1

INTRODUCTION

The main purpose of this thesis is to show the importance of collocations, idioms
and false friends and to present how these structures can affect a second language learner.
This thesis is divided into three chapters, each of them pointing out the most
important pieces of information about collocations, idioms and false friends.
The first chapter contains the definitions and also the main classifications of a
collocation, an idiom or a false friend, providing the most updated pieces of information
available in this moment. To make this chapter more user-friendly, I divided it into five
subchapters, making the navigation much easier between one concept and another. In
addition, I highlighted the most important definitions and classifications by creating some
helpful visual aids, in order to better organize the information.
The second chapter is formed of seven subchapters, starting with Learning and
using the co-occurrences. Here I presented the importance of collocations by giving some
contrastive examples, pointing out that the usage a wrong collocation can completely
change the meaning of a message.
In the next subchapter, Futuristic collocations I made a connection between the virtual
world and the usage of co-occurrences. I discovered that a collocation is very similar with
an Internet Search Engine, both of them relying on the words frequency.
I continued by presenting the most frequent type of idiom, a phrasal verb, by comparing it
with a collocation and also explaining its constituent parts. Then, I made another
comparison between a metaphor, a proverb and an idiom, pointing out the main similarities
and differences.
The subchapter Problematic idioms presents the idioms that can be difficult for a foreign
learner, starting with the frozen similes and continuing with other opaque idioms.
Moreover, the idioms are classified according to their provenience and topic, criteria that
can be problematic even for the natives.
In Multimedia Idioms I described the main sources that keep us in touch with these
structures.
2

In the last subchapter of the second chapter I presented the most common false friends that
can be found in Romanian, French, German and Spanish, revealing that a false friend can
be a language error but also a source of comic.
The last chapter, contains vital pieces of information about the effects of these
structures on the second language learners. They have to complete a survey that contains
various questions about collocations, idioms and false friends. The results will be
centralized analysed, compared and graphically represented in order to find and to
highlight the most problematic structures.



INTRODUCERE

Scopul acestei lucrri de licen este de a arta importana colocaiilor, idiomurilor
i a prietenilor fali (false friends), precum i de a prezenta modalitatea prin care acestea
afecteaz un vorbitor de limb strin.
Aceast lucrare de licen este divizat n trei capitole, fiecare dintre acestea
punnd n eviden cele mai importante informaii referitoare la colocaii, idiomuri i false
friends.
n primul capitol se regsesc definiiile i clasificrile acestor structuri, furniznd
cele mai recente informaii disponibile n acest moment. Pentru a face acest capitol mai
uor de parcurs, l-am mprit n cinci subcapitole, fcnd posibil o navigare mult mai
fluent ntre o structur i cealalt. n plus, am evideniat cele mai importante definiii i
clasificri realiznd elemente vizuale ajuttoare n scopul unei bune organizri a
informaiei.
Cel de-al doilea capitol cuprinde apte subcapitole, ncepnd cu Learning and
using the co-occurrences. Aici am prezentat importana colocaiilor, oferind cteva
exemple contrastive, punnd n relief faptul c folosirea unei colocaii greite poate s
modifice complet nelesul unui mesaj.
n urmtorul subcapitol Futuristic Collocations am realizat o legtur ntre lumea
virtual i folosirea acestor repetiii. Am descoperit c o colocaie este foarte asemntoare
cu un motor de cutare, ambele bazndu-se pe aceste repetiii.
3

Am continuat prezentnd cel mai frecvent tip de idiom, verbul frazal, comparndu-l cu o
colocaie i explicndu-i prile componente. Dup aceea am realizat o alt comparaie
ntre o metafor, un proverb i un idiom, punctnd principalele diferene i asemnri.
Subcapitolul Problematic Idioms prezint idiomurile care pot reprezenta o problem
pentru un student strin, ncepnd cu frozen similes i continund cu alte idiomuri cu
neles ascuns. Mai mult dect att, idiomurile sunt clasificate dup tem i provenien,
criterii care pot pune probleme inclusiv nativilor.
n subcapitolul Multimedia Idioms am descris principalele surse prin care meninem
legtura cu aceste structuri.
n ultimul subcapitol al primului capitol am prezentat cei mai comuni prieteni fali (false
friends) care se pot gsi n Romn, Francez, German i Spaniol artnd c un false
friend poate constitui att o eroare lingvistic dar i o surs a umorului.
Ultimul capitol conine informaii vitale despre efectele acestor structuri asupra
acelora care nva o limb strin. Acetia trebuie s completeze un chestionar care
conine o varietate de colocaii, idiomuri i false friends. Rezultatele vor fi centralizate,
analizate, comparate dar i reprezentate grafic pentru a gsi i evidenia cele mai
problematice structuri.

















