Academic collocations: the phrases strong answers are built from

Words travel in partnerships

A collocation is a combination that experienced users of English naturally expect, such as robust evidence, mitigate risk or substantiate a claim. Another combination may be grammatically possible but sound unusual or carry a different emphasis.

Learning the whole phrase reduces the number of choices your brain must make while reading, writing or speaking. It also protects you from using a familiar word in an unnatural pattern.

Organise by academic purpose

• Evidence: provide evidence, substantiate a claim, corroborate findings.
• Change: marginal increase, fluctuate considerably, gradual decline.
• Evaluation: plausible explanation, robust method, negligible effect.
• Cause and response: prompt a response, mitigate harm, exacerbate inequality.

Practise with controlled substitution

Take one frame such as ‘The results indicate ___’ and complete it with several suitable noun phrases. Then keep the noun phrase and replace the reporting verb. This reveals which combinations remain natural and how changing one word changes certainty.

Record incorrect combinations in a phrase notebook. Correct the entire phrase rather than circling a single wrong word.

Apply them under test conditions

• In reading, treat familiar collocations as one meaning unit.
• In writing, prefer a secure collocation over an ambitious uncertain one.
• In speaking, practise phrases aloud so retrieval becomes automatic.
• In editing questions, compare meaning and register as well as grammar.