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Making an effort and telling a joke: avoiding common errors with collocations
By Liz Walter

Collocation, or the way we put words together, is a very important part of English. In this post, I am going to look at some of the most common mistakes learners make with verb + noun collocations. If you make these errors, people will still understand you, but your English will not sound natural and you will lose marks in exams.

Students often make mistakes with “make” and “do”. You should use make with the following words: effort, change, progress, mistake, arrangement, improvement:
+ I made one mistake in my calculations.
+ She made a big effort to be friendly.
+ NOT: They did some changes to the rules.

You need “do” with these nouns: homework, research, work, experiment:
+ I usually do my homework after school.
+ Scientists did an experiment to test the theory.
+ NOT: We had to make some research about tigers.

There are some other common errors where students use “make” when they should use another verb. For instance, the most common verb to use with “party” is “have”.
+ We had a party on Saturday.
+ NOT: We made a party on Saturday.

Similarly, we do not use the verb “make” with “exam” or “test”. The best verb to use is “take,” though we also say “do,” which is slightly more informal:
+ He took/did his driving test last week.
+ NOT: He made his driving test last week.

Finally, we use “take,” not “make” or “do,” with “photo(graph)” or “picture”.
+ I took a photograph of the house.
+ NOT: I made a photograph of the house.

On the other hand, students sometimes use other verbs when they should use “make”. For example, we “make friends” and “make” (or slightly more formally, in UK English, “take”) “decisions”.
+ I hope you make some friends soon.
+ NOT: I hope you get some friends soon.
+ We made/took the decision to leave.
+ NOT: We had/did the decision to leave.

“Make,” not “say,” is also used with “comment”:
+ He made some unpleasant comments about my work.
+ NOT: He said some unpleasant comments about my work.

There are couple more common collocation errors where students use the verb “say” when they should use a different verb. For instance, we use “give” with “example” and “tell” with “joke” and “lie”:
+ She gave several examples of successful local businesses.
+ NOT: She said several examples of successful local businesses.
+ Don’t tell me any more lies!
+ NOT: Don’t say me any more lies!

I hope you find this useful – learning collocations is one of the best ways to improve your English!