4



CHAPTER I FAMILIARISING WITH THE TERMS

1.1 What is a collocation?
Collocations represent something new in the way human mind perceive and understand
the language. The word collocation appeared for the first time in the sixteenth century,
being influenced by the large amount of Latin words that were in circulation during that
period.


A collocation can be defined in many ways. For instance in The English Oxford
Dictionary published between 1884 and 1928 the word collocation is described as the
action of setting in a place or position, esp. of placing together with, or side by side with
something else. Furthermore, this explanation is connected with the arrangement of a
words in a sentence which partly clarifies the main use of a collocation.
A comprehensive definition can be found in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's
Dictionary where a collocation is viewed as a a word or phrase that is often used with
another word or phrase, in a way that sounds correct to people who have spoken the
language all their lives, but might not be expected from the meaning. This is an
explanation of the fact that collocations can be problematic to the non-native speakers,
because for them is hard to distinguish if a combination of words sounds better than
another combination of words.
Other dictionaries simply notice the main property of a collocation which is the fact a
word collocates with other words or just contain an incomplete definition such as a
grouping together of things in a certain order, as of the words in a sentence (Macmillan
Dictionary). This second definition can be easily misunderstood, because the readers may
believe that a collocation is in fact a group of any things that are organized in a certain
order. Moreover, not only the words can co-locate but also the numbers so creating a direct
connection between collocations and the study of language is practically impossible
especially for the unexperienced language learners.
It is to be noticed that a proper explanation of a collocation can only be found in the
comprehensive, advanced or technical version of a dictionary, a difficult task for the
Collocation From Latin collocare col = to arrange locare = to place
5

foreign learners due to the lack of dictionaries availability in their region. On the other
hand, almost all the dictionaries have an on-line version so finding a definition or even a
demonstration of how a word collocate with another one should not be a problem.
However, a complete and detailed explanation can only be found in the linguistics books
and articles.
There are two main approaches in the study of collocations: first one is called the
frequency-based approach
1
which points out what co-occurrences are more likely to be
seen and which not, and the second one: the phraseological approach
2
in which the
combinations of words are fixed to a certain degree.
The first time when a collocation was treated as a new linguistic item was in 1957,
when the linguist J.R. Firth published the article Modes of meaning. Here he draws a
pattern of a collocation: you shall judge a word by the company it keeps (Firth, J. R.
1957:11). Firth underlines the importance of the context and also that a word cannot be
treated or judged separately from its companion.
The British linguist John Sinclair is an adept of a frequency-based approach, defining a
collocation as the occurrence of two or more words within a short space of each other in a
text (Sinclair 1991a: 170). This can be seen as a definition but also as a visual pattern.
The short space is in fact a physical description of a collocation. Moreover, Sinclair
suggests two models of interpretation
3
, the open-choice principle, also called slot and
filler in which you have unlimited possibilities in combining a word, a phrase or a clause,
paying attention only to the grammar correctness and the idiom principle where the
attention is focused to the fact that some linguistic sets are not used randomly. He further
explains that it is in human nature to use semi-preconstructed phrases because people live
and experience similar linguistic situations. As a foreign learner or just a speaker of
English you will probably experience the same linguistic clichs, so, collocations cannot be
omitted neither in written, nor in spoken language.
A.P.Cowie gives another perspective upon collocations because he does not rely on the
frequency or on the random behaviour of this co-occurrences. Being an adept of the
phraseological approach, he manages to distinguish a collocation from other groups of
words such as idioms. This contrastive analysis is very useful in learning and using
collocations because it shows exactly what changes may occur especially in the meaning of

