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B2 · Upper-Intermediate

B2 English Collocations for Academic and Formal Writing

At B2 collocation becomes a register problem as much as a vocabulary one. Two words can mean nearly the same thing and belong to different worlds — you write research ethics and a moral dilemma, never the reverse, and the choice marks you as someone who reads the field or does not.

34 collocationsReal example sentencesLinked to the word listsB2 level

Written and reviewed by Vugar Novruzov, Academy Director · How we write our lessons

What changes at B2

Upper-intermediate English is where writing starts being judged rather than merely understood. Examiners, editors and colleagues are reading for precision, and precision at this level is largely a matter of which partner a word takes. A study does not do results, it produces them; an argument is not made strong, it is compelling; an audit is carried out.

The B2 word lists on this site are already full of these, because at this level the example sentence is doing most of the teaching. Our character-and-integrity list makes the point directly: moral and ethical overlap heavily and in many sentences either will do, but the collocations differ and following the standard ones is what keeps writing idiomatic.

cause + consequence

The workhorse of cause-and-effect writing. Note that cause takes overwhelmingly negative objects in English — you cause chaos and anxiety, but you do not cause happiness.

face + threat

Where the subject is on the receiving end. Face collocates with things that are approaching and unwelcome, and it is the natural verb across economics, environment and law.

carry out and conduct + process

Formal English prefers a light verb plus a nominalised process to a single plain verb: not they audited but they carried out an audit. This is one of the most recognisable features of academic register.

draw and reach + conclusion

Conclusions and inferences are drawn; agreements are reached. Neither verb is deducible, and both are near-obligatory in essay writing.

express + feeling or view

The formal alternative to say. Gratitude, sentiment and reservations are all expressed, which raises the register without raising the difficulty.

have + quality or attribute

At B2 have is doing abstract work: describing a mind, a document, an institution. The examples below are all from the B2 lists and all follow the same frame.

give + formal noun

Where a plain verb would be too blunt for the context. A denial is given, an explanation is given, commentary is given.

What to watch out for

Where these examples come from

Every sentence above is the example already published for that word on our B2 vocabulary lists — the same sentence you will see if you follow the link under it. Nothing on this page was written to demonstrate a collocation; the collocations were selected from what the site already teaches, which is why each one can be followed straight to a full word list with a definition, British pronunciation and flashcards.

That constraint is deliberate. A collocation page built from invented examples would be a second vocabulary set competing with the first, and a learner who met cause chaos here would have nowhere to go next. Built this way, the 34 pairings on this page are 34 doors into the upper-intermediate word lists.

Questions about B2 collocations

Why do collocations matter so much in B2 exam writing?

Because at B2 the assessment stops being about whether the grammar is correct and starts being about whether the language is appropriate. Examiners describe this as range and precision, and both are largely measured by whether your word partnerships are the ones a competent user would choose.

What is a delexical or light verb?

A verb that contributes almost no meaning of its own and exists to carry a noun — the carry out of carry out an audit, or the make of make a decision. The noun does the work. Formal English uses them constantly, and which light verb goes with which noun is pure collocation.

How do I learn academic collocations efficiently?

From the noun, not the verb. Take the abstract nouns of your subject and record what English does to each of them: a conclusion is drawn, a study is conducted, a distinction is made, a hypothesis is tested. Organised that way the list stays short and each item is immediately usable.

Are these useful for IELTS or Cambridge exams?

Yes — collocation range is explicitly part of the lexical resource criterion in both. Nothing on this page is exam-specific, but the partnerships are the ones academic writing actually uses, which is what those criteria are measuring.

What is the difference between a collocation and an idiom?

An idiom means something its words do not — burning the midnight oil is not about oil. A collocation keeps the literal meanings and is simply the pairing English prefers. Idioms are opaque and memorable; collocations are transparent and invisible, which is what makes them harder to notice.

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