What is a collocation? - Live from England - English Addict eXtra - Wednesday 12th May 2021

What a

lovely day we are having here in england at the moment yes the sun is out the sky is blue

and there is not a cloud to spoil my view here we go then yes it is the midweek version

of english addict coming to you live from the birthplace of english which is of course

you know where it is

of course it's

england

oh there you are hi everybody this is mr duncan in england how are you today are you okay

i hope so are you happy i hope so here we are again yes it is very nice to see you here

today wherever you are in the world can i say hello and welcome yes you are very welcome

right here right now for those wondering who is that strange guy who is that weird man

staring at me at the moment my name is duncan i talk about the english language i have been

doing this forever such a long time mr duncan how long have you been doing this thank you

for asking i've been doing this for around about 15 years i can't believe it have i really

been doing this for 15 years some people say it seems like much longer than that i suppose

it depends on your opinion of me well i talk about english i talk in english we are all

here together sharing our love of the english language so now we know what it is all about

here we are once again live as live can be and yes we have made it once again to the

middle of the week because it is

wednesday

what yes it

really does feel good to be here with you today thank you very much for joining me by

the way it's very nice of you to give up some of your time to join me giving up some of

my time it's very nice to see you here today hello also to the live chat very busy already

can i say hello to intelligent hello to you guess what you are first on today's live chat

that almost deserves a fancy pants i think so fancy pants to you as well hello also to

richard hello richard you are second on today's live chat also we have vitesse oh i'm very

sorry vitas it would appear that your finger is a little bit sleepy today perhaps you have

been using your finger during the week the big question of course is what have you been

doing with your finger also we have oh we have louis mendes luis mendes is here today

also mohsen hello nice to see you back as well we also have bee trees

we have ramit hello ramit roy who keeps using naughty words on my live chat obviously in

an attempt to get some sort of attention well guess what it worked hello also beatriz also

we have oh hello ricardo grace chin is here as well so many people joining in today already

nice to see you here i know during the week many people have all sorts of things that

they have to do with their lives a lot of people of course are at work during the week

especially now as we begin to return to normal in fact today right now in fact

the members of parliament are now discussing what will be happening next as far as easing

the lock down and also it has been announced today that here in this country there will

be an inquiry into how the coronavirus and also the pandemic most people nowadays refer

to it as the pandemic how it was actually handled was it handled well or was it handled

badly how you handle something how you deal with a situation something that happens how

well do you deal with that thing how well did you handle that thing was it done carefully

was it done well or was it done carelessly and bad so there are many ways of using the

word handle so we will be having a big inquiry i believe it will be happening next year an

inquiry into how well we dealt with the coronavirus pandemic here in the uk that that would appear

to be happening next year also we have oh hello am i am i going to have difficulty with

your name hello clock clock appear a mangle 2020 who doesn't like all of the hellos well

i have to say hello you see because it's friendly it's a nice way of starting the live stream

it also gives lots of people a chance to join and of course many people don't actually join

my live chat straight away so i always like to give everyone an equal chance of being

greeted so that's the reason why i do it you see hello also kimya kimya can you say hello

to me hello kim ya kim ya bio nice to see you here as well isn't it lovely if it is

your first time here on my lovely lovely live chat please let me know coming to you now

live from england it is a rather nice day we have a little bit of wind

and i'm not talking about mr steve's stomach but yes we do have a little bit of a breeze

however there are well actually there are some clouds in the sky but earlier this morning

well certainly when i woke up the sky was lovely and clear so there it is there is the

garden you can see now looking live and into the distance look at that very very far away

so what you are looking at there is a very distant view looking around 15 maybe 18 miles

away and you might be able to see there is some traffic moving across the screen on the

left hand side if you look very closely you might see there is some traffic moving

and that actually is one of the main motorways that serves this part of the country so so

lots of lorries lots of vehicles going along the motorway and as you can see also everything

is looking nice and green we have some lovely views at the moment as all of the leaves come

out on the trees and you might be able to see some of the birds as well flying around

the birds at the moment very excited because some of them have young chicks hello also

to carmen hello carmen nice to see you as well on today's live stream sandra gonzalez

it is a lovely day i hope it's a nice day where you are as well also we have my ace

hello my ace my ace new atele i hope i pronounce your name right carmen says mr duncan it's

my first time here hello carmen and welcome you are very welcome to join me today very

