English collocations: 12 word pairs natives always use
B1–B212 words
Fluency is largely a matter of choosing the right partner word: you make a decision but take a break, and no rule explains why. Collocations are memory work, which is exactly what flashcards are for.
Where you will use it: Speaking naturally, writing and exams.
English collocations — The word list
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| make a decision | To decide something.“We need to make a decision today.” |
| take a break | To stop working for a short time.“Let's take a break for ten minutes.” |
| heavy rain | Rain falling in large amounts.“Heavy rain delayed the flight.” |
| pay attention | To listen or watch carefully.“Pay attention to the spelling.” |
| strong coffee | Coffee with an intense taste.“I need a strong coffee.” |
| do research | To study a subject carefully.“She does research on memory.” |
| keep in touch | To stay in contact.“Let's keep in touch after the course.” |
| save time | To avoid wasting time.“The app saves time every morning.” |
| highly recommend | To recommend strongly.“I highly recommend this book.” |
| deeply concerned | Very worried.“Parents are deeply concerned.” |
| meet a deadline | To finish on time.“We met the deadline easily.” |
| bitterly disappointed | Extremely disappointed.“They were bitterly disappointed.” |
How to study this list
Add five or six of these words a day rather than all twelve at once, keep the example sentence on the card, and review them when they come due. WordNest schedules each word across seven growing intervals — same day, then 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 and 60 days — so the list is still with you months later. Read how spaced repetition works if you want the reasoning behind those numbers.
Studying english collocations pairs well with our common English idioms, essential phrasal verbs and business English collocations, or browse all free English word lists.
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