One of the best ways to expand your vocabulary is to learn vocabulary sets with common verbs. Today let’s focus on collocations with GO. We use ‘go’ frequently in daily conversation so these ‘go collocations’ will be really useful for your spoken English
Plus it will be a great example of how you can do this with other verbs to expand your vocabulary AND remember it!
Accuracy & Fluency
As you look at the common collocations below, pay attention to the little prepositions (for, to) and articles (the, a). Getting these right will make your English sound more accurate and more fluent.
- go for a walk | run | swim | drink
- go for dinner
- go to bed | sleep | work | school
- go to the doctor | dentist | pub | cinema | theatre | bank | post office | supermarket | shops | beach | park
- go to a museum | festival | yoga class | restaurant
- go shopping | dancing | swimming | running (notice these are all with -ing)
- go home | out
Creating Sentences
You can then use those collocations with go to create lovely, natural sentences. For example
Do you want to go for dinner tonight? There’s a new Thai restaurant near me.
Shall we go to the beach after work?
You should go to the dentist if you’ve still got toothache.
I usually go out on Saturday nights if I don’t have to work.
And if you’re using a different tense, you only need to change the form of go but the rest stays exactly the same. For example…
I’m tired. I’m going to bed!
I’ve never been to a festival.
I’m thinking about going for a run tonight.
I went shopping on Saturday but I couldn’t find anything I liked.
Recording & Memorising Vocabulary
I’d recommend writing down these ‘go collocations’ in their groups (meaning with the appropriate preposition/article) as it will make them easier to memorise.
You can also do this with other verbs to quickly expand your vocabulary. Think of a verb (for example, ‘take’ or ‘have’ or ‘do’) and brainstorm all the collocations you can make with that verb. Then record them in the same way by grouping them with the appropriate preposition or article.
I’ve put a graphic below that you can download and save for future practice:
Question for you….
What do you think about recording vocabulary in this way? Do you think it will help you to remember these collocations with go? Let me know below 👇😊
8 Responses
Thank you Nicki. These phrases are very useful and I downloaded the graphic so I can practise them. I like how they are organised. I will try my best to do this style with other verbs.
That’s great to hear Lou. I’m glad you’re going to give it a try with other vocabulary sets! 😊
Hi Nick, Thanks for these precious” go collocations” that I’m going to use properly.😀
Ah you’re welcome Francis! I’m very glad you like them 😁
Thanks for ‘Go’ phrases. I am confused how to use
Go+ing + running
Go+ing swimming
Go+ing+running
Go+ing+dancing
Kindly clarify
Regards
Ah I see what you mean Heera. There are some ‘activity’ verbs (e.g. run, swim, dance, shop) that, when you put them with go, you need to add ING. Then, if you change the tense, you only change the form of go.
Here are some example sentences: I go running every morning. I often go swimming on Sundays. I’m going dancing tonight. I went shopping yesterday.
I hope that helps 😊
This is an interesting way to group collocation with “go” and easy to remember.
I also like your sentence ” I’m glad you’re going to give it a try with other vocabulary sets!”
I’m so pleased you found the groupings useful Kalinka 😊
And it’s great that you’re reading my replies to other comments to pick up more phrases!