Lesson 47: Collocations — which words go with which, or "the Italian sound"

Part 1: What collocation is and why it gets its own lesson

A collocation is a fixed combination of two or more words that sounds natural in that exact pairing and can't be guessed from the meanings of the words separately.

You already know collocation in English. You make a decision (not do a decision, not take a decision in American English). You take a shower (not make a shower). You pay attention (not give attention). Why? Because that's how it set. Same verb in another language picks a different partner.

In Italian:

English	Italian	Russian (for contrast)
to make a decision	prendere una decisione	принять решение
to ask a question	fare una domanda	задать вопрос
to take an exam	dare un esame	сдавать экзамен
to make mistakes	commettere errori	наделать ошибок
to spend a vacation	passare le vacanze	провести отпуск
to make sense	avere senso	иметь смысл
to keep one's word	mantenere la parola	держать слово

Look at the verbs side by side. English make a decision, Italian take a decision (prendere). English ask a question, Italian make a question (fare). English take an exam, Italian give an exam (dare) — from the student's side, no less! The verbs don't map. This is not logic, it's convention.

C1 observation: collocation is exactly what separates "grammatically correct Italian" from "Italian-sounding Italian". You can build a perfect sentence by the rules, but if you reach for the wrong verb in the collocation, an Italian speaker hears immediately that this is a translation.

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Part 2: Collocations with fare — the workhorse verb

Fare is Italian's collocation workhorse. With it you can "do" dozens of things that English handles with completely different verbs.

Actions, states, events

Italiano	English
fare colazione	to have breakfast
fare pranzo / cena	to have lunch / dinner
fare la spesa	to do the food shopping
fare shopping	to go shopping (clothes)
fare una passeggiata	to take a walk
fare un viaggio	to take a trip
fare una vacanza	to take a vacation
fare una doccia / il bagno	to take a shower / a bath
fare un esame	to sit an exam (but dare un esame too!)
fare il letto	to make the bed

Speech and communication

Italiano	English
fare una domanda	to ask a question
fare un favore	to do (someone) a favour
fare un complimento	to pay a compliment
fare una promessa	to make a promise (but mantenere una promessa = to keep!)
fare un discorso	to give a speech
fare una telefonata	to make a phone call
fare una foto	to take a photo

Feelings and physical states

Italiano	English
fare freddo / caldo	(it's) cold / hot (of weather)
fare male	(1) to hurt; (2) to do harm
fare attenzione	to pay attention
fare paura	to scare
fare ridere	to make (someone) laugh
fare piangere	to make (someone) cry
fare schifo	to be disgusting

Examples in speech

• Faccio colazione alle otto. — I have breakfast at eight.
• Posso farti una domanda? — Can I ask you a question?
• Fa freddo oggi. — It's cold today.
• Mi fa male la testa. — My head hurts.
• Ho fatto una foto bellissima. — I took a beautiful photo.

Main rule: if you don't know which verb to use, and the noun is an action, state or event, try fare first. You'll be right 60% of the time. Notice how often English uses different verbs where Italian just keeps using fare: "have breakfast", "take a walk", "take a photo", "make a phone call", "pay attention", "ask a question" — all fare in Italian.

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Part 3: Collocations with prendere — "to take"

Prendere maps reasonably well to English "take" — but it stretches further, picking up jobs English splits between take, have, catch, and get.

Italiano	English
prendere una decisione	to make a decision (lit. "take")
prendere il treno / l'autobus	to catch the train / the bus
prendere appuntamento	to make an appointment
prendere il sole	to sunbathe
prendere freddo	to catch a cold
prendere un caffè	to have a coffee
prendere un voto	to get a grade
prendere fuoco	to catch fire
prendere coraggio	to pluck up courage
prendere parte	to take part
prendere in giro	to tease, to make fun of
prendere sul serio	to take seriously

The English-speaker trick: English already wavers between take and make for decisions — British English does say take a decision, American English firmly make a decision. Italian picks prendere, the "take" side. Whenever you'd say "have a coffee" in English, Italian says prendere. It's "take a coffee", but the meaning is "to have one".

Paradox: prendere freddo = "to catch a cold" (literally "to take cold"). Don't confuse with avere freddo, which is "I'm cold right now" (a state, not an event).

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Part 4: Collocations with dare — "to give"

Dare shows up wherever there's a handing-over — real or metaphorical.

Italiano	English
dare un esame	to take an exam (lit. "give")
dare retta a qualcuno	to listen to / heed someone
dare fastidio	to bother, to annoy
dare la mano	to shake hands
dare un'occhiata	to take a look (lit. "give a glance")
dare la colpa	to blame
dare ragione / torto	to agree / disagree (lit. "give rightness/wrongness")
dare il via	to give the green light
dare consigli	to give advice
dare conto	to give an account

The fare un esame vs dare un esame pair: both are widespread. Fare un esame — the general "to sit a test/exam". Dare un esame — particularly university-flavoured, "to take an exam (from the student's side)". In southern Italy you'll hear dare more; in the north, fare.