1
Nadja Nesselhauf, Collocations in a Learner Corpus, John Benjamins Publishing Company 2005, page 12
2
Ibidem
3
John Sinclair, Corpus, Concordance, Collocation, Oxford University Press, 1991, page 109.
6

a context: while a collocation preserves the literal meaning of the words, the idioms gives
them a figurative one which can totally distort the message signification.
1.2 Classification of collocations
The most comprehensive classification of collocations can be found in The BBI
Combinatory Dictionary of English
4
. Here the collocations fall into:
Grammatical Collocations, consisting of a dominant word (noun, adjective,
verb) and a preposition or a grammatical structure such as an infinitive or
clause. This constructions have a special place in the study of collocations
because they treat word combinations within a more complex grammatical
structures being practically a very difficult task even for the native speakers. A
short review of the dictionary reveals that grammatical collocations are
organised as:
Noun + preposition combination (e.g. a question about)
Nouns followed by to + infinitive (e.g. It was a shame to do it)
Nouns that can be followed by a that clause (e.g. The owners have
reached an agreement that she should pay rent)
Preposition + noun combinations (e.g. by mistake, on advance, on
purpose, etc.)
Adjective + preposition combination that occur in the predicate or
as set-off attributes (e.g. Your parents were mad at you Mad at you,
your parents did not let you outside Your parents, mad at you, did not
let you outside. )
Predicate adjectives and a following to + infinitive (e.g. It is
expensive to eat here)
Adjectives followed by that clause (e.g. to be happy that you are
getting married).




4
Morton Benson, Evelyn Benson, Robert Ilson, The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English: Your guide to
collocations and grammar John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2010, page 19
7



Lexical Collocations are contrasting with the grammatical ones because they
contain neither a grammatical structure nor an infinitive or a preposition. They
are usually combinations of verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs being easily
recognizable for the English learners. Being more frequent than grammatical
collocations, the lexical collocations need a highlighted classification of their
constituent parts of speech. These are represented by:



















e.g. 'to make an impression', 'to
launch a missle', 'to wind a watch'
Adjectives + nouns e.g. 'major problem', 'strong tea' ,
'dark colour' etc.
Nouns + verbs (characteristic
actions for the noun)
Noun + of + noun
Verb +
noun/pronoun/prep.phrase
e.g. 'dogs bark', 'blood flows',
'bombs explode' etc.
e.g. 'a stroke of luck', 'a surge of
anger', 'a sense of humor'
Adverbs and verbs
e.g. 'to simply assume', 'to totally
agree', 'to closely approximate'
Eradication/nullification verb +
Noun
e.g. 'to break a code', 'to suspend a
meeting', to cancel a mission'
8




Of course there are also other delimitations of collocations but this classification is
to prefer because it points out which parts of speech are likely to turn into a collocation. As
an observation, there are some grammatical and lexical collocations that have a higher rate
of expectation than others, the chance of using an adverb + adjective combination such as
very good in a sentence being a lot higher than using an expression like a surge of
anger.
1.3 Idioms
Idioms require special attention because they represent a problem not only for the
learners but also for the native speakers. The term idiom comes from the Greek word
idios which means own or peculiar, illustrating so its private and strange meaning and
interpretation. There are a lot of questions about this phenomenon, but most of them will
never get an answer. It is hard to explain why people need to encrypt the meaning of a
message or how the human mind decrypts and understands this message.
Analysing the dictionaries entries of the word idiom reveals that there are no major
changes in the definition of this term. For example, The Cambridge English Dictionary
defines an idiom as being a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning
that is different from the meanings of each word on its own while The Oxford Advanced
Learner's Dictionary points out that an idiom is a group of words whose meaning is
different from the meanings of the individual words. These definitions practically draw
the main characteristic of an idiom, which is that the words that form this structure cannot
be analysed separately, but as a complete entity which has its own predefined meaning.
Moreover, the order of the words should remain intact because any substitution or re-
ordering of words can alter the idioms meaning, creating just a simple string of words.
Idioms represent a new and unknown subject for the most researchers and linguists.
However, some of them managed to give a definition or a simple explanation of this
phenomenon. For instance, the linguist Sam Glucksberg views idioms as a subset of the
fixed expressions in a language community
5
and also refers to the non-logical nature of

