Collocations & Fixed Phrases for the PET Exam

Common failure modes

These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.

• !Translating collocations directly from L1 — most collocations do not translate literally
• !Confusing "do" and "make" collocations: do housework/make a mistake not make housework/do a mistake
• !Not recognising fixed phrases in reading: "in spite of", "as a result", "in addition to"

Study tips

• 1Learn the do/make distinction: do (activities, tasks) vs make (products, plans, decisions).
• 2Study 5 collocations per topic per week from the Cambridge B1 vocabulary resource.
• 3Notice collocations in everything you read — underline and note them in a vocabulary journal.

Sample PET Collocations & Fixed Phrases questions

These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real PET questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.

1. 1

   Choose the correct collocation: "She _____ a lot of effort into her presentation."

   • Amade
   • Bdid
   • CputCorrect
   • Dgave
   Why this answer?

   "Put effort into something" is the natural collocation. "Make an effort" is also possible (make vs put have overlapping uses here), but "put a lot of effort into" specifically emphasizes investing effort into a specific activity. "Did" and "gave" are not used in this collocation.