering what is the best way to learn these collocations because I'm giving you a lot but the best way is just to get exposure by reading them and listening to them as well as practicing them you need to practice using them in a great way to practice using new vocabulary is by taking some online classes and if you have high standards when it comes to learning English then I suggest you check out lingo de who is the sponsor of today's lesson and right now you have the opportunity to greatly improve your English fluency with a high degree of certainty when you sign up for the lingo to language sprint you will 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really didn't think about it much or perhaps a little bit this is talking about an amount there is a little bit or little time if you don't have a lot of time to do something you could say well we have very little time we need to get moving because we have little time then we have the adjective heavy and you could say well somebody is a heavy drinker or a heavy smoker it means that they do this a lot or maybe there is heavy traffic if there are many cars on the road you could describe that and say well there's there's really heavy traffic today or perhaps there there's heavy rain and it means that it is it's raining a lot if it's raining if it's really coming down you could describe it and say there's heavy rain if you're out driving in the heavy rain then and there's heavy traffic it's likely there will be a traffic jam you could finally say that someone is a heavy sleeper and this means that well they once they go to sleep you can make all the noise that you want because you are not going to wake this person up they are a heavy sleeper now because we just talked about heavy then I think it's only appropriate that our next adjective is light and we can use this to say the opposite of many of those that I just talked about so instead of somebody being a heavy drinker or a heavy smoker you could say that that someone is a light drinker or a light smoker you could say that someone is a light sleeper in which case any kind of noise would probably wake this person up but they're not a heavy sleeper they are a light sleeper I I think I am more of a light sleeper I wake up pretty easily at night if there is any kind of noise so when I go to bed I really I just want silence you could also say light rain if it's just it's not raining that much outside perhaps it's just starting to rain it's not heavy rain it's just a little light rain you don't need your umbrella just yet because it's only a little light rain if if talking about wind you could say that well there is a light breeze that it's not well it's not very windy it's just well there's a light breeze which I think it's kind of nice when you walk outside and there's a light breeze and finally you could say there is a light shade and in this case you're you're pretty much talking about a color a light shade of red or a light shade of blue or a light shade of green a light shade of some color then we have the adjective strong which I think is a great adjective and you can use this to describe many nouns for example you could say a strong argument if you are debating with someone you want to make sure that you are presenting a strong argument you could also have a strong feeling about something or maybe something you want a strong desire if talking about well the wind instead of a light breeze you could say there is a strong breeze or even a straw Wyn we can also use it with the word evidence and say that there is strong evidence police when they're trying to solve a crime they they really they're looking for strong evidence you could also say that someone has a strong hand and in this case they're not really talking about your hands you could be talking about cards if you're playing cards you have a hand of cards and you could say you have a strong hand but it could also be referring to somebody's position that you have a position of power and you could refer to that and say well you know right now I have a very strong hand I'm in a very good position a position of power I have a strong hand another common way this adjective is used is when talking about a strong relationship and this just means that well you could use it to talk about maybe a family member or your friends or even a romantic relationship husband and wife and you say okay we just have a strong relationship we believe in each other we trust each other we have a strong relationship I I think that we you and I we have a strong relationship because you you watch our video lessons you write to me in the comments which I love hearing from you and because of that I can say that we have a strong relationship you and I at least I hope we do alright the next adjective is deep and we can use this with nouns such as deep thought that you are you are really thinking about something and you would say that somebody you know they're there in deep thought they're really focused and they're really trying to think about some serious topic or maybe somebody you could draw describe a person and say that they have a deep voice describing the way that they talk so for example this is my deep voice and it's it's really bad that's a very terrible example but you you kind of get the idea if you want to describe the way somebody sounds their voice you could say they have a deep voice it's down here in the chest you could also use it with leap and say that that somebody is in a deep sleep even if somebody is is not a heavy sleeper but they're so tired they're they're just in a deep sleep you could also say that somebody takes a deep breath or maybe they are you could describe a person and say that they are in a deep depression they're very sad it is a very intense depression it is a deep depression another way you could use this adjective is deep down and often I think somebody would say deep down inside talking about a feeling a feeling that's deep down inside then we have the adjective fast and you could say that well somebody gets off to a fast start they begin but they do so quickly and they get a fast start you could also describe a person and say that well he or she is a fast talker you could well let's let's continue describing people and