Words that belong together: Adverb-Adjective Collocations in English

Does your language have words that just sound good together? In English, these are called collocations. In this important English vocabulary lesson, you’ll learn 10 common adverb-adjective combinations. These include expressions such as “seriously injured“, “highly probable“, “totally wrong“, “virtually impossible“, “cautiously optimistic“, and more! If you want to improve your vocabulary and sound like a native English speaker, this lesson is a must, especially for intermediate and advanced level English students. Take the quiz at and see how high you score! TRANSCRIPT That is absolutely delicious. Oh, hey. Hey, everyone. I’m Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on “Adverb and Adjective Collocations“. Now, “collocations“ is just another fancy way to say combinations. And specifically, these are adverbs like: “very“, “really“, “seriously“, “incredibly“, “absolutely“, and adjectives like: “hot“, “cold“, “injured“, “wet“, whatever. And these are ones that go together commonly. Okay? So, let me put my coffee down, and we’ll get started with the lesson. Today we’re going to look at 10 of them. So, first, we have: “Seriously injured“ or “Seriously hurt“. If you watch a lot of sports, you will hear this. Okay? So, for example: “She was seriously injured in the 2nd half.“ Now, for me, when I was around 23-24 years old, I used to play football just a little bit, and one time I was playing and I twisted my ankle, and I heard the muscle rip a little bit. It was very painful, and I was seriously hurt, seriously injured, and I couldn’t walk for about two weeks. So it was a... It was a tough time. All right? So, again: “seriously injured“, “seriously hurt“. You could just say: “hurt“, “really hurt“, “very hurt“, but for some reason, the word “seriously“ and the word “injured“ have been put together time and time again. They sound beautiful together to people. Next: “highly probable“, “highly likely“. So, if something is highly probable, highly likely, it means there is an excellent chance that it will happen. So, in the weather report, you might hear: “Rain is highly probable tomorrow.“ It is highly probable that it will rain. Okay? So, very likely, very possible or probable. So, again: “highly probable“, “highly likely“. Next: “cautiously optimistic“. Now, if you are an optimistic person but, you know, something is coming and you’re optimistic, but you’re carefully optimistic, you’re not sure 100% how optimistic to be - you can say: “I’m cautiously optimistic.“ Okay? So, for example: “I’m cautiously optimistic about the next Star Trek movie.“ So, I have enjoyed the first two Star Trek movies directed by J. J. Abrams. There’s a third one coming where he’s the producer, and the director is the guy who did The Fast and the Furious. So, The Fast and the Furious director is doing a Star Trek movie, and in the trailer, like, Captain Kirk is on a motorbike? I don’t know. I don’t know. But I enjoyed the first two movies. I think I’ll enjoy the third one, but I’m cautiously optimistic that it will be good. Okay. And if at this time the movie has been released, and hopefully it’s great; if it was bad, I’m sorry. Next: “totally wrong“, “totally wrong“. All right? So, you could just say something is wrong, but people commonly say: “That is totally wrong.“ All right? “Your answer was totally wrong.“ Totally incorrect. Absolutely incorrect. Okay? So, you can imagine you can use this in a variety of contexts. Next: “incredibly lazy“. Okay? So: “He was incredibly lazy as a kid.“ Like, let’s say this kid, whoever he was, just played video games all day, ate Doritos chips, drank Coke, skipped school all the time. I don’t know, never did anything. His parents told him to do stuff, he didn’t do it. He was incredibly lazy. So you can say: “Oh my god, my sister is so incredibly lazy.“ Or: “She is so incredibly lazy.“ My uncle, or my cousin, or my aunt, or my best friend is incredibly lazy. They are so lazy that it is incredible. All right? So, let’s go and look at five more. “Virtually impossible“. So, “virtually impossible“ means something is practically, or almost, absolutely not possible. So: “This quiz is virtually impossible!“ Some video games, if they’re very difficult, you’re like: “This game is virtually impossible to beat! I can’t finish it.“ Like Dark Souls. Or when I was a kid... What was a game that was really difficult to beat? I had this game for the Nintendo Entertainment System called Time Lord, and I could never get past, like, the fourth level. It was a pirate ship, and I had no idea how to finish it. Or the original Ninja Turtles video game for the NES was also virtually impossible. Bad memories. Okay. “Absolutely incredible“. So, at the time of this video, you know, Star Wars episode seven is kind of a big deal, and I would say that: “Star Wars was absolutely incredible!“