nice indeed to have your company also duck hung watching in vietnam a big hello to you

as well wow i love the view through through your window mr duncan thank you beatriz yes

it is a rather nice day even though we have had a lot of rain over the past couple of

days yesterday we had rain we had thunder we had lightning and also a little sad thing

as well outside the house there was a little pigeon that was that was rather scared and

shocked by the thunder and it flew into one of our windows the big window in the front

of the house in fact sadly it didn't make it it did die so it hit the window and then

immediately fell to the ground unfortunately because of the the noise that the thunder

was making unfortunately very sad also we have chan chan dan hello chandan kumar pandey

who is watching in india can i send my best wishes to you and also everyone watching in

india i know things at the moment are not great there as people are coming to terms

and also struggling to deal with the current pandemic that is affecting well most of us

around the world in various ways belarusia has some some news as well not good news my

brother and his family are ill with coronavirus i am very worried these days and i have trouble

sleeping in fact i have nightmares i try to relax by painting pictures of the beach all

i can say now is get well soon to belarusia's family thank you claudia for letting me know

and i hope everything will be all right there a lot of people very concerned still about

what is happening concerning the coronavirus pandemic around the world thank you also mohsen

thank you for saying hello it's lovely to have you here by the way yes we have lots

of things to talk about today one thing that was mentioned a couple of days ago by our

government because now the queen normally now when when a new a new parliament opens

quite often the queen the queen of england will give a speech and one of the things mentioned

and something that has been mentioned for a while is the rather delicate subject of

identity cards oh mr duncan that is a very controversial subject for lots of people around

the world some people have to carry and also produce identity cards to prove that they

are who they are so what about you we don't have identity cards in this country not yet

however they are talking at the moment about introducing identity cards for future elections

to prevent fraud from taking place so to stop people from voting twice or maybe to stop

a person from pretending to be someone else you have to carry an identity card so at the

moment we don't have identity cards here in the uk over the years it has been talked about

but it would appear that many people in this country do not want to to carry or to be forced

to carry an identity card which is very interesting to be honest with you it's a very interesting

subject because i do know in other countries people do have to carry identity cards a good

example being china china has an identity card system and there are other countries

as well that have a similar thing but what about you what about your country do you have

identity cards in your country something that is given to each person in the population

and they must carry it and produce it when asked by an official or a police officer so

something that is used to prove that you are who you say you are an identity card so at

the moment we don't have them at the moment we don't have them here in the uk over the

years i remember growing up many years ago people were talking about identity cards and

we still don't have them all these years later we still don't have them however it would

appear that our government is thinking about it introducing identity cards for everyone

hello to the live chat oh there you are you're still there that's good to know so what about

in your country do you have to carry identity cards where you are we often call these things

id cards and id cards so even though we don't have identity cards here in this country people

do carry i their identity with them but in other forms such as a driving license so some

people believe that we don't need to have an identity card system here because we already

have one with our driving licenses i suppose also there are times when you need to prove

who you are perhaps you are going to the bank to withdraw some money from your account so

sometimes you will have to prove that you are the person who owns or has that account

with the bank so yes quite often you will have to do that you will have to produce some

sort of identity some identification to prove who you are so these days most people will

use their driving license if you don't have a driving license like me because i don't

drive a car you can use your passport which i do have i have a passport so sometimes i

might have to produce my passport if i want to get some money from the bank or if i want

to borrow some money from the bank or if i have to prove i am who i am so even though

we don't have an official identity card system we do still have to produce some form or some

proof of our identity so it does happen let's have a look what the live chat is doing rung

sack hello rungsack nice to see you here it feels like i haven't seen you for a long time

where have you been rung sack i haven't seen you for a while apparently in thailand we

must carry our identity cards all the time so yes there is a good example i believe also

i think also in malaysia as well a country that i've been to many times i believe that

you have to carry some identity there as well intelligent asks why is your government considering

identity cards the reason why they want to do it

it might not be the real reason but the reason why they want to do it is when there is an

election people who go to vote can then prove that they are the person that they say they

are or who they say they are so you are proving that you are the person who is able to vote

and quite often identity has to be shown even though we don't have identity cards here so

the government wants everyone to have an identity card so when we go to vote we can prove very

easily that we are the person we say we are however there are people who are quite sceptical

and even

afraid is that a good word to use yes there are people who are a little bit afraid of

