The worst think on your way of achieving success is confusion. Once something becomes unclear, unexplained or dubious, it's likely to turn into an unnecessary mess.

One of my students, whose name is Alexandra, is getting ready for her Cambridge examination and she's perfectly honest with me every time she struggles to complete some collocations.

She says: "How is it possible? I can't believe my eyes that only this, not that version is correct. Why can't I say -powerful tea, but I need to stick to the strong one?"I bet you come across such doubts when you speak English. Don't worry! Here's the solution.

The problem lies in the fact that the English language has a lot of words that go together - they're called collocations. Even more, they go along more often than you would expect - and that's the problem.

 However, once you become aware of the fact that collocations exist, your brain will become more sensitive to their occurrence, and you'll start to see more of them....