Vocabulary and Usage in Context: Collocation and Word Grammar
Vocabulary and usage questions test whether you can pick the one word or phrase that fits both the meaning and the grammar of a sentence. Items lean on collocation, prepositions and particles, confusable pairs, and words with several senses.
What is actually tested
- Collocation: you draw a distinction, raise a concern, take measures, meet a deadline.
- Prepositions: consist of (made up of) vs consist in (lie in); result from (cause) vs result in (effect); account for.
- Confusables: affect/effect, economic/economical, sensible/sensitive, credible/credulous, imply/infer.
- Polysemy: address a problem = deal with it; address an audience = speak to; address a letter = write the details.
- Grammar of the word: whether it takes a to-infinitive, an -ing form, or a that-clause.
Method
Cover the four options, predict a word from the sentence, then uncover. Check what comes immediately after the blank, because the following word or particle often decides the answer. Finally, reinsert the word and read the whole sentence: a synonym can be right in meaning and wrong in pattern.
Worked example
“The committee's decision to ___ the proposal surprised no one.” Options: refuse / deny / reject / decline. Reasoning: reject a proposal is the standard collocation. Refuse normally takes a to-infinitive (“refuse to accept”), deny takes -ing or a that-clause, and decline is usually intransitive or takes “an offer/an invitation”. Only reject fits both meaning and pattern.
Traps
- Two options that mean the same but take different patterns.
- A direct translation that sounds formal but is not idiomatic.
- Ignoring the word after the blank.