1. Register, Idioms and Collocations By R J Phillips

2. RegisterThe degree of formality or technical language in a text • Suffering from chronic fatigue FORMAL • Exhausted • Very tired • Shattered • Knackered • Shagged out INFORMAL

3. Think of your own scale of formality for the following: • Hunger • Attraction

4. Idioms • This is one of the most difficult aspects of a language for foreign learners to grasp. They are phrases that can only be understood in context, as the individual words that make up the expression don’t make sense: • For the chop • Put a sock in it • Up the creek • Wind your neck in

5. Collocations • Groups (commonly pairs) of words that are regularly found used together are known as collocations • Some words have a limited range of collocations eg spick is rarely used apart from with the word span • Other words have no collocational restrictions eg the, after, of • Some words have a large, but still restricted, range of collocations eg long. Its collocations include many expressions of time eg long day, long week and physical distance eg long road, long journey

6. Tasks • How many collocations can you think of for the word line? • How many collocations can you think of for the word ball?