100 collocations in less than 15 min!

I always translate from my first language to English and that's why I don't sound natural. Does that sound like you? Because if it does, then this video is for you because today I'll teach you how to stop translating and how to sound natural when you're talking to native speakers. Why do we translate in the first place? The thing is, when we study English, we mostly focus on words, phrasal verbs, idioms, maybe, but we almost always overlook collocations. Meanwhile, according to some research in linguistics, collocations make up up to 50% of our speech. Guys, can you imagine? 50%. That's a lot. What exactly are the collocations? I'm going to give you two examples. I have to more sleep and I need to a nap. There are two verbs missing in these sentences. What are they? That's right. In the first sentence, you would say, I have to get more sleep and I need to take a nap. Guys, have a look. Both sentences are about sleeping, but for some reason in English, we say, get sleep and take a nap. And these are two examples of collocations, ready-made combinations that native speakers typically use together. We don't notice them because they are all over the place. But in this video, guys, we're going to learn 100 most important collocations that will help you stop translating. Let's dive into it. In this video, we're going to focus on collocations with do and make. And you see seven expressions in front of you. All of them are used with the same verb. Is it do or make? What do you think? That's right. In these phrases, we use the verb do. So whenever we talk about work, doesn't matter, homework, housework, paperwork, we always use the verb do. And not only with the word work itself, but with some of the expressions that are related to work. For example, I would say, do chores. I hate doing chores, by the way. Or do a job. You're doing a great job. You're watching this video and improving your English. Do business. Business, work, those are related things, right? I could say they've been doing business together for 10 years. Do taxes. Every year I have to do my taxes. I don't like it, but I have to. Do an assignment. I have to do my English assignment or an exercise, right? Those are two similar words. A course. I'm doing a course in digital marketing this semester. Do a task. I did all my tasks from my to-do list. Another expression, do research or an experiment. But guys, pay attention. When we use the word research, we don't use an article because the word research is uncountable, okay? So we cannot say do a research, we say do research. Now let's talk about housework a little more. I'm going to show you a few expressions. You see them in front of you. The question is the same. Would you use the verb do or make? That's right. In these expressions, in these collocations, you would also use the verb do. We say do the cleaning, do the laundry, do the dishes, the ironing, the shopping, do groceries. Pay attention. Almost every expression about household chores has the article of the, but with the word groceries, we say do groceries. Moving on. Let's talk about fitness and self-care. Before making this video, I did my hair, I did my makeup, I did my nails. So when we talk about self-care, ladies, we use the verb do. Every evening before going to bed, I do my seven-step skincare routine. So we say do a skincare routine. In the morning though, I do stretches. Sometimes I do yoga or Pilates. I can do cardio from time to time, but I've never done martial arts and I've never done karate. So guys, as you can see from these examples, when we talk about fitness or sports, very often we use the verb do as well. Moving on, we have a few more collocations with the verb do. For example, you know this one, do a favor. Can you do me a favor and close the window or do your best? I'm doing my best. Guys, I'm doing my best with this video. So please smash the subscribe button, like, comment, share. I would really appreciate it. Do the right thing. That's another collocation. Ladies and gentlemen, do the right thing and subscribe to this channel. Do damage. For example, I can say smoking can do serious damage to your health. Do harm. So as you can see, do damage and do harm are two similar expressions. So we use the same verb. I could say this medicine won't do any harm. Don't worry. Now let's talk about money. Again, I'm going to show you 10 expressions. Your job, that's right, your job is to guess the correct verb. In this case, we would use the verb make. In English, we say make money, make a profit. The word profit is usually used when we talk about a company. For example, we made a huge profit this year. You can also say make a living. This is a very cool expression that means to earn enough money to support yourself. For example, I make a living by teaching English online. What about you guys? How do you make a living? Let me know in the comments below. Make a fortune. It means to make a lot of money. Make an investment. If you study English, you are making an investment into your future. Make a donation. If we talk about charity and everything that is related to kind of