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Vocabulary and Language Use
Quick questions on Collocations and phrasal verbs explained: O-Level English
3short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What are collocations are fixed partnerships?Show answer
A collocation is a combination of words that fluent speakers expect to see together. The choice is not about meaning being wrong, but about the partnership being unnatural. You "make a mistake", not "do a mistake"; rain is "heavy", not "strong"; you "take a photo", not "make a photo". All the alternatives are grammatically possible and would be understood, but they sound wrong to a fluent reader, and that costs marks for accuracy.
What is phrasal verbs are verb plus particle?Show answer
A phrasal verb is a verb combined with a particle (a small word such as "up", "off", "out", "in", "on", "after"). The particle often changes the meaning so much that you cannot guess it from the verb alone. "Look" means to direct your eyes, but "look after" means to care for, "look into" means to investigate, and "look up to" means to admire. Because the meaning is not predictable, phrasal verbs must be learned as whole units, each with its correct particle.
What is wrong particle in a phrasal verb?Show answer
"Look on a word" (for "look up"), "give in homework" (for "hand in") and "turn off the volume" when you mean "turn down" change or break the meaning. The particle is part of the verb.
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