In language there are words that go naturally together. For example, in English we “make a cake”, “do business”, “take a photo”, “have a drink”.In another language, the verb that goes with those nouns could be different. For instance, in Italian we say “take a drink”, “make business”, “make a photo”. If you were to literally translate the expression from Italian to English, it would sound strange to a native speaker.
语言中有些词很自然的搭在一起用。例如:英语中我们说“make a cake”, “do business”, “take a photo”, “have a drink”.在另外一种语言里,这些动词与名词搭配在一起意义可能截然不同。例如:在意大利语里我们说“take a drink”, “make business”, “make a photo”.如果你非要将这些文字表达按字面意思从意大利语翻成英语,那对于一个本土人来说可能会听起来很奇怪。

This is called “collocation”. The Cambridge Dictionary describes collocation as:“a word or phrase that is often used with another word or phrase, in a way that sounds correct to people who have spoken the language all their lives, but might not be expected from the meaning.“
这种现象叫“词的搭配”。剑桥词典是这样描述词的搭配的:一个单词或词组,经常与另外一个单词或词组搭配使用,人们生活中经常这样固定搭配着说,听起来才觉得正确,但不能从字面意义得到词组搭配的具体含义。”

So, in one of the examples above “take a drink”would not sound as natural as “have a drink”.
所以,在上面的例子当中“take a drink”如果说成“have a drink”时,就会听起来不自然。

80% of language learning is vocabulary. All my clients tell me that they want to widen their vocabulary. When I ask them how they intend to do that, they don’t always know. Some say that they make a list of all the words they discover. When I ask them to then create a sentence with the words they’ve learned, they often don’t know what to do. And that’s the problem.
语言学习中80%是词汇学习。我的所有学员都跟我讲他们想扩大词汇量。但当我问到他们打算怎么做时,他们总是无可奈何。有人说他把发现的新词做成一张清单。当我让他们用自己学到的新单词造句时他们却不会。这就是问题所在。

Words on their own are meaningless. You need to know how to use them in a sentence and in the right context. And for that you need to know what words go naturally together. That’s why collocation is important.
词汇于他们而言就是毫无意义的。你需要知道在什么场合和什么句子里可以用到这些词。正因如此,你需要知道哪些词是自然而然的结合在一起使用。这就是为什么“词的搭配”如此重要。

Unfortunately for learners, there are no rules that can be studied when it comes to collocations. The only thing you can do is to practice using the expressions as much as you can. That could be done through reading, listening, speaking and writing. The more you use the expressions, the more natural they will become to use.
很不幸,对于学习者来说词的搭配是毫无规律可循的。你唯一能做的就是尽可能多的用这些固定搭配。你可以通过阅读,听力,口语和写作来全面练习。你用的次数越多,用起来就越顺畅自然。

I, like many of my colleagues, spend a lot of time teaching collocations and that’s why I thought I’d start a new series entitled “English Collocations”. I plan to select one word (normally a noun) and give examples of verbs and adjectives that naturally collocate with it. I will then show how to use those expressions in example sentences.
我和我的众多同事,也花了许多时间来教词的搭配,这就是为什么我要发起一个新的冠名为“英语词搭配用法”的系列文章。我打算选取一个词(通常是名词),然后给出它与各种动词和形容词搭配的例句。我会在例句中解释如何用这些表达方法。

I’m going to start the series off with the word “conversation”.
先从“conversation”这个词开始。

Collocations_conversation词的搭配之“对话篇”

1. Tom and James fell into a serious conversation about what would be the right step to take for the business.
汤姆和詹姆斯就如何接手生意这件严肃的事攀谈起来。

2. They always get into an animated conversation when it involves football.
只要对话涉及到足球,他们就可以很快加入热烈的谈话中。

3. She is very good at striking up a conversation with strangers at parties.
在派对上,她很擅长与陌生人攀谈交际。

4. I found them deep in conversation, so I left them to it.
我发现他们聊的不可开交,所以我默默的离开了。

5. After an hour of idle chat, she finally managed to bring the conversation around to serious matters.
经过一个小时的闲聊,她终于成功的把严肃话题提上议程。

6. We often find ourselves drifting into a conversation about our respective children.
我发现在交谈中我们会不自觉的就把话题转到谈论各自孩子的问题上去。

7. As the conversation was getting very heated, I needed to steer it to a safer, less contentious subject.
由于谈话越来越激烈,我需要把话题转到一个更安全,更具有可持续性的话题上。

8. Jack is very good at engaging his clients in a stimulating conversation.
杰克很擅长将客户引入令人兴奋的话题里。

9. I found the conversation on the traffic so boring that I tried to move it on to something more interesting like the weather!
我发现关于交通的话题很无聊,于是我试图将话题转入一些像天气一样聊起来有趣的话题上去。

10. I don’t mind small talk, but I can’t bear it when the conversation becomes so one-sided that it stops being a conversation and becomes a monologue!
我不介意寒暄闲聊,但是当对话有些一边倒的趋势以至于对话停止变成了一方的独白时我实在是无法忍受。

Can you think of other words that collocate with “conversation”that you’ve used and would like to share?
你能想出其它你用过的与“conversation”搭配的词吗,要不要来分享下呢?