like banking, payments, make a payment, make a transaction, make a deposit. Oh, I'm also going to teach you one idiom, make ends meet. This is a cool idiom that means to earn just enough money to cover your basic expenses. For example, if you live from paycheck to paycheck, you can say, oh, you know what, I'm just making ends meet. Another important thing for you to remember is that when we talk about food, we also use the verb make. For example, make breakfast, make lunch, make dinner, make a cup of coffee. Can you please make a cup of coffee? Make a salad, make a sandwich, make a cake. All right. So with any dish, you would use the verb make. But you can ask me, you can ask, hey, Veronica, but why do we say do the cooking, but make, let's say, a sandwich? Isn't it the same thing? So what is the difference exactly between do and make? Well, guys, we use do when we talk about something boring, like performing an action, a task, routine. And we use make when we talk about something a little more exciting, when we talk about creating something new. For example, when I say do the cooking, I could say, oh, I'm so tired. Can you do the cooking today? I'm talking about something boring, right? But I could say, I made a tuna sandwich for you. So that sounds a little more exciting, like maybe I used a new recipe. So this is the difference. But, guys, the rule doesn't always work, okay? But most of the time it works and it might help you choose the right verb. Now imagine that you're talking about plans and decisions. I have a few expressions, a few collocations in front of you. So would you use the verb do or make? Have a look. With these expressions, when we talk about, again, plans and decisions, we use the verb make. So you would say make a decision, make a commitment, make plans, make a reservation, let's say a restaurant reservation, make an appointment, like a doctor's appointment, or make an arrangement, right? Appointment, arrangement, those are very similar words. Make a schedule, a list, a choice. So as you can see, if you look at all the other expressions, they are all about, you know, the same thing. There is also an idiom, make up your mind. For example, when we go shopping and I can't choose between two things, my husband always tells me, Veronica, please make up your mind. Make an effort, make progress. I'm pretty sure that this video will help you make huge progress in your fluency. Make a discovery, make a breakthrough, make a change. We are moving on to the next part. We're going to talk about collocations related to communication. And in this part, I would like to share a little story. So a few days ago, we had a Christmas dinner and I invited a bunch of my friends over. And I also have a cat who is a little, you know, chunky. I'm going to show you a little picture here. So one of my friends made an awkward comment about my cat's weight and it was a little awkward. So then he tried to make a joke about it to soften it, but it really didn't, didn't really work. So he decided to leave the room by making an excuse that he needed to make a call. Later, he came back, apologized and made a promise to think before saying things like that. And then he made a suggestion to go grab some coffee. So we're fine. We're still friends. But if you look at this story, you're going to see a few very important collocations with the verb make, such as make a comment, a joke, make an excuse, make a call, a promise, a suggestion, or an offer, a suggestion, an offer, a proposal. So guys, when you talk about communication, you would use the word make. Guys, don't forget that you will receive a free PDF with all these collocations and some exercises. So make sure to subscribe to my newsletter by following the link down here below, because it's one thing to watch a video and try to remember them. And it's another thing when you do some practice and you actually put in more effort. So the PDF is down there. Let's move on. Collocations about mistakes. As you already know, when we talk about mistakes, we also use the verb make. So you would say make a mistake or an error, make an error, make a mess. My cat always makes a mess. Make noise, make trouble. That's why we say troublemaker. And the last thing I want to talk about today is collocations about emotions and reactions. For example, make love. We say make love. I think there was this slogan, make love, not war. Make a move. Very often we use this expression in romantic situations. For example, he really likes her, but he's too shy to make a move. So here make a move means maybe like asking her out, you know, or just talking to her, flirting with her. We also have an expression, make a difference. Like it doesn't make any difference to me. I don't care. And make a scene. For example, you can say, when she saw her ex with someone else, she made a scene. So today we had a look at over 100 collocations. And guys, I promise if you remember these collocations, at least like 80% of them, you are going to sound more natural. But please make sure that you practice and that you print out the PDF that is here below. And I'll see you in my next video lesson.