5
Sam Glucksberg, Understanding Figurative Language From Metaphors to Idioms, Oxford University Press
2001, page 68
Adverbs and adjectives e.g. 'very good', 'amazingly fast',
'absolutely perfect' etc.
9

these structures, more precisely to the fact that the meaning of an idiom cannot be decoded
by the meanings of its words.. Other linguists view them as a mixture of many other
structures such as phrasal verbs, proverbs, metaphors, smiles, metonymies and others,
being very difficult to give a comprehensive or a universal definition of an idiom. When
comparing these idiomatic structures, both similarities and differences can be observed.
For example, a proverb can behave like an idiom, but its meaning have a moralising
purpose, fact that is not valid for all of these constructions. Moreover, there is a difference
between how human mind understands and decodes these meanings, a proverb being easier
to understand than a metaphor, structure used only to enrich and beautify the language.

1.4 Classification of Idioms

A classification of the idioms according to their type can be found in the Jrg
Strsslers book, Idioms in English
6
. Here the idioms fall into:
Sayings (e.g. take the bull by the horns)
Proverbs (e.g. better late than never)
Phrasal verbs, the most frequent idioms (e.g. to take off, to show off)
Prepositional verbs (e.g. to rely on, to look after)
Tournure idioms (e.g. to kick the bucket)
Binomials (e.g. spick and span)
Frozen Similes (e.g. as cool as a cucumber)
Ungrammatical but general accepted expressions (e.g. who did you see)
Logical connective prepositional phrases (e.g. on the other hand)
Phrasal compounds (e.g. White House)
Incorporating verb idioms (e.g. to baby-sit)
Formula expressions (e.g. at first sight)
This is the most comprehensive but also the most disputed classification because some
linguists believe that a distinction between a saying and a proverb is unnecessary because
both of this structures have a similar definition and behaviour. Others dont distinguish
between the phrasal verbs and the prepositional verbs or between the frozen similes and
binomials.

6
Jrg Strssler, Idoms in English A pragmatic analysis, Gunter Narr Verlag 1982, page 15
10

The American linguist Adam Makkai distinguishes two types of idioms
7
:
Idioms of encoding/Phraseological idioms (structures that are easy to find by
comparing them with another languages). Here, Makkai underlines the fact that
most European countries use the preposition with instead of at in instances such
as: to drive with 50km/h instead of to drive at 50km/h. What is more interesting is
that this type of idiom has a literal meaning, feature that is incompatible with the
idiomatic structure but perfectly compatible with the collocations pattern. As a
result, an idiom of encoding is equivalent with a collocation.
Idioms of decoding/Genuine semantic idioms (structures that are not easy to
identify because of their cryptic meaning). These idioms can also be classified into:
Lexemic Idioms
o Phrasal verbs
o Phrasal compound
o Tournure idioms
o Irreversible binominals
o Incorporating verbs
o Pseudo-idioms (another label of the binominals)
Sememic idioms
o Proverbs
o Familiar quotations
William J. Sullivan observes two main differences between the lexemic and the
sememic idioms. First one is that the sememic idioms are at a higher and abstract linguistic
level. The second one is that the words that form a sememic idiom preserve their normal
language function
8
.
Another classification is made by the psychologist Sam Glucksberg
9
. He identifies
four types of idioms according to their composition and transparency:



7
Adam Makkai, Idiom structure in English, Mouton, 1972, page 25
8
Wllam J. Sullva, artcl Idomatcty as a laua uvrsal, pae 143
9
Sam Glucksberg, Understanding Figurative Language From Metaphors to Idioms, Oxford University Press,
2001, page 74
Noncompositional
11


In this type of idiom doesnt exit any relationship between its constituents, but the meaning
can be discerned. (e.g. by and large = generally, on the whole)



The relationship between its elements and the meaning of this idiom is opaque, but the
meaning of the individual words constrain their interpretation. Here, the author explains
that after learning an idioms meaning, its constituent parts can achieve their own idiomatic
meaning. For example, in the idiom to spill the beans, the verb to spill acquires its own
secondary sense, meaning to reveal.




This idioms have one-to-one semantic relations between their constituents and the
components of their meaning. For instance, while analysing the idiom to break the ice,
the author reveals that the verb to break has an idiomatic sense of changing an
uncomfortable situation whilst the noun ice represents an interpersonal tension.



