Christine Röll

Teaching collocations

Teaching tips and activities for business English

Last updated: November 2018

https://www.teaching-english-and-spanish.de
Introduction

Speaking a language fluently is not about knowing individual words but about being aware of
which words can be combined. One could say that words are choosy about the partnerships
they are willing to form with other words. For this reason, they occur in certain combinations,
for example conveniently located and widely known. These word combinations are called
lexical units or collocations and are stored as “prefabricated chunks” in our mental lexicons to
be ready for use1.

According to The Oxford’s Dictionary of English Grammar, there are grammatical

collocations and lexical collocations. Grammatical collocations are “a type of construction
where a verb, adjective, etc. must be followed by a particular preposition, or a noun must be
followed by a particular form of the verb”2, for example afraid of or looking forward to meeting
you. Lexical collocations are “a type of construction where particular nouns, adjectives, verbs,
or adverbs form predictable connections with each other”3. The following word types
commonly form collocations:

- Noun-verb collocations are to have a family, to start a family, to bring up/raise a family
- Adjective-noun collocations are immediate, nuclear and extended family.
- Noun-noun collocations are family doctor, family ties, family name.
- Adverb-verb collocations are conveniently located, legally binding
- Adverb-adjective collocations are environmentally friendly, fiercely competitive

But, according to Michael Lewis, grammar and lexis are closely connected, which he describes
as follows: “Language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar.”4

Collocations can have different degrees of strength. Unique collocations are word
combinations that are fixed. Examples are shrug your shoulders or foot the bill.

Strong collocations are formed by words that tend to be used together, such as clench your
fist or clench your teeth.
The collocation is medium-strong when two words are commonly used together (although
they can also collocate with other words). This makes the collocation predictable, such as
watch television or a hot issue. It usually not possible to substitute part of the idiom by a near
synonym, for example, to replace watch by see or hot by warm. In addition, some of these
collocations cannot be freely modified by grammatical transformations, for example, it is
uncommon to talk about greener tea. Many words form medium-strong collocations.

Weak collocations are words that can collocate with a number of words that have the same
or a similar meaning, such as an exciting or interesting film. Big and small are examples of
adjectives that can be combined with a number of nouns to form weak collocations.

1
Lewis, Michael (ed.) (2000): Teaching Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical Approach.
Hove, England. Language Teaching Publications, p. 10
2
Chalker, Sylvia and Weiner, Edmund (1994): Oxford’s Dictionary of English Grammar. Oxford
University Press, p. 70
3
Ibidem
4
Lewis, Michael (1993): The Lexical Approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications, p.vi
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Specific types of collocations

Collocations fall into different categories. As Scott Thornbury writes, “Collocation is best seen
as part of a continuum of strength of association: a continuum that moves from compound
words (second-hand, record player), through multi-words units – or lexical chunks – (bits and
pieces), including idioms (out of the blue) and phrasal verbs (do up), to collocations of more
or less fixedness (set the record straight, set a new world record)5”.

Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs are multi-word verbs, i.e. verbs that are combined with an adverb, a preposition
or both. They frequently have an idiomatic meaning that is quite different from the literal
meaning of the words. It is therefore important to learn the meaning of the phrasal verb as a
unit (fixed meaning). In addition, learners need be aware of the grammar patterns. In the
following table, some possible grammar patterns of phrasal verbs are shown6:

Phrasal verb Grammar pattern

eat out the verb is used without an object
bring back something/somebody or bring the verb can have a non-human or human
something/somebody back object
ask somebody out the verb must have a human object
ring somebody back the object must come before the particle
look after somebody/something the object must come after the particle

Idioms

An idiom is a group of words whose meaning is not deducible from those of the individual
words, for example, jump on the bandwagon. Near synonyms cannot be substituted for the
components of a collocation, for example, you talk about a dark horse and not a black horse.
Idioms occur in different grammatical patterns:

- Verb + noun, such as call the shots

- Adjective + noun, such as a sticky wicket (a difficult situation)
- Prepositional idioms, such as out of the blue

Although many idioms cannot be freely modified with additional words or through grammatical
transformations, some lexical and grammatical variations are usually possible, for example:

- Active to passive: We have to tighten our belts./When times are tough, belts have to
be tightened.
- Singular to plural or plural to singular: a bull/bulls in the china shop/

