Now I understood! = Any word never stands alone! It is always bound to another word, like a magnet! We must remember this when we are trying to make a sentence.
Example: "Water" is a simple liquid idea... and... suddenly it can change to a huge "Waterfall" or a tiny "Raindrop".
So, let's practise "How to use Chunks of Language" in order to memorize any new word. I will study it from EC-Vocabulary-Collocations: Visit the site:
Comments
You may ask such a question "How come fast food is natural while quick food not?".
Sometimes you just try to memorize them and use them right - there's no why:))
You use "off shore" but "off the coast" - I don't know why, but that's the correct combination.
Thanks for sharing! Yes, you got it.
Collocation (a particular combination of words) can make you sound "right". They may tell that you're not a native English speaker just by the collocation you used in the sentence - the unnatural combination can be a giveaway. For example, fast food and quick food may sound the same thing, but the former is natural.
It can be a challenge for learners to use the natural collocations. You may need to consult a good dictionary often and try to memorize them.