The meaning of these idioms can be transmitted through their allusional content.
Furthermore, they reflect upon a prototypical or stereotypical instance of an entire
category of people, situations or actions. They can function and behave the same as the
nominal metaphors, referring to an ideal concept and characterize a situation according to
that concept. (e.g. skating on thin ice).
It is easy to be seen that studying idioms can be a very difficult task for the foreign
learners but most of all for the beginners or unexperienced learners. In order to decrypt, to
Compositional
Transparent
Compositional
Opaque
Quasi-Metaphorical
12

understand and to use idioms, learners should have at least an intermediate level of English
and knowledge about the respective subject matter.

1.5 Introducing a false friend

The term false friends, translated from the French faux amis was developed by
Maxime Koessler and Jules Dorecquigny in the year 1928, pointing out that the study of
this phenomenon has been an interesting matter for almost one hundred years. Basically,
the definition of this term relies on the fact that identical words from one language may
have a completely new meaning in other language. The Oxford English Dictionary points
out that a false friend is a word or expression that has a similar form to one in a persons
native language, but a different meaning while The Cambridge Advanced Learner's
Dictionary is also giving a hint of its behaviour a word that is often confused with a word
in another language with a different meaning because the two words look or sound similar
The Spanish writer Pedro Jos Chamizo Domnguez defines false friends as those
words who share their signifiers but differ totally or partially as regards their meanings
10
,
using the Saussures concept of viewing a linguistic sign, by revealing the existence of a
signified and signifier
11
:


The scheme shows that even if the signifier remains the same, a substantial change
can occur at the signified level, being practically impossible to guess the real meaning of
this word without consulting a dictionary. It can be observed that the word issue has the

10
Pedro Jos Chamizo Domnguez, Semantics and Pragmatics of False Friends, Routlege, 2008 page 15
11
Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguisics, Philosophical Library, 1959, page 66
Signified
"Emergency
Exit"
Signifier
French word
"Issue"
Signified
"Problem"
Signifier
English word
"Issue"
13

same form in both languages but the pronunciation is not similar, being somehow a hint to
the fact that these words have different meanings.
Pedro Domnguez also notices this fact and classifies false friends into two
categories:
Homographs (words that have the same spelling/are graphically the same)
Homophones (words that have the same pronunciation/are phonetically the
same)
He further makes a distinction between:
Chance False Friends (words that are graphically or phonetically the same
but without any etiological or semantic reason)
Semantic False Friends (words that have an etiological or a semantic
reason) which can contain both regular idioms and also loanwords, words
that were borrowed and introduced into a language without any translation.
The most comprehensive classification a false friend was realised by another Spanish
linguist, Rubn Chacn-Beltrn. He manages to distinguish a false friend from a true
friend and has a contrastive approach upon these two terms. Moreover, he analyses the
types of cognate and false friends present in the CCFV
12
. Here the cognate words fall
into
13
:
1) True Cognates: Phonetic (This words are called true because they have the same
meaning in both source language and target language). Their particularity is that
their pronunciation is very similar. The English word vocabulary sounds very
similar with the Spanish word vocabulario. This type of cognate can be very
useful when learning a new language especially for the auditory learners.
2) True Cognates: Graphic (Very similar with the phonetic ones, the main difference
being only that they dont sound the same in both languages). The English word
ocean doesnt have the pronunciation of the Spanish word ocano.
3) Partial False Friends: Phonetic (This words have a main meaning in one
language, while in other languages have different meanings). When is translated

12
Clasificacin de Cognados Verdaderos y Falsos
13
Rubn Chacn-Beltrn, Towards a typological classification of false friends (Spanish-English), Revista
Espaola de Lingstica Aplicada, 2006, page 25
14

