Speaker 0 | 00:00.040
Hey everyone, welcome back. Ready for another deep dive. Today we’re going to be focusing on collocations.
Speaker 1 | 00:06.863
Collocations, those fascinating word pairings.
Speaker 0 | 00:09.985
Exactly, like make a wish, heavy rain.
Speaker 1 | 00:13.147
Perfect examples.
Speaker 0 | 00:14.407
Our listeners have sent us a ton of really interesting collocations to look at today, so let’s just jump right in. Okay, first up we have a bunch of collocations all around pottery.
Speaker 1 | 00:26.234
Pottery,
Speaker 0 | 00:26.914
yeah. So we’ve got pottery class, pottery wheel. Even pottery shard. It seems like pottery is kind of like the anchor here. But what’s the big deal about these pairings?
Speaker 1 | 00:36.471
Well, each collocation adds like a layer of specificity. You know, it goes from the general craft of pottery all the way to the specific tools and actions involved. Even the stuff that’s left over from pottery making. Right. Like if you just heard the word shard, you might not immediately think pottery. Yeah. But when you hear pottery shard, it’s very clear.
Speaker 0 | 00:57.242
Yeah. It’s like a shortcut or something. Okay. Now let’s move on to rye. We’ve got rye bread, which is always a good one. Rye whiskey. Yeah. And then even rye field and rye grain. So is this another example of that layering thing you were talking about?
Speaker 1 | 01:11.752
For sure. These collocations take us on a journey. They show us rye from growing in the field to being turned into different products.
Speaker 0 | 01:18.337
I see. Okay. So next up, we have a bunch of collocations about apple cider. Apple cider itself, hard cider, cider press, and even cider fermentation. So these kind of show us that whole journey. from the apples to the drink.
Speaker 1 | 01:30.661
Exactly. And it’s worth noticing that some of these collocations are about the process, like with cider fermentation, but others are about the variety, like hard cider. Right. So understanding that difference can really make your communication more precise and nuanced.
Speaker 0 | 01:44.150
Okay. This is making me think about language in a whole new way. All right. Next we’ve got premium and this one seems like it comes with some, you know, kind of like baguette. We’ve got premium quality, which sounds good, obviously, but then there’s premium price, which reminds us that. You got to pay for that quality.
Speaker 1 | 01:59.989
Right. It shows that often premium means higher quality, but it also often means, you know, it’s exclusive and more expensive.
Speaker 0 | 02:08.937
Yeah. And we even have health insurance premium. So even like essential things can be premium. OK, now for something a little different. We have a group of collocations about tolerance, like drug tolerance, pain tolerance. Tolerance level. This one feels kind of more complex.
Speaker 1 | 02:26.684
It is because tolerance can be about physical limits, but it can also be about psychological limits, too. And these collocations show that the human body is really good at adapting. But there are limits like tolerance level or tolerance threshold. Those show us that there’s a point where you just can’t adapt anymore.
Speaker 0 | 02:41.831
That’s a really good point. Wow. It’s amazing how these simple pairings can get at such deep ideas. OK, next up, we have a group that might make some people a little nervous. Bankruptcy. We’ve got the straightforward. file for bankruptcy and declare bankruptcy. But then we also have things like avoid bankruptcy and bankruptcy protection.
Speaker 1 | 03:01.071
So these show us the different stages and perspectives of being in financial trouble. Some are about taking action, others are about finding ways to make things less bad.
Speaker 0 | 03:10.975
Right. Okay, let’s move on to something maybe a little lighter. Pain. We’ve got window pain, glass pain, but then there’s single pain and double pain and even broken pain.
Speaker 1 | 03:21.960
So these collocations demonstrate all the different types and conditions and even, you know, things that can happen to a pain.
Speaker 0 | 03:27.884
Right. It’s rare to hear pain just by itself. It usually has another word with it.
Speaker 1 | 03:32.507
Yeah. To give it context.
Speaker 0 | 03:33.828
And that helps us avoid any confusion. OK, next up, we have capitalism, which I’m sure will get people talking. Yeah. So we have capitalist economy, capitalist system, capitalist society. These are all about that big economic model.
Speaker 1 | 03:45.436
For sure. And notice how some of the collocations bring in ideology and social stuff like. capitalist ideology or capitalist class. It’s not just about the money, you know. It’s about ideas and who has the power.