5
Thornbury, Scott (2002): How to teach vocabulary. London. Pearson Education Limited, p.7
6
based on McCarthy, Michael and O’Dell, Felicity (2004): English Phrasal Verbs in Use. Cambridge
University Press, p. 6
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 - Nominalisation: It is not governments that by and large have tightened their belts, but
taxpayers./National belt-tightening
- Negative to positive or positive to negative: It's not all plain sailing./
Once I got used to the diet it was plain sailing.
- Word(s) are added or word(s) are removed: The ball is now firmly in your court!/ Any
trade deal must include rigorous level playing field provisions …

Frozen similes

Frozen similes are idioms of comparison that cannot be freely modified, for example, as dry
as a bone, as quiet as a mouse, as pleased as Punch.

Binomials

A binomial is a fixed phrase that contains two parallel units joined by a conjunction (and/or).
Its order is fixed, such as give and take, sink or swim, once and for all.

Phrases for business English

In business English situations, such as socialising, meetings, negotiations and presentations,

different types of fixed and semi-fixed phrases which have a conventionalised meaning are
used, such as This leads me to my next point; Let’s now turn to …; Shall we make a start?

The importance of teaching collocations

As we have seen, a large part of the vocabulary comes in the form of fixed expressions and is
stored in the speaker’s mental lexicon. According to Michael Lewis, this lexicon is not arbitrary
and vocabulary choice is predictable to a significant degree. However, non-native speakers
find it difficult to predict collocations and learners need to be made aware of the words that
go together in order to use them correctly. Students need to be aware of collocations in order
to improve their receptive skills, i.e. to understand them when they hear or read them, and
also to improve their productive control, i.e. to speak and write more naturally and correctly.
Collocational competence improves fluency and helps students to avoid typical errors such as
do homework, take a test or found a family, and to avoid semantic errors caused by confusing
words that have similar or related meaning, for example Let‘s sit in the shadow of the tree. In
addition, collocations are a way of saying something in a more expressive way, such as fiercely
competitive instead of very competitive.
The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), an influential document for language
learning, language teaching, and language testing in Europe and beyond, also recognizes the
importance of idioms. Its description of lexical competence includes fixed expressions, as
shown in the following description of lexical elements 7:

7
Council of Europe (2001: Common European Framework of Reference for Languages): Learning,
teaching, assessment. Receptive, productive, mediation skills. https://rm.coe.int/1680459f97, p. 110-
111

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 Lexical elements include:

Fixed expressions,
consisting of several words, which are used and learnt as wholes.
Fixed expressions include:
• sentential formulae,
including:
• phrasal idioms, often: semantically opaque, frozen metaphors
Their use is often contextually and stylistically restricted
• fixed frames, learnt and used as unanalysed wholes, into which words or phrases
are inserted to form meaningful sentences
Please may I have
• other fixed phrases, such as:
phrasal verbs, e.g. to put up with, to make do (with);
compound prepositions, e.g. in front of
• fixed collocations, consisting of words regularly used together.

Idioms play also an important part in business English; for example, when interacting with
native speakers, watching the news or reading the business press.

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Methods of teaching and learning collocations

According to Hugh Dellar, the following procedure can help students to learn collocations8:
1. Understand meaning.
Translation – translate the whole unit of meaning, rather than just single words.
2. Hear/see examples of the language in context.
3. Repeat language in chunks or collocations.
4. Pay attention to the language and notice its features.
5. Use the new language in some way.
6. Repeat these steps over time/Revise.

Below you will find some ideas on how teachers can help their students to learn idioms:

- Help students to learn idioms and remember them better by providing high-quality
input (model provided by the teacher and by authentic texts) to ensure correct retrieval
from memory in the classroom.
- Teach actually occurring language instead of “funny” examples.
- Raise students’ awareness and help them notice collocations in texts. Useful activities
to raise awareness are translating and recording whole chunks instead of individual
words.
- Show students ways of recording words that collocate with a keyword, for example
verb-noun collocations or adjective-noun collocations:

spend

lend earn

invest waste
money

raise donate

save borrow

8
Dellar, Hugh (2016): Teaching Lexically. Delta Teaching Development Series. Stuttgart, Klett-Verlag.
p. 7.
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 long
a trip
brief, quick, short
day, overnight, weekend

