In part 2 of this series, we look at how every language has words that standardly go together in stock phrases, also called "collocations." These are word combinations that are preferred by native speakers, and though there are other words that you could use to express the same thing, those other words might sound awkward or odd. For instance, you would usually say "a strong cup of tea." A "powerful cup of tea" or a "robust cup of tea" may have a very similar meaning, they sound odd to the ears of a native speaker. On the positive side, such word pairings sound very "normal," but they could also be criticized as being clichés when they are overused.

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Progress is usually made. This phrase sounds a little odd at first, as if "progress" were something that could be "made" in a factory, but what it means is that something or someone is improving:

You've made a little progress.

Caption 69, Barack Obama - on Trump presidential victory - Part 2

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I'm making great progress with the parents already.

Caption 16, Movie Trailers - The Boss Baby

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Money is often described as hard-earned, meaning that it was not inherited or acquired easily otherwise, but that someone had to work hard and long for it.

Don't hand over any more of your hard-earned money to these crooks.

Caption 22, Laurel & Hardy - Jitterbugs - Part 4

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People aren't lining up to trade their hard-earned money for your unnecessary product.

Captions 67-68, Nature Preservation - The Story of Bottled Water - Part 1

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When you want to take shower and use very little time in doing so, you take a quick shower. The meaning is the same as taking a "fast shower" or a "brief shower," but the standard expression uses the adjective "quick":

We have learned just for a quick shower, you just put the nozzle up there.

Captions 26-27, An apartment - in Japan

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You stand there and take a quick shower.

Caption 27, An apartment - in Japan

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Further Learning
Go to this page and see some other examples of standard English word combinations. Try to generally pay attention to the way words are combined by native English speakers and try to learn these phrases, since many are particularly unique to the language, such as the English phrase "to make up your mind" about something. See if you can find some examples of that phrase on Yabla English.

In English, cardinal numbers (for example, "one," "two," or "three") refer to quantity, whereas ordinal numbers ("first," "second," or "third") refer to distribution. Ordinal numbers are used in dates and fractions. They are employed as adjectives to describe importance, position in a list, and placement in time.

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Generally, ordinal numbers are created by adding -th to the end of the cardinal number. However, there are exceptions for the numbers one (first), two (second), three (third), five (fifth), eight (eighth), nine (ninth), and twelve (twelfth). 

I've been nervous. I think you know it's my first video ever.

Caption 31, Adele - The Making of 'Chasing Pavements'

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It is the world's sixth largest country by total area.

Caption 3, Soccer World Cup - Australia

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On the twelfth day after Christmas, we have to take down all the decorations and the tree.

Caption 47, Christmas traditions - in the UK

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Starting with twenty, the ordinal numbers for multiples of ten (for example, thirty or ninety) are created by replacing the "y" with "ieth."

And we've got the one year celebration on the thirtieth of May.

Caption 30, FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015 - New Zealand getting the word out

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This may seem like a lot to remember. However, for other numbers above twenty, only the last figure is written as an ordinal number:

English is the language of the twenty-first century. 

Caption 8, Strothoff International School - Imagefilm

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They have a wonderful internet café on the forty-seventh... forty-eighth floor.

Caption 67, An Apartment - in Japan

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Further Learning
Memorize the ordinal numbers from one to twenty with the help of this extensive list of ordinal numbers and find more examples on Yabla English.

Infinitive Verbs - Part 2

An infinitive verb is the plain form of a verb that is not conjugated and often has the word "to" before it. It is good to know the plain or base form of a verb, since that is the form that is typically the main listing for the word in a dictionary. You may hear the infinitive "to sit" conjugated as "sat" or "sitting," but the form of the word you will need if you care to look it up is the infinitive "sit." In standard usage, the infinitive will always be preceded by another verb.

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The Japanese tradition is to sit on the stool in front of the faucets

Caption 22, An Apartment - In Japan

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In the example above, the infinitive is "to sit." Infinitives preceded by "to" are called "full infinitives."

You can sit right here. -Thank you.

Caption 5, Jessica and Liz - In a Restaurant

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In this example, the infinitive is the verb "sit." An infinitive without the "to" is called a "bare infinitive."

It's really exciting to know that I'm setting a good example for young people.

Caption 26, peta2 Interviews - Vegan Surfer Tia Blanco

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You did well to tell me. We must know everything.

Caption 35, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - BBC TV Movie

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In the first example above, you see the full infinitive "to know," and in the second example the bare infinitive "know."

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Further Learning
Read this in-depth article on infinitive verbs, then search for examples on Yabla English to see them used in a real-world context.