Collocations That Instantly Make Your English Sound Fluent

4 days ago
3 min read

Hi there!

How often have you experienced this: you know plenty of vocabulary, but when speaking you still feel like your English sounds kind of “translated”... This is very common, don’t worry, and usually it has nothing to do with the individual words you choose, but more with which words you put together. This leads us perfectly into today’s topic: collocations. Think of them as words that naturally appear together in English.

The secret behind natural-sounding English

Native speakers often think in chunks, not individual words

When you speak in your native language, do you focus on every word you use in a sentence? No, right? You probably already have “ready-made” combinations stored in your memory. That’s why certain phrases just come out automatically. Without thinking about them too much. Well, the same thing happens to native English speakers.

I want you to remember that fluency often comes from having ready-to-use pieces of language in your repertoire, not simply learning more individual words.

Here are some examples:

That completely slipped my mind → rather than thinking of slip + my + mind separately
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it → a very natural way to describe knowing something is wrong without being able to explain why
It caught me off guard → more natural than saying something like “it surprised me unexpectedly”
I didn’t give it much thought → this is a very common combination that many learners would usually formulate differently

Collocations can make simple vocabulary sound sophisticated

Using collocations is not about showing off advanced vocabulary. In fact, some of the most natural combinations use incredibly simple words. Have a look at these:

Make an effort (e.g. He’s really making an effort lately)
Take something personally (e.g. Don’t take it personally)
Lose track of time (e.g. I completely lost track of time)
Get carried away (e.g. I got a bit carried away)
Have a point (e.g. You do have a point)
Keep someone posted (e.g. I’ll keep you posted)

None of these words are particularly advanced, but the combination makes them sound fluent.

Collocations can completely change the emotional tone

Now, apart from sounding more fluent, collocations can also help express how you really feel - think of communicating frustration, hesitation, enthusiasm or understatement.

Instead of: I was very surprised

Try: It really caught me off guard

→ more conversational and personal

Instead of: I was very disappointed

Try: It was a bit of a let-down

→ more understated

Instead of: I was very angry

Try: It really got on my nerves

→ more conversational

Instead of: I was very confused

Try: I couldn’t quite make sense of it

→ more natural and less blunt

Don't learn collocations as giant vocabulary lists

Similar to phrasal verbs, I always advise against making a huge list of 100 collocations and trying to memorise them. Instead, why don’t you try to collect phrases connected to things or topics you actually talk about? Here are some examples:

If you often talk about travel:

Miss a connection
Catch an early flight
Get stuck in traffic
Make the most of something
Go out of your way
Fall into a routine

If you often talk about relationships:

Hit it off
Lose touch
Grow apart
See eye to eye
Have a lot in common

If you talk about feelings:

Feel a bit off
Put someone at ease
Get on someone’s nerves
Take something personally
Bottle something up

The easiest way to actually learn a language is to learn it around your life, not just random vocabulary categories you won’t actually use.

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from today, it’s that you don’t necessarily need a bigger vocabulary. You may simply need to become more aware of how the words you already know naturally fit together.

And don’t worry if you feel like it takes you a while to get a grip of it - it’s a gradual process.

So, fluent English speakers often sound effortless because so much of what they say has become automatic - and the same can happen for you! Just keep going! 😉

Until next time!

Camila