- Provide examples of how grammatical collocations can be recorded:

no
in on at
preposition

Weekday Clocktime (three

Season (summer,
(Monday, o'clock, half past
winter...) last (night)
Tuesday...) nine ...)
next (morning)
yesterday
Part of the day Special day (my Festive period
(morning, birthday, (Christmas, the day before
afternoon) Christmas Eve...) Easter...) yesterday
tomorrow
at noon the day after
Day + part of the tomorrow
Year (in 2018) day (Monday at night
morning) at midnight

- Teach semi-fixed expressions that consist of “a pragmatic (or ‘functional’) frame, which
is completed by a referential slot-filler”, for example, “Pass me the book/salt/bread,
please.”9
- Do Dictogloss.
Learners listen to a short text, note down key words, and then reconstruct the text
individually or in groups paying special attention to the idioms that are used.
- Provide text templates that can be used to structure texts.

This thesis analyses the effects of ______ on the behavior of ______ .

This thesis, applied to ______, is an in-depth analysis of … We use data from ______
…

- Teaching Lexically suggests that students should be encouraged to read extensively at

home to consolidate and extend knowledge of vocabulary10.

9
Lewis, Michael (1997): Implementing the lexical approach. Hove. LTP, p. 34
10
Dellar, Hugh (2016): Teaching Lexically. Delta Teacher Development Series. Stuttgart, Klett-Verlag.
p. 96
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 - Drill collocations, chunks and whole sentences. This “provides intensive exposure to
features of connected speech, may help develop both receptive and productive
automaticity, with regard to particular chunks11”.
- Help students remember idioms by repetition and distributed (spaced) practice.

Examples of exercises to practise collocations:

- Match a collocation/an idiom with its definition.

- Match the parts of a collocation/an idiom.
- Match a collocation/an idiom with a picture.
- Use kinesthetic activities, such as dominoes.
- Put events or processes into chronological order, for example establish a company,
manage the company, take over another company, dissolve the company.
- Delete the word that does not collocate with a given word, for example,

attend, go to, start, finish, leave, visit school

- Write a text using idioms.
- Practise discourse markers in role-plays.

Conclusion
Knowledge of collocations is an essential prerequisite for speaking and writing a language
fluently. Teachers can improve their students' colloquial competence by making them aware
of the correct use of collocations, showing them how to record and study collocations, and
giving students ample opportunity to practise collocations in class.

11
Dellar, Hugh: Teaching Lexically. Delta Teacher Development Series, p. 110
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Bibliography

Chalker, Sylvia and Weiner, Edmund (1994): Oxford’s Dictionary of English Grammar. Oxford
University Press

Council of Europe (2001): Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:

Learning, teaching, assessment. Receptive, productive, mediation skills.
https://rm.coe.int/1680459f97

Dellar, Hugh (2016): Teaching Lexically. Delta Teacher Development Series. Stuttgart, Klett-
Verlag.

McCarthy, Michael and O’Dell, Felicity (2004): English Phrasal Verbs in Use. Cambridge
University Press

Lewis, Michael (1993): The Lexical Approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications

Lewis, Michael (1997): Implementing the lexical approach: Putting theory into practice. Hove,
Language Teaching Publications.

Lewis, Michael (ed.) (2000): Teaching Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical
Approach. Hove, England. Language Teaching Publications

Thornbury, Scott (2002): How to teach vocabulary. London. Pearson Education Limited

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Activities to practise business English collocations

Teachers may copy and use the following materials and worksheets for students in their
class. For all other uses, permission in writing is required.

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 11
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 12
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 Verb-Noun Collocations in Business English

Key:
1) an order 2) a worker 3) an invoice 4) a product 5) a department 6) a meeting
7) production 8) a customer/client 9) an offer 10 a market 11) an order 12) a price
13) competition 14) business 15) a company 6) a business trip

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 Verb-Noun Collocations in Business English

Questions:

- Describe your job duties.

- What phases are involved when organising and holding a meeting?

- What steps have to be followed before an order can be dispatched?

- What steps are involved in the recruitment process/in filling a vacancy?