Speaker 0 | 03:58.532
Right. And then we have wealthy capitalist. Yeah. Which kind of makes you think of certain types of people, right?
Speaker 1 | 04:02.934
Yeah. That collocation connects capitalism with, you know, the fact that some people get a lot of wealth. And it’s interesting how the words we use can really influence how we see things and even our biases. Right.
Speaker 0 | 04:16.361
Okay. Let’s take a break from the economics and look at some imagery. We have orb. Glowing orb, golden orb, even celestial orb, and mystical orb. This one feels kind of magical.
Speaker 1 | 04:27.968
It does. It’s like they’re from a fantasy novel or something. Right. These collocations show how powerful language is. You know, orb on its own is just like a round shape. Yeah. But with these adjectives, it becomes something much more specific and symbolic, even emotional. Like, think about if we just said light instead of growing orb.
Speaker 0 | 04:42.938
It’s not the same. Not at all. Okay, let’s keep going with that imagery. Flicker. We’ve got flicker of light and flicker of hope. Both of those give you that feeling of… Something being temporary and uncertain. Yeah.
Speaker 1 | 04:53.525
Flicker is like something that can disappear at any moment. Right.
Speaker 0 | 04:56.853
So fragile.
Speaker 1 | 04:57.414
Fragile. Exactly.
Speaker 0 | 04:58.497
It’s amazing how one word can bring up those feelings. Okay, speaking of hope, we have a bunch of collocations that show different kinds of hopefulness. Hopefully waiting, hopefully looking, hopefully expect. It’s like all the ways we can anticipate something good.
Speaker 1 | 05:13.615
And those pairings show how you can go from waiting passively to actively expecting something good will happen.
Speaker 0 | 05:20.138
Yeah, that’s interesting. Wow, this deep dive is making me see just how much meaning is packed into the way we use language. Okay, before we move on, I got to ask about burglar. We’ve got some collocations here that are straight out of a detective story. Burglar, alarm, burglar proof, even catch a burglar. What do these tell us about how we talk about crime?
Speaker 1 | 05:40.294
Well, they show that we want to stop crime from happening. We want to protect ourselves and we want to catch the bad guys.
Speaker 0 | 05:46.395
Yeah, it’s like a whole system. And we even have burglar tools and house burglars, which tell us about the specifics of the crime.
Speaker 1 | 05:54.118
Exactly. It’s not just a general idea of… burglary anymore. You know, it makes you think of specific things the burglar uses and places they target.
Speaker 0 | 06:01.661
Right. Okay. Let’s finish up this first section with a bunch of collocations about being negative, specifically the ones with undesirable. We’ve got undesirable outcome, undesirable effect, undesirable behavior, even undesirable condition and undesirable side effect.
Speaker 1 | 06:19.551
It’s like they’re all about things we want to avoid.
Speaker 0 | 06:22.012
Right. It’s like a warning system built into our language.
Speaker 1 | 06:24.314
Exactly. Be careful. watch out for these things.
Speaker 0 | 06:26.875
Well, we’ve covered a lot of ground in this first part of our deep dive into collocations.
Speaker 1 | 06:30.616
It’s been fascinating, right?
Speaker 0 | 06:32.096
It has. These simple word pairings can tell us so much about how we think and communicate and, you know, how we see the world around us.
Speaker 1 | 06:38.698
I agree.
Speaker 0 | 06:39.498
We’ll be right back to explore even more about the amazing world of collocations. Don’t go anywhere.
Speaker 1 | 06:45.400
And we’re back. Ready to dive back into those amazing collocations?
Speaker 0 | 06:50.421
Let’s do it. All right. So we’re starting off this section with more pottery.
Speaker 1 | 06:54.443
collocations we’ve got make pottery pottery class pottery workshop i’m seeing a lot of action words here compared to the last pottery set you’re right these collocations are all about the doing the process of making pottery right so we start with the general make pottery and then we get more specific with pottery class and pottery workshop it’s like we’re seeing someone actually working with the clay makes
Speaker 0 | 07:16.418
me want to try it myself okay let’s switch gears back to rye rye bread rye whiskey those are back But this time we also have rye field, rye grain, rye flour, even rye harvest. It’s like we’re out on the farm now.
Speaker 1 | 07:29.390
Exactly. We’re seeing the whole life cycle of the rye, from growing in the field to being made into all those different things. It’s pretty cool how these word pairings connect us back to where our food comes from.
