IELTS Collocation Exercises: Verb–Noun and Register Drills

IELTS collocation exercises are useful when they make you choose a natural word partnership in context. Memorizing take measures is only the first step. You must also know who can take them, what they address, and whether the phrase fits a conversation, report, or essay.

The public descriptors include collocational control within Lexical Resource. The original exercises below therefore test both the partnership and the intended meaning. This is the answer-checked exercise companion to Lyra Practice's IELTS collocations guide, not a duplicate explanation of the same phrases. Use the IELTS vocabulary practice hub for more task routes.

Exercise 1: verb and noun

Choose the natural verb.

1. Local authorities should address / perform the shortage of affordable housing.
2. The new timetable poses / makes a challenge for parents who work late.
3. The university plans to conduct / execute a survey of commuting habits.
4. Better insulation can reduce / shrink energy consumption.
5. The evidence does not support / hold the claim that the change caused the decline.
6. Several factors influence / manufacture consumer decisions.

Answers: 1 address, 2 poses, 3 conduct, 4 reduce, 5 support, 6 influence. The rejected options may share a broad topic but do not form the conventional partnership or intended sense.

Exercise 2: adjective and noun

1. The project faces severe / powerful financial constraints.
2. There was a slight / tiny increase from 48% to 50%.
3. Reliable childcare has a significant / loud impact on employment choices.
4. The proposal received widespread / stretched support.
5. The two approaches show a subtle / skinny difference in emphasis.

Answers: 1 severe, 2 slight, 3 significant, 4 widespread, 5 subtle. Each answer forms a standard combination and matches an abstract noun.

Exercise 3: dependent prepositions

Complete each phrase with one preposition.

1. contribute ___ lower emissions
2. have access ___ reliable transport
3. place pressure ___ local services
4. respond ___ changing demand
5. be responsible ___ maintenance
6. result ___ longer waiting times

Answers: 1 to, 2 to, 3 on, 4 to, 5 for, 6 in. Contrast result from for a cause: “The delay resulted from a fault.”

Exercise 4: find the unnatural phrase

Correct one collocation in each sentence.

1. The council did a decision to extend weekend service.
2. My neighborhood has heavy noise during construction.
3. The course helped me win confidence in public speaking.
4. The policy could create benefits for rural communities.
5. We made research before choosing the destination.

Answers: 1 made a decision/decided. 2 has high noise levels/is very noisy. 3 gain confidence. 4 bring/provide benefits. 5 did/conducted research. In Speaking, the shorter verb can be more natural: We researched the destination.

Exercise 5: Speaking or Writing?

Choose the option that sounds more natural in the stated context.

1. Speaking about exercise: “It helps me stay healthy / maintain optimal physical well-being.”
2. Essay: “The policy could reduce inequality / make things fairer and stuff.”
3. Speaking about a busy café: “It was packed / characterized by high customer density.”
4. Report: “Demand remained stable / stayed pretty much the same.”

Answers: 1 stay healthy, 2 reduce inequality, 3 packed, 4 remained stable. Appropriate register is part of good lexical control; formal language is not automatically better in speech.

Exercise 6: complete the response

Use each collocation once: reach a compromise, meet demand, raise awareness, take responsibility.

1. Extra evening buses could help the operator ______ during the festival.
2. The campaign uses short videos to ______ of water waste.
3. Both groups changed part of their proposal to ______.
4. Building owners must ______ for essential repairs.

Answers: 1 meet demand, because capacity responds to need. 2 raise awareness, because understanding increases. 3 reach a compromise, because both sides make concessions. 4 take responsibility, because the duty belongs to the owners.

Production practice

Write a four-sentence answer about whether a town should create a car-free center. Include one challenge, one action, one benefit, and one limitation. A possible version is:

Traffic congestion poses a serious challenge in the town center. Restricting private cars could reduce air pollution and create more space for pedestrians. However, the council would need to meet the transport needs of residents with limited mobility. A trial period could provide evidence before officials make a permanent decision.

Underline the partnerships: pose a challenge, reduce pollution, meet needs, provide evidence, make a decision. Then replace one noun and observe which partner must change. This prevents you from treating collocations as decorative chunks detached from meaning.

Continue with IELTS collocations for Speaking and Writing in Lyra Practice, then select a task-specific route from the IELTS vocabulary practice hub to use the partnerships in context.

Sources

• IELTS Speaking band descriptors
• IELTS Writing band descriptors

Related

• IELTS collocations for Speaking and Writing
• IELTS vocabulary mistakes
• IELTS Lexical Resource exercises
• IELTS paraphrasing exercises

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