A company history

Squirrel & Sons has recently been taken over by World Ltd. Write about the company’s
turbulent history using the following verbs:

found take over manage/run

privatise Squirrel nationalise

& Sons

invest in restructure

downsize merge

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

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 Verb-Noun Collocations in Business English

CUT THE CARDS TO PLAY DOMINOES

a price place an order develop

a product postpone a meeting penetrate

a market look after a customer cancel

an order set up a company attend

a meeting deregulate a market price oneself

out of
a market take over a company increase

a price acknowledge an order postpone

a meeting contact a customer cancel

a meeting negotiate a price promote

a product cancel an order JOKER

JOKER take the a meeting quote

minutes at

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 Adjective-Noun Collocations in Business English

Words to promote products and services

PUT EACH WORD IN THE SAME LINE AS THE WORDS THAT HAVE A SIMILAR MEANING.

good-looking, real, cutting edge, synthetic, deluxe, dedicated, tailored to the customer's
needs, the leading manufacturer, adaptable, We have expertise in..., without fault, strong,
trendy, trustworthy, delicious, time-saving, excellent, bargain

a new design novel innovative

high-tech state-of-the art
authentic genuine
man-made (artificial)
customized specifically geared towards
the customer
committed highly motivated
an attractive beautiful
the industry leader top producer
prices competitive good value for money
exclusive up-market
We are experts in... We have experience in...
perfect flawless
prime first-class
reliable dependable
wear-resistant hard-wearing durable
sturdy tough
adjustable flexible
efficient fast
aromatic mouth-watering
fashionable stylish

1. Find a noun that is described by each group of adjectives.

2. Write a short promotional text for a product.

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 KEY AND EXAMPLES

Words to promote products and services

new novel innovative

high-tech production facilities state-of-the art cutting edge
authentic materials real genuine
synthetic fibers man-made (artificial)
customized solutions specifically geared towards tailored to the customer's
the customer needs
committed staff dedicated highly motivated
an attractive design/product beautiful good-looking
the industry leader leading manufacturer top producer
bargain prices competitive prices good value for money
an exclusive product, deluxe up-market
restaurant
We are experts in... expertise We have experience in...
a perfect performance flawless without fault
prime quality/service first-class excellent
reliable service dependable trustworthy
wear-resistant wheels hard-wearing durable
sturdy bikes strong tough
adjustable sizes flexible adaptable
an efficient process time-saving fast
delicious food aromatic mouth-watering
fashionable clothes stylish trendy

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 Noun-Noun Collocations in Business English

TICK THE WORDS YOU KNOW. LOOK UP THE WORDS YOU DON’T KNOW.

market leader the domestic market

research an overseas
share the common
segment labour
forces stock
penetration bear
bull

sales person
campaign work place
figures shop
force load
pitch aholic
target permit
literature day/week
promotion force
manship

business card wage -earner

trip freeze
hours levels
lunch negotiations
man/woman packet
meeting -price spiral
plan
letter

trade end- product

by-
journal finished
mark waste
name (GNP) gross national
union
bloc
agreement
deficit consumer goods
surplus durables
fair price index
war friendly
barriers protection
balance credit
spending

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blue-collar workers wholesale price
white-collar retail
skilled market
unskilled
semi-skilled
factory price range
manual index
clerical war
label/tag

hard currency
financial list
disk services
copy adviser
sell method year
ware paper

soft currency customer relations

sell-method satisfaction
loyalty
loan
landing (of the
economy)
ware

corporation tax tax payer

income office
value-added declaration
refund
evasion
fraud
incentive
haven

Questions:
What is a sales pitch?
What is the difference between the domestic, overseas and Common market?
What is a soft currency and what is a hard currency?
What is a soft sell method and what is a hard sell method?
How can you achieve customer satisfaction and loyalty?
What is a tax haven?

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 CUT THE CARDS TO PLAY DOMINOES

price index market leader sales

person domestic market retail

prices market research overseas

gross
market national product soft

currency sales campaign market

research sales figures wholesale

price trade balance consumer

spending soft landing work

place sales target wage

-earner trade journal sales

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campaign soft loan work

load sales pitch wage

-freeze trade mark sales

target work aholic sales

literature value added tax trade

fair unskilled worker credit

note blue-collar worker business

plan end product trade

bloc tax incentive retail

price trade barriers tax

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 payer trade deficit product

range tax -free JOKER

JOKER price range soft

loan Joker Joker consumer

goods trade union white-collar

worker hard currency skilled

worker tax haven consumer

durables hard copy hard

disk credit card consumer

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 Adverb-Adjective Collocations in Business English

DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

What shops and services are conveniently located to where you live?

Which brands are highly popular with young people?

What electronic devices will be commonly used in the future?

What do you do when your mailbox is temporarily unavailable?

Have you been adversely affected by any cuts to public services?

In what principles do you firmly believe?