the identity card system they think maybe it is a way of tracking your movement or maybe

prying into what you are doing in your private life so yes it is something that may or may

not be introduced here in the uk but to be honest with you if you want my own opinion

i know you don't want it but if you want my opinion i think it's very unlikely that we

will have identity cards here i think it is quite unlikely at the moment

in vietnam

it would appear that you have to carry an identity card as well also in argentina you

have identity cards there and we need them a lot everywhere yes i do remember during

my time in china people are often stopped in the street so this is not just when you

are trying to get some money from your bank account it's actually just when you're walking

around so you can be stopped at any time and you have to show your identity card you have

to give some form of identity so that's the reason why in countries such as china people

have to carry that their identity card all the time because you might be asked to prove

that you are you uh hello my yes we have been using identity cards for example we can't

take the university exam and it is also necessary at the hospital as well

also beatriz says we have something called a dni which is the national identity document

also driving licenses and passports can be used as well yes it's very interesting so

an identity card that can prove that you are the person you are and also it will allow

you to to do certain things more easily so it might be a good idea but there are a lot

of people who feel that it is infringing on a person's right of freedom

yes grace grace chin in malaysia says yes we do have identity cards i do remember that

i remember one of my friends showing me his identity card i do remember that

christina in a few months we will also have vaccination cards as well yes actually that

is a very good point because there are people now who have to prove that they have been

vaccinated against coronavirus so there are people now who may want to travel to another

country so maybe you want to go abroad or maybe travel to another area or part of your

country quite often now people are being asked to prove that they are well maybe they have

a negative test or that they've taken or had or received their vaccination some people

have had one vaccination and there are a lot of other people as well who are waiting to

receive their second vaccination olga hello olga oh this is a very hot topic i've i think

i've picked a very hot topic today olga says my 14 year old son got a passport yesterday

that must be pretty exciting i will be honest with you there is something rather exciting

about getting your first passport or even getting any passport because it means that

you can go to other places it gives you that little bit of extra freedom to travel around

the world but yes i think it's very exciting many years ago i remember many years ago you

could actually get a temporary passport it was just a small piece of card with your photograph

on the front not anymore they they stopped they stopped giving out temporary passports

a long time ago but you could you could buy a very simple temporary passport which would

allow you to travel abroad but they've stopped now for obvious reasons when you think about

it hello to brazil kanthiani hello to you as well i hope i pronounced your name right

ah that's interesting hello kafka kafka says here in morocco oh by the way morocco i i

would love to go to morocco one day here in morocco you might be stopped by the police

and they might ask you for your identity card it happened to me many times thank you kafka

for your comment and joining in thank you very much that's very kind of you so we yes

well it's interesting because in certain parts of the uk i suppose london is a good example

there is a situation where the police can stop and search a person for any reason so

that you might be stopped by the police as you are walking around so if they have any

suspicion if they feel that maybe in some way you are doing something wrong they can

actually stop you they can ask for some some sort of identification but also they can search

you as well they can check your pockets and make sure that you are not carrying anything

that you shouldn't so that is happening in london a lot of people think that it is unfair

and there have been occurrences of certain groups being targeted unfairly but that brings

me to something very interesting because i remember in fact i always remember every time

i come back from for example malaysia or china or where was the last time we we travelled

when i came back from portugal that's right at the airport i don't know why this happens

but i'm always stopped by the security they always stop just as i go through the gate

with my suitcase someone comes over and they said excuse me sir would you mind coming this

way we'd just like to ask you some questions i don't know why why do you always take me

into your little room and ask me questions why i mean this is this is me do i look suspicious

do i do i look like a person who might be doing something wrong or something illegal

i don't know why but it does happen quite often when i come back through the airport

after traveling abroad so normally heathrow or birmingham airport or manchester airport

it doesn't matter which airport it is someone will always stop me and take me into a little

room and they will ask me questions and they will also open my suitcase as well and have

a look through my belongings it happens to me so many times and i don't know why do i

look suspicious do i look like the sort of person that you should be worried about when

i'm walking through an airport i don't know why but it does happen it does happen it happens

to me a lot

hello to john joseph 10 nice to see you here as well so i don't know why i don't know why

i am often or almost always stopped at an airport as i'm coming back into the country

quite often here in the uk when i return i don't know why

sandra gonzales says i do not like the airport mr duncan especially in the usa well if you

