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🔗 IT English Collocations

26 exercise sets. The word pairs that separate natural-sounding IT English from technically-correct-but-awkward English.

What is a collocation? Two or more words that go together naturally in English. Native speakers don't choose words randomly — they use established combinations. Getting collocations right is what makes your English sound fluent, not just grammatically correct.

Common collocation mistakes by non-native speakers

❌ Awkward (but grammatically correct) ✅ Natural English
do a deployment run a deployment / trigger a deployment
do a test run a test / write a test / pass a test
write a mistake make a mistake / introduce a bug
do a meeting run a meeting / hold a meeting / attend a meeting
make a commit create a commit / push a commit / squash commits

More Collocation Drills (1189)

Focused 5-question drills on verb+noun and adjective+noun collocations across every IT domain.

Part of These Learning Guides

These collocation exercises are featured across all our role-specific learning guides:

⚙️ Backend Developer Guide Complete English learning path for backend engineers 🖥️ Frontend Developer Guide Complete English learning path for frontend engineers 🔧 DevOps/SRE Guide Complete English learning path for DevOps and SRE engineers 📊 Data Scientist / ML Engineer Guide Complete English learning path for data scientists and ML engineers ✅ QA Engineer Guide Complete English learning path for QA engineers 🔒 Security Engineer Guide Complete English learning path for security engineers 🗄️ Data Engineer Guide Complete English learning path for data engineers

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a collocation in IT English?+

A collocation is a pair or group of words that native English speakers habitually use together. In IT, "push a commit" is natural; "do a commit" is technically understandable but sounds awkward. Collocations are the difference between correct English and fluent English.

Why do non-native speakers make collocation mistakes?+

Collocations can't be predicted from grammar rules or individual word meanings. Non-native speakers often translate directly from their first language, producing phrases like "make a deployment" instead of "run a deployment" or "do a test" instead of "run a test". The only way to learn them is through exposure and deliberate practice.

What are the most important IT collocations to learn first?+

Start with the Developer Daily Action Verbs set. The most frequent IT collocations involve: run (run tests, run a script, run a pipeline), push (push code, push a commit, push to production), raise (raise a ticket, raise a concern, raise a PR), and fix (fix a bug, fix a merge conflict, fix a regression).

What is the A–Z Collocation Dictionary?+

The A–Z Collocation Dictionary is a reference resource with 90+ IT verb collocations organised alphabetically. Each entry includes usage markers (very common, formal, informal) and an in-context example sentence. Use it as a quick-lookup reference during writing or meetings.

How do adjective-noun collocations work in IT?+

Adjective-noun collocations pair adjectives with specific nouns: "breaking change" (not "destructive change"), "legacy code" (not "old code"), "technical debt" (not "technical obligation"), "clean architecture" (not "tidy architecture"). The Code & Architecture Collocations set covers the most important pairs.

Are there collocations specific to DevOps and cloud work?+

Yes. The DevOps & Infrastructure Collocations and Cloud Operations Collocations sets cover: spin up (a container, a cluster), tear down (an environment), roll back (a deployment), trigger (a pipeline), provision (resources), scale (horizontally), and expose (a service). These are the exact phrases SREs and DevOps engineers use daily.

What are precision adverbs and why do they matter?+

Precision adverbs change the meaning of a verb significantly. "The build failed unexpectedly" is very different from "The build failed intermittently" or "The build failed silently". Adverb choice is critical in incident reports, bug descriptions, and postmortems — it tells the reader not just what happened but how it happened.

How many collocation drills are available?+

There are 25+ exercise sets in the main Collocations section plus an additional collection of focused 5-question drills covering every IT domain — AI/ML, cloud operations, security, architecture decisions, infrastructure, product management, and Agile ceremonies.

Are there collocation exercises for code reviews?+

Yes. The Code Review Collocations set covers: approve a PR, request changes, leave a nit, address feedback, block a merge, merge a PR, resolve a conversation, and mark as stale. These are the exact phrases you'll see and write in GitHub or GitLab reviews every day.

How do collocations relate to IT vocabulary and grammar?+

Vocabulary teaches individual words. Grammar teaches how to combine them correctly. Collocations teach which words naturally go together. All three are necessary for fluent IT English. Many learners plateau at intermediate level because they have vocabulary and grammar but not collocation knowledge.