Collocations: words that go together

Put words together as natives do: make a decision, heavy traffic. Lesson 30 of 58: Fluency, CEFR B2.

Words that belong together

A collocation is a pair natives always use together. Nothing in grammar says why we “make a decision” but “do business”, or why coffee is “strong” but traffic is “heavy”: it is simply what people say. Getting these right is the fastest way to sound fluent, because a learner’s English is grammatical but “sounds wrong” mostly because of collocations.
make a decision, make a mistake, make progress
do business, do your best, do research
take a break, take a risk, take notes
have a meeting, have a look, have a go

strong coffee (not powerful), heavy rain and heavy traffic (not big), a high price (not expensive price), a tight deadline, a big mistake, a close friend, a fast train but a quick shower, bitterly cold, highly unlikely, deeply sorry.
We’re working to a tight deadline.
It’s highly unlikely.
There’s heavy traffic on the bridge.
Tip: Learn words in pairs: not “decision” but “make a decision”; not “risk” but “take a risk”.

Make is usually creating or producing something: make a plan, make money, make a phone call, make an effort, make an offer. Do is usually activities, work and tasks: do the dishes, do a job, do homework, do someone a favour.
Could you do me a favour?
We made an offer on the house.

Describe your work or studies this month using at least eight collocations: make, do, take and have phrases, and two adjective + noun pairs.
I used make and do correctly
I used take and have collocations
I used two adjective + noun collocations

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