are traveling to the usa and this is something i've never done by the way i've never been

to the united states a lot of people are surprised by that but i've never been there so i've

never been to the usa however i do believe listening to other people that it is very

difficult getting through the customs and getting through the security checks they check

everything everything you have to stand inside a big machine and it takes a photograph of

you and it can see underneath your clothes i'm not sure if i like the sound of that to

be honest

yes why why do they choose me why do i look suspicious mr steve always finds it very amusing

because no one ever checks him they never check mr steve i don't know why he always

walks through and then and then i have to go somewhere else as if i'm some sort of criminal

very strange maybe you are too handsome to the policeman maybe the policeman likes the

look of you

trust me that has never happened mr duncan if you talk to them with a strong posh accent

nothing will happen well when i when i answer the questions i just answer the questions

as honestly as i can but the strange thing is that they still want to look inside my

suitcase what do they think i'm carrying

do i look so suspicious maybe i do maybe i do

some very interesting answers here to my question thank you very much so what about you identity

cards maybe there are countries that don't have them so we don't have them here however

i believe also you can have an identity card that is for the european union is that is

that right or am i wrong about that

beatrice says the last two trips to the uk i was stopped in bristol and i had all the

documents correct but they took me apart and did lots of questions a very sad situation

sorry to hear that beatrice i'm glad you didn't take it personally because i know how you

feel i mean i'm coming back here this is where i live this is where i belong this country

and yet i'm treated like a criminal they take me aside the only thing they don't do they

don't

they don't do any cavity searches if you know what a cavity search is then i'm very sorry

about that jetano says did you have a beard at the time no no i didn't steve thinks maybe

it's because i wear a hat sometimes so maybe it's because of my hat but still i don't know

why it looks so suspicious i don't know very strange

excuse me

that's better sorry about that i'm in my very hot studio today and it's rather warm in here

by the way do you remember about seven years ago i made a series of special lessons during

the month of may and i think today it would be nice to take a look at one of my may days

that i did way back in 2014 seven years ago can you believe that so here it is i did a

special series of lessons during the month of may and this particular lesson was actually

published on this very day in 2014 and then after this we are back with the mystery idiom

and also we have some unusual english words and also today we are going to talk about

collocations what is a collocation

oh hello there welcome to another edition of mr duncan's maydays the month of may is

passengers bye how has it been for you so far is it turning out to be a good month perhaps

it is too early to say whether this may has gone smoothly or not if something occurs with

no real changes happening we can say that it was uneventful the month passed without

incident it was just an ordinary month some might say that no occurrence at all is better

than a bad occurrence i hope whatever you are doing this month my may days will help

in some way to make the month go as well as it can

do you like my t-shirt you may not realize but this is one of my most favorite t-shirts

in the whole world it is looking a bit worn around the edges now because it's quite old

on the front there is a picture of a pop group called the pet shop boys they were very popular

around the mid 1980s and 1990s i have always been a big fan of their music when i see this

t-shirt i cannot help but reminisce and recall the past this t-shirt connects me with another

time when youth was still mine to enjoy and the summers seem so much longer brighter and

warmer if only i knew then what i know now on second thoughts perhaps not how old do

you think this t-shirt is what do you think its age is i look forward to reading your

guesses the answer will be revealed on my next mayday's lesson

in one of my earlier lessons i wore a t-shirt with the word funky on the front some of you

have asked me what the word really means the word funky has more than one meaning in its

original context the word meant a bad smell or odour it is derived from the word funk

in british english it used to mean a coward or a person who becomes scared and panics

easily this definition is no longer used nowadays funky means fashionable stylish bright and

modern in an unconventional way an eye-catching design might be described as being funky that's

a funky shirt you have on we can use the word to describe a certain type of music that has

a strong rhythm funk is a style of music that tends to have a strong beat hence the adjective

funky the term may seem dated to some but it is still used widely to describe something

that stands out from the rest

last week i decided to take a short break in a place i have been to many times i went

to wales and stayed at a place called Lake Vyrnwy while there i went for a cycle ride

around the lake on a bike i had hired for the afternoon i was able to take in the full

beauty of the lake and the nearby dam i also stopped off to take a look at the nearby waterfall

this area is a haven for wildlife lovers with all sorts of birds literally flocking to this

place

there is always something to see here

if you want to see more of lake vernwe then check out lesson 62 which has lots of information

