You Will Never Speak English NATURALLY if You Don't Do This!

- Today, I want to talk about the power

of learning English through collocations.

Now, a collocation is simply two or more words

that go together in a natural way.

For example, when you compare do and make,

we say things like "do a good job", "to do a good job",

"he did a great job yesterday".

Whereas, we "make a phone call", "make a phone call".

And I imagine that,

when you have learned this difference before,

a teacher or a book might have explained the rules

between when to use do and when to use make.

But, in many cases, we can't explain

when we use make and when we use do, by rules.

Instead, it just is what it is.

We say "he did a great job", we "make a phone call".

It's just the way it is.

And, again, these can't be explained by rules.

Now, learning collocations and storing them in your memory

means that you'll be able to speak more naturally,

and you'll be able to speak more fluently, too.

Because native speakers grew up internalizing collocations.

They heard these word combinations

over and over and over again.

So, it just seems natural for them

to say "did a great job" or "make a phone call".

And, instead of thinking about grammar rules,

when native speakers talk

they just use this stored knowledge, and it just feels right

to use collocations in the right way.

So, before we look at some more examples of collocations,

my first tip is just to get lots of input.

And I talked about this in a recent video

called "The Power of Input".

Now, after this lesson, I want you to watch that,

but the idea is that, as you see lots of sentences

in English, you're going to store these in your memory

and be able to use them naturally when speaking.

And the same is true of collocations.

The more collocations you see, the more collocations

you listen to when listening to podcasts,

or read when you're reading books, the more

you'll just be able to use them naturally and fluently,

and you won't have to think about this too much.

So, read lots of English and listen to lots of English.

But, you could also be more specific with this

by focusing on collocations.

And I think this is a really good thing to do,

if you want to sound more natural when speaking English.

So, look up common collocations.

Find examples of these collocations.

And also find collocations

that are going to be specific to you.

What I mean by this is, if you love speaking

about football or soccer in everyday English,

then learn collocations that are specific to this subject.

Learn things like football team, football stadium,

score a goal, make a save, own goal,

second half, first half, final whistle.

In fact, before we go on, let's just have a little test.

All I want you to do is to complete the sentence.

I haven't something a goal in a long time.

I haven't something a goal in a long time.

I haven't scored a goal in a long time.

You might hear people say,

"I haven't made a goal in a long time."

And, when somebody says this to me,

I more or less understand what they're trying to say,

but to sound more natural

you say "score a goal", instead of "made a goal".

And, again, learning these collocations

are going to help you sound more natural when speaking.

Over the coming weeks and months, I'm going to make lessons

which give you common collocations

related to different topics.

So, what I want you to do is to let me know

which topics you want me to cover.

And you can also learn collocations by taking a word

and learning the collocations with that word.

For example, have.

There are many collocations that use the word have.

Have a good time, this is a really good one to know.

Have a good time, have a great trip, have a fantastic meal.

You can also have a word with somebody,

which means to talk to them about something specific,

usually something that is bothering them.

So, I need to have a word with you about this.

You can also have a think, to have a think.

I need to have a think about it, I need to take my time.

I need to take my time

and have a think about this situation.

Now, you can learn collocations on your own

by looking up common collocations in English,

looking at the example sentences

and then internalizing those sentences.

Now, to internalize sentences, use the To Fluency method

or the sentence method, where you take sentences,

put them into spaced repetition software

and get the repetition that you need.

To learn more about this method, check out the description.

But what I want you to do is to commit

to learning collocations, whether you do this naturally,

through the input method, or you get specific

with collocations, through the sentence method.

It's going to help your accuracy, it's going to make you

sound more natural, and it's going to help your fluency.

Because, instead of trying to think what is right to say,

you will feel what is right to say,

and it will just come out naturally and instantly

without you having to translate word for word.

And, in fact, translating word for word

doesn't work well when it comes to natural English.

Instead, you should look at common collocations in English

and translate that collocation

into something similar in your own language.

Or just know the definition

and internalize this just in English.

So, comment below and tell me what type of lessons

you want me to make on collocations.

I'm going to make a list, and I'm going

to make some fun lessons that are going to give you

common collocations related to specific topics.

And, if you have enjoyed this lesson,

if you have found it useful,

then please press that like button,

and also press that share button, that little arrow thing,

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with your friends on WhatsApp, or just share it by email

with somebody who you think will find it useful.

And while you're here, why not watch another video of mine.

Just click one of these videos here

and continue learning with me.

Thank you for watching.

(pleasant music)