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People talk about the different ways of spelling colocation. Microsoft Word defaults typing the word “Colocation” into “Collocation”. So what is Collocation and why is it there?

Collocation is a word used in linguistics, not in data centres. Microsoft Word was specified by linguists, not computer or communications data centre operators. So Collocation is important to them. Colocation isn’t.

Collocation is a specific combination of two words used together for a unique meaning. An example of collocation is the different adjectives used to describe a good-looking man and a good-looking woman. We talk of a beautiful woman and of a handsome man, but rarely of a beautiful man or a handsome woman.

(It is quite possible, in fact, to describe a woman as handsome. However, this implies that she is not beautiful at all in the traditional sense of female beauty, but rather that she is mature in age, has large features and a certain strength of character. Similarly, a man could be described as beautiful, but this would usually imply that he had feminine features. Calling a man pretty is most often done as an insult.)

In another familiar example of collocation, we talk of high mountains and tall trees, but not usually of tall mountains and high trees. Similarly a man can be tall but never high (except in the sense of being intoxicated!), whereas a ceiling can only be high, not tall. A window can be both tall or high, but a tall window is not the same as a high window. We get old and tired, but we go bald or grey. We get sick but we fall ill. A big house, a large house and a great house have the same meaning, but a great man is not the same as a big man or a large man. You can make a big mistake or a great mistake, but you cannot make a large mistake. You can be a little sad but not a little happy. We say very pleased and very tiny, but we do not say very delighted or very huge. And so on - there are endless examples of this kind of difficulty!

The problem for the learner of English is that there are no collocation rules that can be learned. The native English speaker intuitively makes the correct collocation, based on a lifetime’s experience of hearing and reading the words in set combinations.

This doesn’t really have much to do with colocation or data centres, but there’s hours of fun to be had with it. For example:

• What is the difference between a high window and a tall window?


• Choose the most usual collocation:
  • strong tea / powerful tea
  • a strong car / a powerful car
  • a strong computer / a powerful computer
  • a strong drug /a powerful drug
• The opposite of strong tea is weak tea. What is the opposite of strong cigarettes, a strong wind, a strong smell?


• What is the usual way of describing someone who smokes a lot?
  • a big smoker
  • a strong smoker
  • a hard smoker
  • a heavy smoker
  • a furious smoker
• Someone can be very tired, but not very awake or very asleep. What do we say instead?


• What is the opposite of sweet wine?


• Which of the following are the usual collocations?
  • completely beautiful
  • incredibly beautiful
  • absolutely beautiful
  • extremely beautiful
  • totally beautiful
  • utterly beautiful
  • thoroughly beautiful
• The following collocations are incorrect. Can you sort them out?
  • to get in a building
  • to get on a car
  • to go in a ship

With thanks and acknowledgement to Paul Shoebottom at the Frankfurt International School http://esl.fis.edu for permission to use most of the above.