and nice views of the lake and the surrounding area

i have received an email from vahid in norway who asks what the phrase the bottom line means

well vahid the phrase bottom line is used in a discussion to highlight the important

or significant parts of what is being talked about whatever has been said and however the

discussion went there are still factors that cannot be ignored the bottom line is used

to highlight these things we can talk about this all day but the bottom line is i'm not

leaving whatever you think of mary the bottom line is we are still getting married in economics

the bottom line is used to show the final total of an account or balance sheet thank

you vahid for your question and if you have a word that you'd like me to explain then

feel free to drop a line to me at my email address

do you like my stone head his name is brian he doesn't say much as he's a bit shy in english

there are some words and phrases relating to the word head for example

big head if we call someone a big head we are saying that this person likes to talk

about how clever they are or how good they are at something they like to brag and talk

about how well they did in an exam or how they won an award for achieving something

a big headed person is never modest

then there is come to a head if something comes to a head then it means that an event

or situation has reached a point where it must be dealt with when a problem or situation

reaches a critical point we can say that it has come to a head the situation at work came

to a head last friday when peter was fired

then there is the phrase roof over your head to have a roof over your head means that you

have somewhere to stay a warm and cozy place to sleep or a house can be a roof over your

head all i need is a meal and a roof over my head and i'm happy

then there is head case if we describe someone as a head case then we are saying that this

person is unhinged and unstable in the mind it is used negatively to show that a person's

behaviour might be a little crazy or violent my neighbour was shouting and screaming all

night i think he's a bit of a head case

another head phrase is get your head out of the clouds this means that you should stop

daydreaming and pay attention then there is have your head in the clouds this means that

you are daydreaming you are always thinking about things unrelated to the real world you

should get your head out of the clouds and start studying for your exam

our final head idiom is headless chicken this is used to show that someone is behaving in

a panicky or anxious way a person is rushing around in a disorganized way they are behaving

like a headless chicken this phrase refers to the state of a chicken after its head has

been chopped off the boss's arrival had them all running around like headless chickens

this is mr duncan in england saying thank you for watching me teaching you in the merry

old month of may and of course

and there it was one of my maydays from 2014 i can't believe that that was seven years

ago

it is live english addict extra for this wednesday the 12th of may 2020 how are you today i hope

you are feeling super duper i hope you are as fit as a fiddle by the way if you like

this don't forget to give me a thumb a big like under this video it would be lovely if

you could do that if you could take your finger right now and click on the like button go

on do it now do it now

let's have a look at today's mystery idiom i was going to show it earlier but i forgot

to be honest with you here it is today's mystery idiom is coming up on your screen it is a

well-known phrase in the english language it is something that is often said especially

these days there there there is a clue for you today's mystery idiom what do you think

it is if you think you know what it is if you think you have a good idea what the mystery

idiom is today let me know on the live chat go on don't be shy

give it a try or else you'll make mr duncan cry oh hello to the live chat very nice to

see you all here today sometimes when you go through the security at an airport even

even if you've done nothing wrong even if you are completely innocent you will still

feel as if you've done something wrong you will still feel guilty especially if someone

comes over and asks you to go with them to a small room where they will ask lots of questions

and sometimes they might search you they might look in lots of different places to try and

find something that you might be carrying in your suitcase or somewhere on or inside

your body i don't like the sound of that to be honest we have some unusual english words

coming up today also i thought it would be nice to have a look at something to do with

english grammar and this is a question that was actually asked a couple of weeks ago so

i thought today whilst we have some free time on this wednesday i thought we would have

a look at collocations what is a collocation you might ask mr duncan can you please tell

me all about collocations i want to know more a collocation refers to the occurrence of

one word being used alongside one or more other words in other words a word that appears

in a sentence next to another word they are used next to each other they are placed side

by side

moving on this occurrence is one that happens not only by chance but also the habitual formation

of sentences so in other words this is something that is not happening by chance this is something

that is being used in a certain way to produce a phrase so these particular sentences are

quite common you might say you might say that collocations are actually quite common so

this occurrence is one that happens not by chance but by the habitual formation of sentences

by juxtaposing certain words oh mr duncan that's a big word juxtapose to juxtapose is

to place things alongside or next to each other so juxtapose basically means side by

side they are next to each other a little bit like this sentence what is a collocation

that sentence has all of the words put side by side what is a collocation that is what

