The Five-A-Day Collocation Game

This game is based on collocation. Collocation is the tendency of one word to be preceded or followed by another particular word or set of words. Native speakers of a language have a well developed sense of collocation. In fact, in a conversation or when reading a text they can often predict what word or phrase the speaker or writer will use next. For learners of English this is more problematic. Part of knowing a word is knowing its collocates when it is used in context. Beginning and intermediate speakers and writers often use words and phrases which a native speaker might not find truly idiomatic. For example, "little" and "small" are listed as synonyms but they are not completely interchangeable in all contexts; you might talk about a "small amount" but you are much less likely to use the phrase "a little amount". This game, along with the other two collocation games on this site, aims to raise awareness of the importance of collocation. It is a simple game to play. Five common collocates of a particular word are presented and the use has to choose the word (from a list of eight) which collocates well which the five words presented. Five of these are presented each day.