Two separate sets of collocations belong to leverage's two senses, and mixing them up produces sentences that are grammatical but unnatural — the kind of error that's immediately noticeable even when everything else in the sentence is correct.
General sense: possessing or building a position
For the bargaining-power noun, the verbs that combine naturally all describe possessing or building a position: have leverage, gain leverage, give someone leverage, provide leverage, exert leverage, build leverage, maintain leverage.
Natural: "The exclusive supply agreement gave us real leverage in the renegotiation." Unnatural: "The exclusive supply agreement made us leverage in the renegotiation."
Verbs that describe performing or producing an action don't combine naturally with it, even though they're common verbs elsewhere: make leverage, do leverage, take leverage, and perform leverage are all wrong.
Unnatural: "We're actively doing leverage as the credit environment tightens." Natural: "We're actively managing our leverage as the credit environment tightens."
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Start learning for free →Financial sense: ratio and degree
For the financial sense, the natural collocations frame leverage as a ratio or a degree: a leverage ratio, high or low leverage, excessive leverage, increasing, reducing, or managing leverage, operating with a leverage of 3:1 or 3x leverage, a highly leveraged company, and deleveraging the balance sheet.
"The company reduced leverage from 4x to 2.5x over eighteen months by paying down term debt."
That sentence pairs the financial sense with a comparative, ratio-based verb — reduced ... from ... to — not a bare, static claim.
Practice scenarios
Practice the natural verb collocations for leverage, in both senses, in situations like:
- choosing the right verb for a bargaining-power sentence (gain, build, exert)
- catching an unnatural collocation like "make leverage" or "do leverage"
- describing a company's leverage ratio changing over time with a comparative verb
Useful practice phrases:
- "This gave us real leverage in..."
- "We're managing/reducing/increasing our leverage as..."
- "The company reduced leverage from [X] to [Y] over..."
The noun "leverage" doesn't pair with just any verb of action.
It pairs with verbs of possessing, building, and adjusting a position — nothing more generic than that.
Lyra Practice helps advanced non-native English professionals learn the nuance of high-value workplace expressions and practice using them in realistic scenarios, so their English sounds natural, precise, and senior at work. Try Lyra Practice.