we are talking about today by the way collocations are often seen as an important part of not

only communicating in english but also when learning to construct sentences so one of

the reasons why i'm mentioning this today is because collocations are also a very important

part of not only word building but also sentence building so that is one of the reasons why

in school and i remember i remember at school many years ago when i was a little child learning

my collocations words that will often appear next to each other in sentences not by chance

but they are there for a reason they occur very often so that is the reason why we normally

single those out and it's also a reason why we often teach them when we are teaching languages

in my case english a collocation occurs more frequently by than by simple chance so it's

there for a reason there is a reason why those words fall next to each other they are not

just happening by chance the formulation of collocations produces familiar sounding phrases

but are not necessarily seen as idiomatic so these are not necessarily idioms or expressions

but they are words that that come together and are used together or next to each other

by a certain purpose they serve a purpose in the sentence collocations with mr duncan

i hope you're enjoying this i know a lot of people think mr duncan we don't like it when

we you talk about grammar it's a little bit boring but some people like to hear about

these special uses of words in english so here are some examples of a collocation and

you can see straight away how these particular phrases are constructed so for example you

have heavy drinker very common you will see these two words used next to each other however

the words do not necessarily have any connection heavy drinker hmm what is a heavy drinker

a person who drinks alcohol as a habit they can't stop we might describe them as a heavy

drinker so that is a collocation light sleeper a person who finds it very hard to stay asleep

they are very easily disturbed by noise or sounds they are a light sleeper so you are

using two words next to each other but they are not necessarily connected a light sleeper

of course there might be an opposite to that you can also say heavy sleeper so this collocation

can actually be used again and again with different words and they still form collocations

strong wind you might have strong wind you might have light wind

on time someone who is on time a person who is on time is a person who arrives at the

right time they are punctual they have arrived when they should they have arrived on time

and then we have big deal big deal big deal we are using these two words together to show

a certain thing so perhaps if you have a big deal maybe you are going to trade with a person

and perhaps this particular trade is a very big thing a big deal so these are all examples

of collocations and there are many of them in the english language i will be honest with

you there are many people

who become very confused by collocations to be honest here are some more examples and

again you have long grass new car you might be at work so again this is a very familiar

way of using words these are all very familiar phrases and because they are used often we

will refer to them as collocations long grass new car be it work take off hot tea how many

times have you used that word and that phrase hot tea how do you like your tea do you like

hot tea or warm tea maybe you like your tea cold again many ways of expressing collocations

you might have no room you might be up above down below you might feel the need you go

out so these are all ways of placing words next to each other but not by chance they

are placed on purpose and also they often appear very familiar collocations are often

familiar phrases so they are phrases that also seem familiar they are things that are

easily understood and also easily recognized which is why they are very important if you

are learning english especially as a second language here are some more examples put up

pull down take time worn out you can also have wear out blonde hair it's a collocation

hairy legs a person whose legs are covered with hair they have hairy legs continuing

collocations are divided into different types there are different types of collocations

you might not realize that and they are divided depending on how often they are used on their

frequency how often they are used in english there are weak collocations and there are

strong collocations but what is the difference i hear you ask a word that frequently forms

collocations is weak so that is a common word that can often be used to form collocations

a good example would be on on on is a very common word and it's often used in collocations

so it would be described as weak and then of course a word that does not form collocations

very often is strong and there are some examples of weak collocations

the word big for example is a weak collocation because big can be used very often quite often

in front of another word or next to another word so when you think about big you can think

of many phrases many phrases will come into your head straight away big tree big house

big man big deal and then we have the word curly curly that of course is describing the

shape or the appearance of something the word curly is a strong collocation which means

it is not used very often or it can't be used so when you think about things that are curly

there are only certain situations where that word can be used thus it becomes a strong

collocation so the more it can be used the weaker it is we have a weak collocation and

a strong collocation

collocations form a strong basis of the learning process when it comes to phrase building and

that is the reason why quite often if you are learning english even if you are learning

it as a native language like me many years ago collocations are taught because it is

a very good way of learning the way in which phrases are formed we use collocations all

the time perhaps more than we even realize so that is how you describe and also define

collocations the form of a collocation commonly consists of but is not restricted to a description

and a noun so when we say the description of something we are of course talking about

how it looks an adjective so quite often we will use an adjective and a noun when we are

