“I did a mistake.” “There was strong rain.” “Can you make a photo of me?”

Every word in these sentences is correct English. The grammar is fine. And yet a native speaker immediately hears that something is not quite right. Why? Because English words have favourite partners. These natural word combinations are called collocations.

What is a collocation?

A collocation is a pair or group of words that native speakers naturally use together. There is often no logical reason — it is simply how the language works. We say heavy rain but strong wind; we make a mistake but do homework.

Collocations are one of the clearest differences between intermediate and advanced learners. Learn them, and your English instantly sounds more fluent — without learning a single new grammar rule.

MAKE vs DO

A simple guide: make is often about creating or producing something; do is often about tasks, jobs and activities. But many expressions just need to be learned.

• make a mistake, a decision, a plan, progress, an effort, friends, money, a phone call, noise
• do homework, the dishes, business, exercise, your best, a favour, research

The 20 collocations to fix today

1. make a mistake — not do a mistake
2. do homework — not make homework
3. take a photo — not make a photo
4. heavy rain — not strong rain
5. strong coffee — not powerful coffee
6. fast food — not quick food
7. ask a question — not make a question
8. tell the truth — not say the truth
9. pay attention — not give attention
10. make a decision — not do a decision
11. take a break — not do a break
12. catch a cold — not take a cold
13. high price — not expensive price
14. make progress — not do progress
15. give advice — not say an advice (and remember: advice is uncountable!)
16. keep a promise — not hold a promise
17. save time / waste time
18. meet a deadline — finish on time
19. highly recommend — “I highly recommend this book.”
20. bitterly cold — extremely cold

How to notice collocations

• When you read, underline word pairs that appear together.
• When you check your writing, ask: “Would a native say these two words together?”
• Use an AI writing coach — it often suggests the natural collocation instead of a word-by-word translation.

On AMUORA, the Collocations deck shows you the right combination (and the common wrong one), with audio and examples. And the Writing Coach marks unnatural word combinations in your own texts.