Collocations are conventional combinations of words that are always used together. For example, to talk about someone who smokes a lot, we say heavy smoker. If you replaced “heavy” with another adjective, it would sound unnatural:
- Strong smoker
- Determined smoker
To sound natural, you need to use the right collocation:
- Heavy smoker
As collocations are combinations of words, there is no such thing as a partial collocation. All the parts that make up a collocation need to be present for it to be correct.
To learn more about collocations, read What Are Collocations?
What is the meaning of these collocations? How can I use these sentences?