Focus on Language Study

The Language Study pages in the Macmillan Essential Dictionary have been designed to help you to improve your knowledge and use of the English language. They contain information on how words are formed (Word formation) and how new meanings develop (Metaphor), how words relate to each other (Collocation, Register, Text types) and how they are pronounced (Pronunciation).

Increasing your vocabulary is an essential part of learning a foreign language — and remembering new words and phrases is often the hardest part. We have included a separate section (Topic vocabulary) that brings together words and phrases that will help you to talk and write about key topic areas.

Throughout this section there is advice on how to improve your learning strategies, activities to practise these strategies, and exercises to test what you have learnt. We hope that you will find these pages informative, useful — and, above all, enjoyable.

This month we take a look at what collocation is, why it is important, and list some examples of strong collocations such as idioms and phrasal verbs. You can read the article in British or American English.