English-speaker note: notice how Italian gives where English takes. Dare un'occhiata = "give a glance" → English "take a look". Dare un esame = "give an exam" → English "take an exam". Italian sees the action from the offering side, English from the receiving side. Same event, different lens.

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Part 5: Collocations with mettere — "to put, to place"

Mettere is about putting into a position, state or place.

Italiano	English
mettere in ordine	to put in order, to tidy
mettere a posto	to sort out, to put away
mettere in dubbio	to call into question
mettere in pratica	to put into practice
mettere a fuoco	to focus (camera or attention)
mettere d'accordo	to bring (people) to agreement
mettersi d'accordo	to agree (with each other)
mettere in piedi	to set up, to get (something) off the ground
mettersi a fare qualcosa	to set about doing something
mettere via	to put away
mettere a confronto	to compare

Examples

• Mettiamoci d'accordo. — Let's agree on it.
• Devo mettere in ordine il mio ufficio. — I have to tidy up my office.
• Mettiti a studiare. — Get down to studying.

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Part 6: Collocations with avere — "to have"

Avere covers ground where English uses to be + adjective. Ho fame = literally "I have hunger" → English "I am hungry". This is the structural shift that defines a whole branch of Italian collocations.

Italiano	English
avere fame / sete	to be hungry / thirsty
avere caldo / freddo	to be hot / cold
avere sonno	to be sleepy
avere paura	to be afraid
avere ragione / torto	to be right / wrong
avere fretta	to be in a hurry
avere voglia di	to feel like (doing something)
avere bisogno di	to need
avere senso	to make sense
avere a che fare con	to have to do with
avere intenzione di	to intend to
avere l'abitudine di	to be in the habit of

C1 observation: the avere-collocations capture a systematic shift between English and Italian. English: "I AM hungry" — hunger is a property of the subject. Italian: "I HAVE hunger" — hunger is something you possess. Same for cold, hot, sleepy, afraid, right, in a hurry. Train yourself to feel avere + noun as the Italian equivalent of English be + adjective. This one shift unlocks dozens of sentences. Avere senso is the odd one out where they line up: Italian "have sense" matches English "make sense" — neither uses be.

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Part 7: Collocations with tenere — "to hold"

Tenere is about keeping, maintaining, monitoring.

Italiano	English
tenere conto di	to take (something) into account
tenere d'occhio	to keep an eye on
tenere presente	to keep in mind
tenere in considerazione	to take into consideration
tenere la mano	to hold (someone's) hand
tenersi in forma	to stay in shape
tenere un discorso	to give a speech (formal)
tenere lezione	to teach a class

Examples

• Tieni conto del traffico. — Take traffic into account.
• Tieni d'occhio i bambini. — Keep an eye on the kids.
• Tenete presente che siamo in pochi. — Keep in mind there are only a few of us.

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Part 8: Adjective + noun — another kind of collocation

Beyond "verb + noun", Italian has fixed adjective + noun pairings. These don't translate word for word either.

Italiano	English
un caro amico	a dear friend
una grande amicizia	a great friendship
una vera amicizia	a true friendship
un forte dolore	a strong pain
un dolore acuto	a sharp pain
un grosso problema	a big problem
un problema serio	a serious problem
una vita felice	a happy life
una vita dura	a hard life
un duro lavoro	hard work
un lavoro stabile	a stable job
un alto livello	a high level
un basso prezzo	a low price
una decisione difficile	a tough decision
una buona idea	a good idea
un giorno feriale	a weekday
una nuova generazione	a new generation

Paradoxes: don't translate adjective + noun pairs word for word from English. Heavy rain in English, but in Italian forte pioggia (lit. "strong rain") or pioggia battente (driving rain). Big problem in English; in Italian un grosso problema (lit. "fat problem") is more idiomatic than un grande problema. These nuances come only through immersion.

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Part 9: Topical collocations — money, time, work

Besides verb-based, there are topical collocations — words that travel together around a theme.

Money

Italiano	English
guadagnare soldi	to earn money
spendere soldi	to spend money
risparmiare soldi	to save money
investire soldi	to invest money
chiedere in prestito	to borrow
prestare soldi	to lend money
pagare in contanti	to pay cash
pagare con la carta	to pay by card
fare un bonifico	to make a bank transfer

Time

Italiano	English
passare il tempo	to spend / pass time
perdere tempo	to waste time
risparmiare tempo	to save time
avere tempo	to have time
non avere il tempo di	to not have time to
essere in tempo	to be on time (have time enough)
essere in ritardo	to be late
essere in orario	to be on schedule

Work

Italiano	English
cercare lavoro	to look for work
trovare lavoro	to find a job
cambiare lavoro	to change jobs
perdere il lavoro	to lose one's job
licenziarsi	to quit
essere licenziato	to be fired
fare carriera	to build a career
avere un colloquio	to have a job interview

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