Is cash still widely accepted everywhere?

Do your teachers/professors/boss promptly reply to your emails?

What topics do you find highly interesting?

Is a contract always legally binding?

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WHAT DO THE FOLLOWING BODY IDIOMS MEAN?

Head Hand
- to make headway - a show of hands
- to put ideas into somebody’s head - live from hand to mouth
- Heads will roll - have the upper hand
- to bury one’s head in the sand - to be an old hand
- to be promoted over the heads of - to give somebody a hand
others
- to keep one’s head above water

Eye Neck
- to see eye to eye with somebody - to be neck and neck
- There is more than meets the eye. - at breakneck speed
- to open somebody’s eyes - be a pain in the neck
- to not believe one’s eyes
- eye-catching

Brow Throat
- high-brow - cut-throat competition
- low-brow

Nose Thumb
- under somebody’s nose - a rule of thumb
- to be nosy - to give the thumbs up/down
- to pay through the nose

Ears Finger
- to be all ears - to keep one’s fingers crossed
- to be up the ears in work/debt - to point the finger at somebody
- to play it by ear

Mouth Leg
- to take the words out of somebody’s - to pull somebody’s leg
mouth - Break a leg!
- to make somebody’s mouth water
- by word of mouth

Tooth/teeth Foot/Feet
- to get one’s teeth in it - to foot the bill
- to have a sweet tooth - to drag one’s feet
- to stand on one’s own two feet
- to get cold feet

Tongue Back
- to have a sharp tongue - behind somebody’s back
- on the tip of one’s tongue - to have one’s back to the wall
- a slip of tongue - to turn your back on
somebody/something

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Questions about body idioms

Do you sometimes have an English word on the tip of your tongue and just can’t
remember it?
Do you have a sweet tooth?
How did you pull somebody’s leg?
What makes your mouth water?
Are you up to your ears in work or studies?
Who, in your opinion, is a pain in the neck?
When are you all ears?
Who foots the bill when you go for a drink with friends?
Can you remember a slip of tongue you have made?

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Play body idiom dominoes

Copy the set of cards twice and cut out the cards. Students play in groups of three to
six players. Each player receives the same number of cards and the body part cards
are put on the table face up. The game is played in rounds. The first player chooses
a body part card. Players can discard all cards with an expression where the body
idiom is used. Before discarding a card, the player reads the sentence with the body
idiom aloud. The other players confirm that the idiom is correctly used. Then another
player picks another body card and the round starts anew. The first player who has
discarded his or her last card is the winner.

FOOT/FEET LEG FINGER HAND

TONGUE EAR EYE HEAD

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 CARD GAME CARDS

Science has made ᷉ way After the scandal, some ᷉ It’s unfair: John has been
in the battle against AIDS. will roll in management. promoted over the ᷉ of
others.

Keep your ᷉ above I don’t always see ᷉ to ᷉ The conflict resolution

water with an emergency with Susan. seminar has opened my
savings account. .᷉

The new design is ᷉ - Tell me the news: Sorry, I can’t join you
catching. I’m all ᷉. tonight. I’m up to my ᷉
in work.

I couldn’t believe my ᷉ It’s on the tip of my ᷉ I made an embarrassing

when I heard that John but I can’t remember the slip of ᷉ : I had a cold
had been promoted. name. and I said that my nose
was full of Germans
instead of germs!

Be careful with Sarah: During the meeting: Pam returned empty ᷉

She has a sharp ᷉ ! Can we have a show of ᷉ from her salary
now? negotiation.

People are poor here: Let’s keep our ᷉ You needn’t point the ᷉
they live from ᷉ crossed that we will win at me. It’s not my fault
to mouth. the order! that something has gone
wrong.

You can’t be serious! To an actor before the Jim wanted to work

You are pulling my ᷉ ! performance: Break a ᷉ ! abroad, but when he was
offered a job he got cold
᷉.

Who will ᷉ the bill for It’s important for young We don’t have time to
climate change? people to learn how to prepare. Let’s play it by
stand on their own two ᷉ . ᷉ .