into Spanish, the English verb to attend turns into the Spanish atender which
means to assist but also achieving a new meaning: to pay attention.
4) Total False Friends: Phonetic (This word gains a completely new meaning from
one language to another). The English word to assist doesnt have the same
meaning of the Spanish word asistir.
5) Partial False Friends: Graphic (Similar to the partial phonetic false friends). The
English word demand has also a new meaning in French, the word demande
also means requisition.
6) Total False Friends: Graphic (Similar to the total phonetic false friends, the only
dissimilarity being that these words may not sound the same, even if they look
similar in both languages). The English word ignore has the same form with the
French word ignore but the former means not to know.
Broadly speaking, these are the main characteristics of the collocations, idioms and
false friends. By reading this chapter, a foreign learner can find useful, valuable and up-to-
date information about these structures. However, applying this theory in the real-world
activities may represent a major problem for both the speaker and the listener. First of all,
as a speaker, a learner will try to avoid using an idiom in a conversation by simply
rendering the same idea with other words. On the other hand, the listener will have no
choice but finding the respective idiom in a dictionary, or making the respective speaker to
reformulate the idea. The worst moment is when one or both of the conversation
participants dont even realize that something is wrong with the content of the message.
This phenomenon will arise especially in a conversation between two or more non-native
speakers because their native language interfere with the second language, resulting many
linguistic anomalies such as false friends or the inappropriate use of the idioms and
collocations.
In order to clarify, simplify and understand the meaning and the proper use of these
structures, the next chapter will not contain just synthetic pieces of information, but also
everyday examples and instances, being more learner-friendly.



15





CHAPTER II I AM SO CONFUSED

2.1 Learning and using the co-occurrences
The most interesting period of our lives was the moment when we first speak our
native language, but the question is how did we learn this language? The linguist Stephen
Krashen distinguishes between language acquisition
14
(which is a subconscious process)
and language learning (which is represented by conscious learning).
According to this theory, children are acquiring their native language, without
being consciously aware about the correctness of the words they use. On the other hand, a
second language can be learnt because of the awareness about the rules and the
correctness of the respective language but it can also be acquired. Between these two
types of learning is only a thin border because it is hard to find if an information was
consciously learnt or if it was part of the subconscious.
This theory can also be applied in the learning of collocations, idioms and false
friends, being very interesting to find if these structures are learnt or acquired by both
native and non-native speakers. First of all, the natives should not have any problems when
using collocations because this co-occurrences are used more frequent than idioms, so they
should have already been a part of their subconscious. Idioms however, because of their
peculiar meaning are very hard to acquire for the reason that their interpretation needs to
be taken for granted.
For a second language learner, both idioms and collocations need to be learnt by
heart because these structures can be affected by similar structures of their native language.
A good example is the comparison between the collocations to travel by plane and the
Romanian a cltori cu avionul. Translated word for word into English, the Romanian
expression turns into to travel with plane which forms an unacceptable structure.

14
Stephen D Krashen, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition, Pergamon Press Inc., 1982,
page 10
16




Analyzing this example, reveals that collocations formed of a preposition + a noun
or a verb represent a real problem for the foreign students, because they tend to translate
the structure into their own language and to keep the respective preposition. This fact can
be somehow justified because most of the European countries, especially the Latin ones,
share the same prepositions, so the learners may believe that they can use them in any
language. Therefore these types of collocations need special attention because apart from
the faulty use of the tenses, these constructions represent an infinite source of mistakes. To
better understand this error, lets imagine a dialogue between a married couple in which
Speaker A is an English wife and Speaker B is a Romanian husband:
(The husband receives a phone call during his travelling from London to
Bucharest):

A: Where are you?
B: I have just arrived at Paris.

When translated into Romanian, the husbands affirmation Abia am ajuns la Paris,
makes sense because it means I have just arrived to Paris. On the other side, Paris is also
a girls name, so the structure at Paris means that the husband has reached the destination
of a girl named Paris. As you can see, just by simply using a wrong collocation all the
conversation can be compromised, and in this particular case also their marriage.
The second type of collocation which needs special attention is the adjective + noun
structure because it is hard to explain why a noun like coffee for instance, collocates only
with the adjective strong and not with other synonyms like powerful or hard. In fact
there is no explanation of this fact. Translating the collocation strong coffee into French
will result caf fort, but fort is also synonym with puissant or solide. The same thing
happens with the Romanian cafea tare, the adjective tare is also synonym with