forming a collocation maybe a big thing so a large tree as you can see we have the description

and also the noun that is used as well so collocations are quite common they are a big

part of the english language they are a way of forming sentences by putting words next

to each other however those words form a very familiar pattern in fact today i would imagine

that i've used hundreds if not thousands of collocations whilst i've been talking to you

if you want to review collocations you are more than welcome to do so by watching my

live stream again you can go back and watch that as many times as you want collocations

is a very important part of structure when we are forming sentences

today's mystery idiom

i haven't had any answers

interesting

can you give us some advice about a good english book or english grammar book there are many

many different types of english grammar book some of them concentrate on certain types

of grammar some of them will give you all of the basics of grammar so i suppose it depends

where you are starting from if your level of english is low then you start with all

of the basic grammar if you want to learn a little bit more then maybe you will look

for something that is intermediate and then of course if you have a very high level of

english you might want to look at some advanced grammar

christina says curly hair yes you can describe hair as curly so that forms a collocation

however there are not many sentences where the word curly can be used when you think

about it there aren't you might have a dog with a curly tail maybe you have curly hair

however there aren't many other uses or any occurrences of the word curly being used as

a collocation

hello hello oh hello we have tugba hello talkbar hello my friends i learned english thanks

to mr duncan thank you took bar took bartolin thank you very much very nice

who apparently has curly hair i do not have any curly hair unfortunately i haven't got

any curly hair well not on my head anyway

that's very kind some lovely messages coming through today thank you very much it's very

kind of you the mystery idiom i will give you the answer to the mystery idiom in a few

minutes time however we still have something else to do today we have to look at some unusual

english words coming up in a moment

hello razzle razzle john mumeenov

we are the people celebrating ramadan yes i think there are a lot of people with the

festival of ramadan taking place at the moment i think so yes i believe is eid is coming

up am i right i think so christina says i like the famous painter with his curly mustache

yes i know who you're on about you are on about salvador dali because salvador dali

had a very interesting moustache his moustache was curly curly so he shaped his moustache

into a very interesting shape curly very nice

you might have a curly moustache yes

there are many things that can be curly i suppose maybe if you have a piece of bread

and it goes dry you might find that the bread will go curly so something that dries might

become curly maybe a leaf so there are some instances where you can use the word curly

however it is not very often that you can use it which is why it will form a strong

collocation instead of weak hello to the live chat once again very nice to see you here

today we have some strange english words coming up in a moment would you like to see them

okay then here are some unusual english words you know i love the english language so much

so i thought today we would have a look at some strange english words beginning with

the letter f l so all of these strange english words begin with f l that the first two letters

of each of these words so the first unusual word coming up right now

what's this what is on my screen oh we have flounce i like that word flounce flounce if

you flounce it means you walk away angrily so maybe a person has annoyed you maybe they've

said something to you that has upset you and made you angry you might flouts away you flounce

off you walk away you go away in an angry state you feel angry or annoyed so you will

okay i'm going

and that is flounce you flounce off you flounce away oh that's very nice some lovely messages

on the live chat thank you very much yes tomorrow is eid day a lot of people coming to towards

the end of of ramadan so yes yes hello to everyone are you still fasting i don't know

how you can do that because because i love food i would find that very hard to do to

be honest flounce is our first unusual english word today here's another one oh flaunt flaunt

if you flaunt well first of all it is used as a verb to show off or display something

so maybe you are showing something perhaps you are showing off your new dress or maybe

you are showing off your beautiful face you flaunt yourself you are showing something

to everyone who is in the room or nearby flaunt some people like to flaunt their wealth they

like to spend their money openly they like to let other people know that they are wealthy

or they have lots of money flaunt you show or you show off you display something for

everyone to see you flaunt

something here's another one we are looking at some

unusual english words today oh now this is almost the same as the last word that we just

had flout flout this word is also used as a verb to go against a rule so maybe if there

are some rules that you must obey you must abide by the rules perhaps a person will go

against that rule so maybe if you are told that you must never drop any litter on the

foot on the floor or on the ground we can say that you flout that law you are flouting

the law because you are dropping litter on the floor you are going around dropping your

litter because you don't care you flout the law you go against a rule and of course if

you want to put it simply you can say disobey to flout is to disobey to go against a certain

rule or law oh i like this one

flirt hello there hi hello so do you come here often i've never seen you here before