Speaker 0 | 07:38.856
I know, right? You start to appreciate all the work that goes into it. Right. Okay, next we have a set that might make us hungry. Apple cider, hard cider, cider press, even site vinegar. So many different ways to use apples.
Speaker 1 | 07:53.619
So versatile. It shows us all the different things you can do with apple cider. Drink it straight up. Make it hard. Press it. Turn it into vinegar. It’s amazing how many possibilities there are.
Speaker 0 | 08:06.204
It really is. All right. Let’s move on to a set that might be a little bittersweet. Premium. Premium quality. Premium price. Health insurance premium. It’s good to have high quality things, but you got to pay for it, right?
Speaker 1 | 08:19.690
Right. Premium can be… good or bad. It can mean something is really great, but it also often means it’s going to cost you. And it can even apply to things we need like health insurance.
Speaker 0 | 08:31.310
Yeah, it’s a tradeoff. OK, let’s switch gears again and talk about the human body. This time it’s tolerance. We’ve got drug tolerance, pain tolerance, tolerance level, tolerance threshold.
Speaker 1 | 08:41.158
The human body is amazing. It can adapt to so much. But these collocations show that there are limits. Right. You know, you can build up drug tolerance or pain tolerance, but eventually you reach a tolerance level or tolerance. threshold and your body can’t take anymore.
Speaker 0 | 08:53.588
It’s like a balancing act.
Speaker 1 | 08:54.749
It is.
Speaker 0 | 08:55.409
And then you’ve got zero tolerance, which means something totally different. No flexibility at all. Okay. Moving on to a topic that can be a little tough. Bankruptcy. File for bankruptcy. Declare bankruptcy. Avoid bankruptcy. Bankruptcy protection.
Speaker 1 | 09:11.479
Nobody wants to talk about bankruptcy, but it happens. And these collocations show us that there are different stages. and different ways to deal with it. Some are about accepting it, others are about trying to find a way out.
Speaker 0 | 09:22.892
I see. Okay, let’s lighten things up a bit. Pain. Window pain. Glass pain. Single pain. Double pain. Broken pain. So many ways to talk about pain.
Speaker 1 | 09:32.334
I know, right? It shows how much detail we can add to even simple objects. We can talk about what they’re made of, how many layers they have, even if they’re broken.
Speaker 0 | 09:39.556
I can appreciate the little things. Yeah. Okay, let’s get into something that often causes a lot of debate. Capitalism. We’ve got capitalist economy. capitalist system, capitalist society, capitalist ideology, capitalist class, wealthy capitalist. It’s a word that comes with a lot of baggage.
Speaker 1 | 09:57.346
It does. Capitalism is a big topic. And these collocations show us how complex it is. We can talk about the economy, the ideas behind it, the people who benefit from it. It’s a system that affects every part of our lives.
Speaker 0 | 10:10.055
Yeah. And wealthy capitalist really brings up certain images, doesn’t it?
Speaker 1 | 10:14.842
It does. It makes you think about who wins and who loses in this system. OK, let’s move away from the heavy stuff for a bit and get back to that magical imagery we were talking about earlier. Orb, glowing orb, golden orb, celestial orb, mystical orb. I can practically see them.
Speaker 0 | 10:33.535
Me too.
Speaker 1 | 10:34.216
Orb on its own isn’t that exciting. But when you add these descriptions, it becomes something special.
Speaker 0 | 10:38.439
I know, right? Like.
Speaker 1 | 10:39.640
from another world exactly okay let’s keep that feeling going with flicker we’ve got flicker of light and flicker of hope both so delicate like they could disappear at any moment that’s the power of flicker it’s temporary uncertain it makes you appreciate it even more okay let’s talk about hope some more we have hopefully waiting hopefully looking hopefully expect hopefully assume hopefully think hopefully smile so many ways to be hopeful there are And they show us the different ways we can approach hope, you know, from being patient to being more actively optimistic.
Speaker 0 | 11:14.718
It’s like a whole range of emotions. OK, now for something that might make us a little nervous. Burglar. Burglar alarm. Burglar proof. Catch a burglar. Burglar tools. House burglar. Burglar in disguise.
Speaker 1 | 11:24.603
It makes you think about being safe and protecting what’s yours.
Speaker 0 | 11:27.984
Yeah. And it’s interesting how these collocations show us the different ways we try to deal with crime. Alarms. Making things harder to break into. Yeah. Catching the criminals.
