A collocation is two or more words that often go together. These combinations sound natural to native English speakers, so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with some common examples.

Examples of common collocations in healthcare letters are given below, along with their parts of speech and meaning:

• Verb + noun:
  • Take a pulse/temperature/blood pressure
    • g. I will take your blood pressure regularly.
  • Sustain an injury
    • g. She sustained a right femoral fracture.
  • Do a test
    • g. Please do a repeat x-ray next week.
  • Verb + preposition:
    • Diagnose with
      • g. He was diagnosed with pneumonia.
    • Admit to
      • g. He was admitted to the geriatrics ward.
    • Discharge from
      • g. She will be discharged from our facility tomorrow.
    • Complain of
      • g. She complained of trouble sleeping.
    • Associate with
      • g. The headache was associated with nausea.
    • Suffer from
      • g. He suffers from type 2 diabetes.

It’s important to spend some time learning collocations, because using them incorrectly can confuse or mislead the reader/listener. Here are some hints to help you learn collocations more effectively:

1. Learn collocations as single blocks of language. E.g. learn “diagnose with” rather than “diagnose” + “with”.
2. Google is a powerful tool. Find new collocations by Googling “English collocations in healthcare”. Then, Google the collocation itself to find examples of its use!
3. Revision, revision, revision! Every time you see a new collocation, add it to a list and write it down in a sentence. Revise your list every week.