#Collocations

⚜"Get" is a very common verb in English, but it is not always appropriate for talking about
changes.

🔆Note also alternatives to get which can improve your style.

📌Go, not get
🔘Go is used for changes in people's personality, appearance and physical abilities:
~ People go mad/bald/grey/blind/deaf.
🔘Go is often used for sudden, usually negative, changes:
~Suddenly the sky went very dark and it started to rain.
🔘Go can also be used for slower colour changes:
~The pages of the book had gone yellow over the years.

📌Turn, not get
▫️Turn often collocates with colours:
~When the tomatoes turn red, the farmers pick them and sell them.
~The news gave his mother such a shock that her hair turned white overnight.

⏺Get and become
🔘Get and become can often be used with the same collocations, but become is more formal and is therefore more appropriate in essays:
~She gave up smoking when she became pregnant.
~I would like to become involved in raising money for charity.
▪️The same is true for collocations with adjectives such as angry, bored, excited, depressed upset, impatient, violent:
~He became depressed after his wife's death.

🔹Become, not get, is used with the following: extinct, (unpopular, homeless, famous. ~Our local baker's has become famous for its apple tarts.

☑️Alternatives to get and become
~She fell ill and was taken to hospital.
~Everyone fell silent when they heard the shocking news.
~As my father grew older, he spent less time working.
~The noise grew louder and soon we realised it was a plane approaching.


🚫Overusing and misusing get
Here are some sentences from students' essays where get is wrongly used.
🔅sentences with get :
❎I was able to get new friends.
❎If I get a child of my own one day ...
❎A year ago he got a heart attack.

🔅more appropriate alternatives:

✅A year ago he had/suffered a heart attack.
✅If I have a child of my own one day ...
✅In June. I had a baby, James.

🔆 #Advanced 🔆


🔶Answer key 🔶



🔅Michael was encouraged to make a complaint.

🔅Learning languages comes easy to her.

🔅There seems to have been a misundertanding of/about the rules.

🔅Adrian is nowhere near as talkative as Sara.

🔅There are bound to be people opposed to the plan.

🔅By no means was it easy to find work here.

🔅“Don’t put the blame on me!” he said.

🔅Very few suggestions were put forward at the meeting.

🔅I did my utmost to cut out chocolate.

🔅If I had the opportunity to do so, I would like to work in fashion.

🔅 I can’t be bothered to cook most evenings.

🔅Pep went on to become the coach after playing for Barca.

🔅The work was due to (be/have been) completed last month.

🔅She has made no mention of the divorce to me yet.