Speaker 1 | 11:37.088
It’s like a whole system for dealing with this fear. OK, let’s finish up with a set of collocations that are all about things we don’t want. Undesirable, undesirable outcome, undesirable effect, undesirable behavior, undesirable condition, undesirable side effect. It’s like a big warning sign.
Speaker 0 | 11:53.258
Right. Like, be careful. Think about the consequences.
Speaker 1 | 11:55.619
Exactly. These collocations remind us to think about the potential downsides of our choices.
Speaker 0 | 12:01.002
And try to make better decisions.
Speaker 1 | 12:02.363
Exactly. Well,
Speaker 0 | 12:03.668
we’ve covered a lot of ground in this second part of our deep dive, but we’re not done yet.
Speaker 1 | 12:07.511
We’ve still got more to explore.
Speaker 0 | 12:09.473
We’ll be right back to finish up our exploration of these fascinating collocations. Stay with us. Welcome back to the deep dive. We’re wrapping up our exploration of collocations, those powerful word pairings that shape the way we communicate and understand the world. It’s been a pretty amazing journey, hasn’t it?
Speaker 1 | 12:28.211
It really has. We’ve seen how collocations can help you sound more fluent. They can reveal these like hidden connections between words and they can even like expose our unconscious biases. Yeah,
Speaker 0 | 12:38.295
it’s like seeing language with new eyes. OK, so to kick off this final section, we have a group of collocations all about steeple. We’ve got church steeple, tall steeple, steeple clock, steeple silhouette. These definitely make me think of like old churches.
Speaker 1 | 12:53.181
Right. They connect steeple to those traditional, you know, religious buildings. Think about it. You don’t really hear steeple by itself, do you? It almost always has another word with it, like church or tall. And those pairings give you a very specific picture.
Speaker 0 | 13:07.087
They do. It’s like you’re transported back in time. Yeah. Okay, now for a collocation that always makes me smile. Crocodile tears.
Speaker 1 | 13:13.450
Oh, yeah. Crocodile tears. A classic.
Speaker 0 | 13:15.651
Not just any tears, right? It’s those fake tears. The ones we associate with, well, crocodiles.
Speaker 1 | 13:21.393
It’s a perfect example of how a collocation can express a really complex idea. You know, crocodile tears comes from that old story that crocodiles cry while they’re eating their prey. So it’s like a metaphor for being fake.
Speaker 0 | 13:32.998
It’s amazing how that image is so powerful. Okay, let’s move on to our final set of collocations. And this one takes us right to that place of intuition and instinct. Yeah. Gut. Gut feeling. Gut instinct. Gut reaction. You know that feeling you get in your stomach sometimes?
Speaker 1 | 13:49.065
That’s the one. These collocations show how our bodies and our minds are connected. Like gut feelings, like your intuition is literally coming from your gut.
Speaker 0 | 13:57.557
So cool. It’s like our bodies are telling us something even when our brains don’t understand it yet. And then there’s gut health and gut bacteria, which remind us that the gut is a real organ, not just a metaphor.
Speaker 1 | 14:10.062
Right. It’s essential for our well-being. Wow. This deep dive has been incredible. I feel like we’ve learned so much from everyday objects to these deep concepts. And I don’t know. I just have a new appreciation for language now.
Speaker 0 | 14:21.207
Me too. Yeah. It’s been amazing. So as we wrap up today, what’s the one thing you want our listeners to take away from this deep dive into collocations? Why should they care about these word pairings?
Speaker 1 | 14:33.005
I think the biggest takeaway is that collocations are like the key to sounding more fluent and expressive. You know, pay attention to how words naturally go together and you’ll be able to communicate more clearly and more confidently. It’s like having a secret weapon.
Speaker 0 | 14:46.532
I love that. A secret weapon for better communication. And it’s not just about sounding good. It’s about understanding those subtle meanings. Yeah. And the history behind the words.
Speaker 1 | 14:56.279
For sure. Collocations can be like little clues that tell us about our culture and how language has changed over time. So next time you hear a phrase, you know, take a second to think about the words. You might be surprised by what you find.
Speaker 0 | 15:08.955
That’s great advice. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive into the fascinating world of collocations. We hope you’ve enjoyed exploring the power of these amazing word pairings. Until next time, keep learning, keep exploring, and keep diving deep.