you could say that someone is fast asleep if they if this person is sleeping you can use this expression say well you know they're fast asleep they're sleeping soundly they're fast asleep you may also hear somebody talk about a fast pace that you need to move kind of quickly and continuously and you might need to keep a fast pace another very common collocation would be fast food I think all of us are familiar with different fast food restaurants and I could also say that someone perhaps you I could say that you are a fast learner that you watch these video lessons and you are building your vocabulary because you are a fast learner you you learn quickly and well quick is the next adjective that I want to talk about because it's it's a little similar to fast but we use it with different nouns for example we could use it with the word glance and and say quick glance to really describe something that that you saw for just a very very short period of time and you just got a quick glance you just you looked at it and then and that that's it that's it that's a quick glance right there you could also that you're going to get a quick bite in which case you're you're talking about you're going to eat you're going to get something to eat very quickly you're just gonna grab a quick bite to eat or maybe you want to get a quick shower you you're telling somebody that well you need to shower you're not going to spend a long time in there you're just gonna get a quick shower and during a presentation somebody might give you a quick recap they're going to review whatever they just said and they're going to do it quickly they're going to give you a quick recap or perhaps a person might need to make a quick decision when when you really have to think fast you don't have a lot of time you need to make a quick decision now let's move well more to the opposite meaning and talk about the adjective slow and we can use it with nouns such as will growth or progress I think quite quite often you would hear it used with these nouns when talking about perhaps the the work that somebody's doing or you might say well you know we're just we're making slow progress we're not going very fast we we didn't get off to a fast start and right now we're just making slow progress and because of that the company the business is experiencing slow growth I'm sure many of you have heard it with the word motion and talking about slow motion to describe the way well somebody is moving or something that you're watching that things were moving in slow motion I'm just going to move on to the next collocation and talk about a slow day and if somebody says that well it's a slow day it just means it's not very busy I often think people would use this collocation when when talking about work that they're not very busy at their job and they say you know today it was a slow day and you could also use it to describe a person and say that someone is a slow learner that they're not a fast learner it takes them a little more time to understand and comprehend different things you could say well they're a slow learner I think sometimes with with many things I I am a slow learner I really like to take my time and quite often I need to review things and do it numerous times before I understand so I could say yeah you know I'm a slow learner but that's okay I don't expect you to watch this lesson and remember every single one of these collocations for the rest of your life it's all about getting exposure reading listening and then practicing because that is the best way to build your vocabulary and remember these phrases and that's what I want to do right now I want to practice using some of these collocation --zz I'm going to give you a sentence and the adjective is missing the first sentence that I have for you is I need you to make a mmm decision I need you to make a decision which adjectives are you going to use I hope you said I need you to make a quick decision when you have to think fast you need to make a quick decision the next one is even though our neighbor threw a party I didn't wake up because I am a hmm sleeper even though our neighbor had a party I didn't wake up because I am a sleeper in this case I hope that you said heavy a heavy sleeper you can just sleep through anything including your neighbors party then we have I'm going to Vegas and I hope to win some money this weekend I'm going to Vegas and I hope to win some money this weekend if you're going to Vegas and you're going to gamble of course you want to win some big money I'm going to Vegas and I hope to win some big money this weekend the next sentence is scientists believe that the climate will continue to change with a mmm degree of certainty I think you should remember this one scientists believe that climate will continue to change with a degree of certainty I hope that you've said hi we're talking about a high degree of certainty that somebody well they're pretty sure that this is going to happen and finally I would tell you the sentence and I would say I think you are a hmm learner and I really do I think you are a mmm and of course you should have said fast all right I don't think you're a slow learner I think you are a fast learner and I think if you really if you continue to read if you continue to listen if you continue to watch these video lessons that is going to help you build your vocabulary it's going to help you remember these different collocation and that is then going to help you improve your overall English fluency if you enjoyed this lesson please hit that like button and as always thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time

Channel: Interactive English

Views: 105,694

Keywords: interactive english, learn english, vocabulary building, learn vocabulary, build vocabulary, advanced vocabulary, english vocabulary lesson, english collocations, collocations in english, useful collocations, words frequently used in english, words frequently used together, lingoda language sprint, collocations with high, collocations with big, collocations with heavy, collocations with strong, collocations with deep, collocations with fast, collocations with light

Id: d8N3ZSU0B_U

Length: 18min 6sec (1086 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020