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Collocations – Colour Idioms in Business English

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 WHAT DO THE FOLLOWING COLOUR IDIOMS MEAN?

red blue
be $1,000 in the red out of the blue
red tape a blueprint
roll out the red carpet for sb a blue-collar worker
red-faced blue-chip stocks

green pink
give the green light pink money
a greenhorn a pink-collar worker
greenwashing to give sb. the pink slip
green politics
the greenhouse effect

black white
black coffee a white knight
black market a white collar worker
black knight a white lie
to blackmail sb. a white elephant
to be $1,000 in the black
to blacklist somebody

golden grey
a golden chance/opportunity a grey area
a golden rule the grey market
a golden handshake
a golden parachute
the golden age/year
rosy
silver paint a rosy picture
every cloud has a silver lining The future looks rosy.

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 WRITE A SUITABLE COLOUR IDIOM FOR EACH DEFINITION.

Something negative
- to threaten somebody or to put pressure on a person or group
- illegal trading in goods, currencies or services
- bureaucracy
- somebody who is embarrassed because s/he has made a mistake
- dismiss or fire an employee
- a costly useless project
- a list of people or organisations one should not deal with because they cannot be
trusted.

People
- a person who works in an office
- somebody who works in production
- a person who has no experience

Money
- a dollar bill
- a guarantee of salary so that (senior) executives do not lose income if their
company is taken over by another
- a large sum of money given to employees when they leave the company
- to have money in one’s bank account
- to be in debt
- money spent by the gay community

Nature
- a zone of farmland, parks and open country surrounding a town or city
- the rise in temperature of the earth’s atmosphere caused by an increase of gases
in the air
- politics that care about the environment

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Investment
- shares that are thought to be a safe investment
- a person or organisation that rescues a company from an unfavourable takeover
bid (= when another company wants to buy it).
- a person or company that tries to buy another company that does not want to
sell.

Something good
- unexpected good side of something bad
- an important day because something good happened
- the best years of people or things
- describe a situation positively

Others
- welcome important guests by treating them specially
- suddenly, unexpectedly
- to give permission to start or continue with a project
- to have extreme views to see something either completely good or bad
- a detailed plan
- a very important principle which should be followed
- a harmless lie told in order not to hurt somebody
- an area that is not clear

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 CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES?

The car manufacturer’s reputation has been ruined after it used software to cheat on
emissions tests. Greenwashing would be putting it mildly.

Fred Summerkorn, who stepped down as CEO last week, could receive a €50 million
golden handshake.

The President has tried to cut through government red tape to save money and
foster economic growth.

The greenbelt around the city is an oasis of parks, lakes, paths and golf courses.

Airlines are thinking about plans to put disruptive drunk passengers on a flying
blacklist.

“White collar workers have been the most rapidly expanding sector of the labor
force in the twentieth century United States.“ (Mark McColloch)

Hollywood's golden age was in the1930s and 1940s.

Some weak performances by stocks in the Dow Jones Index are a reminder that
even blue chips are at risk.

Some politicians paint an overly rosy picture of the economy.

- LOOK OUT FOR EXAMPLES OF COLOUR IDIOMS IN BUSINESS TEXTS AND THE NEWS IN ENGLISH.

- WRITE SOME SENTENCES ABOUT CURRENT NEWS ISSUES USING COLOUR IDIOMS.

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 Colour Idioms
CUT THE CARDS TO PLAY DOMINOES.

I’m broke. Management has

My account is given the ~ light
€500.- in the ~. for the project.

I don’t take The company

sugar and milk. was saved by
I drink ~ a ~ knight.
coffee.

Out of the ~ , I Jim does not

was promoted. have much
experience.
He’s a ˜.

There is a lot of This company is

bureaucracy. not trustworthy.
We have to cut It should be ˜-
through listed.
˜ tape.
During a We have got the
recession more contract! Here it
workers get the is in ~
˜ slip.

We need a plan There are no

or clear rules. It is a
˜print ~ area.
for our product
launch.

This airport is a We need more

useless politicians to
investment. It’s a protect the
˜ elephant. environment.

33
Christine Röll
Remember our Too many
~ rule: women still
Better now than choose ˜-collar
never! jobs.

Many executives The company’s

negotiate a ~ finances are
handshake with sound and its
their company. numbers are
in the ˜.

We should roll
Buy safe ˜-chip out the ~ carpet
stocks. for our best
customer.

You should take The future of the

the job. smartphone
It’s a ˜ chance. market is good.
It looks ˜.

˜-collar jobs in We need to

manufacturing change our
are disappearing. lifestyles to
reduce the
˜house effect.

The ˜ age of the

The mistake left music industry is
the manager ˜- over.
faced.

34
Christine Röll