is it your first time oh please tell me more about yourself to appear attracted to someone

in a playful way to flirt with a work colleague so maybe there is someone at work and you

like to flirt with them flirt you are appearing to be attracted to that person but quite often

we will do it in a playful way so maybe we are not doing it seriously however you flirt

so there is no there is there is no intention involved so you are not trying to find a girlfriend

or a boyfriend you just like to flirt with people sometimes people do not like people

who flirt maybe your girlfriend will become very jealous if you flirt with other girls

or perhaps your boyfriend will become very jealous if you flirt with other men with someone

besides your partner you see so flirting can be fun but also it can be a little a little

risky as well here's another one oh i like this one flabbergast flabbergast to astonish

or surprise someone if you say something or do something or show something that surprises

a person ah wow you flabbergast them you flabbergast that person and of course as an adjective

you can say that that person is flabbergasted so they appear flabbergasted they are flabbergasted

by the thing that you have shown them or the thing you have said i don't believe what you've

just said i'm

flabbergasted to flabbergast a person and here is the final one before we prepare to

say goodbye flimflam i like this word it doesn't look like a real word but it is a real word

i can guarantee flimflam is definitely a real word it is used often as a noun and it means

nonsense or insincere talk so maybe a person is pretending to be interested or they are

trying to sell something to you they are trying their best to persuade you to buy something

they will often use flim flam they will talk quite a lot or maybe they will talk insincerely

in an insincere way so they don't really mean what they say so if a person is insincere

it means they are saying things or doing things but they don't really mean it they are being

insincere oh yes gobsmacked thank you louis gob smacked if you are gobsmacked that also

means surprised and shocked very good i will be going in a few moments i will show you

the answer to today's mystery idiom i thought this one was difficult which is probably why

not many people gave the answer oh apparently according to anna the word flirt is used in

italian as well okay i did not know that but now i do so here is today's mystery idiom

it is a well-known expression in the english language but what is it

here is the answer right now

oh mr duncan that is that is very naughty the answer to today's mystery idiom a sign

of the times oh oh yes we can see what you've done now so you've got some some signs and

on those signs there are different times very good very interesting a sign of the times

is a well-known expression it is a well-known idiom and it means an indication of how the

present day is moving it is normally used in a negative way to show how things are changing

for the worse bad things that appear to be occurring more and more are seen as being

a sign of the times so quite often we will use this particular expression in a negative

way it is a sign of the times that many children are leaving school unable to read or write

it is a sign of the times you might also say that it is a sad time or a sad sign of the

time

so there it was did you get it well if you didn't don't worry because now you know a

new expression that is the reason why we do it

thank you very much to everyone on the live chat today yes i will be going soon however

don't worry i will be back with you on sunday so i'm back on sunday and yes mr steve will

be here as well for those wondering mr steve will be here with me next sunday on another

note before i go can i just say that this saturday is a little bit of a sad day for

me because i will be going to my family home for the last time ever so this weekend we

are officially clearing and we will be giving the keys to the house in which we grew up

in we will be handing them back because my mother at the moment is in care and she will

not be returning home sadly and now the house has has unfortunately it has to be given back

to to the company from which we've been renting it for 53 years can you believe it we've been

living in that house for 53 years and on saturday we will be saying goodbye to it so yes i think

it will be a sad moment of time so i hope you will join me on sunday because you might

have to cheer me up a little bit and of course mr steve will be here as well thanks for your

company today i hope you've enjoyed this live stream i hope it's been useful don't forget

you can watch it again and later there will be captions on the screen as well so there

will be captions subtitles later you can watch this again if there is anything you have missed

you very much for your company thanks for your lovely messages yes i'm going over to

stafford on saturday and i will be saying goodbye to my family home not very nice really

see you on sunday take care enjoy the rest of your wednesday wherever you are in the

world stay happy stay safe keep that smile upon your face and i will see you on sunday

thank you vitas thank you mohsin thank you also beatrice mogmog oh hello mogmog i didn't

see you there thanks for joining me as well thank you zuzika monica victoria thank you

vitas thank you intelligent thank you also palmyra see you later everybody hello leah

litty leah guess what sadly i am going but i will see you on sunday take care see you

soon this is mr duncan in the birthplace of english saying thanks for watching me today

i hope you've enjoyed this english addict extra live stream and of course you know what's

coming next until the next time we meet here on youtube

ta ta for now