You can know a word perfectly and still use it wrong.

Ask any English teacher what separates a good B2 student from a fluent one, and you will not hear “more vocabulary”. You will hear collocations — the words that go together. Make a mistake, not do a mistake. Heavy rain, not strong rain. Take a decision in British English, make one in American.

Nobody teaches you these. You absorb them, or you sound slightly off forever.

Here are 60 of the most useful, organised so you can actually learn them.

Collocations with MAKE

• make a mistake — I made a mistake in the report.
• make a decision — She made the decision overnight.
• make an effort — He made a real effort to be polite.
• make progress — We’re making progress, slowly.
• make an appointment
• make a suggestion
• make sense — That doesn’t make any sense.
• make a difference
• make friends
• make a living — She makes a living from translation.

Collocations with DO

• do your best
• do homework / do the washing-up
• do business — We’ve done business with them for years.
• do damage — The storm did serious damage.
• do research
• do someone a favour
• do harm
• do the shopping

The rule of thumb: DO for tasks and work, MAKE for creating and producing. It breaks often, but it gets you most of the way.

Collocations with TAKE

• take responsibility
• take a risk
• take advantage of
• take place — The meeting takes place on Tuesday.
• take your time
• take notes
• take into account
• take part in

Collocations with HAVE

• have a look
• have an argument
• have an impact on
• have second thoughts
• have a point — You have a point, actually.
• have trouble doing something

Strong adjective + noun pairs

• heavy rain (not strong rain)
• strong coffee (not heavy coffee)
• deep sleep
• bitter disappointment
• burning ambition
• a narrow escape
• a golden opportunity
• considerable influence
• a stark warning
• in-depth knowledge

Business and work collocations

• meet a deadline (not reach a deadline)
• reach an agreement
• hold a meeting
• launch a product
• earn a promotion
• negotiate a salary
• resolve a conflict
• manage expectations
• assume responsibility
• a conflict of interest

Everyday collocations learners get wrong

• pay attention (not give attention)
• keep a promise (not hold a promise)
• catch a cold (not take a cold)
• break the law
• tell the truth (not say the truth)
• save time
• miss an opportunity
• run late

How to actually learn these

Never learn a word alone. When you meet a new word, write down two or three words that live beside it. A vocabulary notebook full of single words is almost useless; one full of pairs is worth ten times as much.

Learn them in sentences, not lists. “Heavy rain” means little on its own. “We got caught in heavy rain on the way back” sticks.

Notice, don’t memorise. Once you know collocations exist, you start hearing them everywhere — and that noticing does more work than any list, including this one.

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Written by a working English teacher who got tired of watching good students sound stiff.

Related: 40 advanced English words that make you sound C1