Using your dictionary
1 Answer these questions about collocations and dictionaries.
1 How does the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary show collocations?
2 Which five collocations can you see in the top box on the opposite page?
3 Why is an online dictionary particularly useful?
4 What information does the online Thesaurus usually show?
5 How does the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary indicate that a collocation is informal?
6 Look at the dictionary that you normally use. Does it indicate collocations? If so, how?
7 Look up pain in your own dictionary. Which of the collocations on the left-hand page does it either highlight or illustrate in example sentences?
8 Look up the noun offer in your own dictionary. What collocations can you find? Does the dictionary indicate whether the collocations are formal or informal? If so, how?
they use the word informal
2 Put the expressions from the box into the correct category in the table below?
to alleviate pain to cause pain to complain of pain
to ease pain to experience pain to feel pain to inflict pain to lessen pain to be racked with pain to relieve pain to soothe pain pain subsides to suffer pain
| making others experience pain | the experience of being in pain | making pain go away |
|---|---|---|
| to cause pain | to experience pain | to alleviate pain |
| to complain of pain | to feel pain | to ease pain |
| to inflict pain | to be racked with pain | to lessen pain |
| to suffer pain | to relieve pain | |
| to soothe pain | ||
| pain subsides |
3 Look in a good learner’s dictionary. What collocations do you find there for the word ache?
As a noun:
dull ache She felt a dull ache in her lower back
nagging ache
A nagging ache in his shoulder kept him up all night.
- constant ache
He lived with a constant ache in his knees.
- aches and pains (idiom - general physical discomfort)
Elderly people often complain about every day aches and pains.
As a verb:
- my body aches
After the hike, my whole body ached.
- ache with hunger/loss/loneliness (figurative)
She ached with loneliness after moving to a new city.
- Pursue (verb)
- pursue a goal
- pursue a career
- pursue an interest
- pursue further studies
Example: She decided to pursue a career in biomedical engineering.
- Evidence
Example: The researchers presented strong evidence to support their hyothesis.