A collocation is a pair (or group) of words that habitually go together — a partnership the language has settled on, often for no logical reason you could derive from a dictionary. In Brazilian Portuguese you tomar a shower, not beber or pegar one; you fazer a question, not perguntar a question; you dar a look, not ver a look. Getting these word-partnerships right is the single biggest factor separating Portuguese that is merely grammatically correct from Portuguese that sounds genuinely native. This page explains what collocations are, why they matter so much, and how to learn them.
Why collocations make or break naturalness
Every language carves up the same reality with different word-partnerships, and these partnerships are largely arbitrary and unpredictable from translation. English says "make a decision"; Portuguese says tomar uma decisão (literally "take a decision") — French and Spanish each choose differently again. There is no rule deriving tomar here; the language simply settled on it. When you translate the English verb literally, the result is grammatical but foreign-sounding.
Preciso tomar uma decisão importante até amanhã.
I need to make an important decision by tomorrow.
Você pode me fazer um favor?
Can you do me a favor?
Deixa eu dar uma olhada nisso aí.
Let me take a look at that. (informal)
A learner who says fazer uma decisão ("make a decision," translated word for word) or perguntar uma pergunta ("ask a question") will be understood — but instantly marked as a non-native speaker. Collocational accuracy is what makes you sound like you belong in the language.
The main types of collocation
Collocations come in a handful of recurring grammatical shapes. Knowing the categories helps you notice and collect them.
| Type | Pattern | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verb + noun | "light verb" + object | tomar banho | take a shower |
| Verb + noun | "light verb" + object | fazer uma pergunta | ask a question |
| Adjective + noun | fixed descriptor | chuva forte | heavy rain |
| Adjective + noun | fixed descriptor | amigo íntimo | close friend |
| Preposition + noun | fixed adverbial phrase | de repente | suddenly |
| Preposition + noun | fixed adverbial phrase | à toa | aimlessly / for nothing |
| Adverb + adjective | intensifier | profundamente triste | deeply sad |
| Verb + preposition | obligatory complement | gostar de | to like |
The next pages in this group break down each major type in depth: verb-noun collocations (the high-frequency tomar / fazer / dar / ter set), adjective-noun collocations (which descriptor pairs with which noun), and prepositional collocations (fixed de / a / em / por chunks). The obligatory verb + preposition patterns (gostar de, precisar de, depender de) are covered under prepositions.
Ela está profundamente apaixonada por ele.
She is deeply in love with him.
Eu dependo de você pra terminar isso.
I depend on you to finish this. (informal)
Collocations versus idioms: literal versus figurative
It is essential not to confuse collocations with idioms (expressões idiomáticas), even though both are fixed word-combinations.
- A collocation is largely literal and compositional: tomar banho really does mean "to take a bath/shower." The oddity is only which verb the language chose. You can guess the meaning even if you could not have predicted the verb.
- An idiom is figurative and non-compositional: chutar o balde ("to kick the bucket") does not mean to kick a bucket — it means "to give up / lose it / throw caution to the wind." The meaning cannot be derived from the parts at all.
Vou tomar um café antes de sair.
I'll have a coffee before leaving. (collocation — literal: 'have/take a coffee')
Ele resolveu chutar o balde e largou tudo.
He decided to throw in the towel and quit everything. (idiom — figurative)
This distinction matters for how you learn each. Collocations are best absorbed as productive patterns ("with the noun banho, the verb is tomar"). Idioms must be memorized whole as cultural units, since their meaning is opaque. For idioms and fixed expressions, see the Expressions group.
Learning collocations as chunks
The practical takeaway from decades of language-acquisition research: do not learn words in isolation — learn them in their partnerships. When you meet the noun decisão, do not file it as "decisão = decision." File the whole chunk: tomar uma decisão. When you meet banho, learn tomar banho, banho quente, banho de mar. This way the right verb and adjective come pre-attached, and you produce natural Portuguese automatically instead of assembling it word by word from English.
Tomei uma decisão difícil, mas acho que valeu a pena.
I made a hard decision, but I think it was worth it.
A gente fez as pazes depois daquela briga boba.
We made up after that silly argument. (informal)
This is why fluent speakers sound fast and effortless: they are not building sentences from atoms but retrieving ready-made multi-word blocks. Collecting collocations is one of the highest-leverage things you can do between B1 and C1.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu quero fazer uma decisão sobre isso.
Incorrect — English-literal 'make a decision'; the verb must be 'tomar'.
✅ Eu quero tomar uma decisão sobre isso.
I want to make a decision about this.
❌ Posso perguntar uma pergunta?
Incorrect — redundant pairing; Portuguese uses 'fazer' with 'pergunta'.
✅ Posso fazer uma pergunta?
Can I ask a question?
❌ Vou pegar um banho rápido antes de sair.
Incorrect — 'pegar um banho' is not the standard collocation; 'take a shower' is 'tomar banho'.
✅ Vou tomar um banho rápido antes de sair.
I'm going to take a quick shower before leaving.
❌ Choveu muito forte, foi uma chuva pesada.
Incorrect — 'chuva pesada' is an English calque; heavy rain is 'chuva forte'.
✅ Choveu muito, foi uma chuva forte.
It rained a lot, it was heavy rain.
❌ Ele me deu uma pergunta difícil.
Incorrect — you don't 'give' a question; you 'fazer' (ask) one.
✅ Ele me fez uma pergunta difícil.
He asked me a difficult question.
Key Takeaways
- A collocation is a habitual word-partnership; the combination is conventional and not derivable from translation.
- Collocational accuracy is what makes Portuguese sound native rather than translated — even perfect grammar fails without it.
- The main types are verb + noun, adjective + noun, preposition + noun, and verb + preposition; each has a dedicated page.
- Collocations are literal/compositional; idioms are figurative/opaque — learn them differently and see the Expressions group for idioms.
- Learn vocabulary in chunks, with the right partner verbs and adjectives pre-attached, to retrieve natural Portuguese effortlessly.
Now practice Portuguese
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Verb-Noun CollocationsA2 — The high-frequency 'light verb' collocations of Brazilian Portuguese — tomar, fazer, dar, ter, and pegar — and the wrong-verb traps that mark a learner.
- Adjective-Noun CollocationsB1 — Which adjective pairs with which noun in Brazilian Portuguese — intensity pairs like chuva forte and café forte, fixed epithets like amigo íntimo and erro grave, and the English mismatches that sound wrong.
- Prepositional CollocationsA2 — The fixed preposition + noun chunks that lock countless Brazilian Portuguese adverbial meanings — de novo, de repente, de cor, à toa, à vontade, por acaso, em vão — where the preposition cannot be swapped.
- Expressions and Idioms: OverviewA1 — How high-frequency fixed phrases work as pre-assembled chunks that let you sound fluent before you can build the grammar from scratch.
- Prepositions Required by VerbsB1 — Verb government in Brazilian Portuguese (regência verbal): which verbs demand de, a, em, com, or por before their object — gostar de, assistir a, pensar em, sonhar com — and how everyday speech bends the prescriptive rules.