TO TRAVEL
WITH PLANE


TO TRAVEL
BY PLANE

17

puternic or solid. As we have seen, this phenomenon cannot be explained, because the
words collocate in all languages.
However, there is one more thing to be mentioned about this type of collocation.
Nowadays, living in a technological era, it is normal that a lot of electronic devices to
populate the market. Because almost all of these gadgets were developed in North America
they somehow maintain their name in other countries too: either directly such as the case
of computer or modem, or just translated such as tablet from the English tablet.
There are also some devices that have a name formed of two words such as the words
smartphone, smartwatch or smart TV.
These words are something new even for the native speakers because as you can
see the first two words are actually a combination between an adjective and a noun which
form a single word while the last one behaves normally.
Thus, it is hard to say if the words smart and phone collocates but the truly
anomaly is that other electronic devices are not smart but just powerful as in the case
of a computer for example.








This phenomenon can be explained however, a new name had to be invented
because these devices are no longer regular mobile phones and maybe the term powerful
phone should not have sound as good as smartphone. What is more interesting is that
this anomaly was also borrowed in other languages. In Romanian for example a
powerful computer is calculator performant while a smartphone is telefon inteligent.
In addition to these types of collocations, another category draws my attention,
being also the most frequent co-occurrence especially in the spoken language. Usually in a
dialogue, one of the participants agrees on denies something by using the expressions very
good or absolutely not or may just point out some particularities of an object such as:
this car is amazingly fast or this painting is absolutely perfect. The interesting thing
















There is practically no real difference
because a computer can be as smart
as a smartphone and a smartphone as
powerful as a computer.
18

about a collocation formed of an adverb and an adjective or a verb is the fact that even if
they are exceedingly used in everyday speech, they dont represent a problem for the
foreign learner. The chances of hearing this painting is very perfect or this car is
absolutely fast are very low. The explanation of this phenomenon relies on the fact that
after being intensively used in spoken language the learners have directly acquired them
not as individual words but as a complete structure.
These structures can be acquired either from real-world conversations or by simply
hearing or seeing the respective construction in a movie, song, book, magazine or
advertisement.
It is to be mentioned that some collocations cannot be eluded or replaced by other
structures. An expression like extremely painful can be easily reformulated by using
another synonym of the adverb extremely such as very but a collocation formed of a
noun and a characteristic verb cannot be rendered by using another words. For instance,
the dogs bark cannot be reformulated because this is a general truth so replacing dogs
with cats or bark with meow will mislead the collocations meaning.
Collocations are also important for the fact that they can reflect your language
level. For example, lets pretend that a pupil has to write a composition with the title One
day in London:








For a teacher it is easy to evaluate the English knowledge of this pupil only by
analyzing the collocations present in this composition. Furthermore the teacher can also
observe that this pupils level is somewhere between elementary and pre-intermediate.
However, the teacher can be wrong because even the intermediate and post-intermediate
English learners can encounter difficulties when using collocations. This fact can be easily
explained: while some learners have already acquired the information, others are just
struggling to learn the information. It is absolutely normal that not all the learners to have
One day in London
I arrived at London on 8 a.m. in the morning. I drank a cup of hard coffee
on a restaurant and then I observed that the weather was absolutely hot so I took
down my jacket. I visited the main city attractions travelling with a double-decker
bus. It was a high experiencethat I will never forget.
19

the same productive and receptive skills, but a good teacher should always find a solution
that it is suitable for everyone.
Learning collocations should be a concern for both the teachers and the learners
because these structures enables a user to speak and write correctly but also makes the
respective user more confident when using the respective language.

2.2 Futuristic collocations
After discussing about the definition, characteristics, learning process and the
importance of a collocation, it is time to understand what the future prospects of these co-
occurrences are. Nowadays, in a world dominated by technology, people use collocations
not only in real-world but also in virtual world. What is more interesting is that they do not
even realize that these co-occurrences exist all over the Internet. The best example in this
case are the Search Engines, the most visited sites around the world.
Basically, a search engine is based on the same principle as a collocation: it
analyzes the co-occurrences between the words, and also their rate of expectation during an
Internet-based search. It is to be mentioned that some collocations tend to replace others as
in the case of the adjective + noun funny videos. Noun video also collocates with the
adjective amusing but because of its reduced frequency, the expression amusing videos
practically does not exist in the search engines databases:


amusing videos funny videos I ncrease (in percentage)
Google Romania 53.300.000 1.630.000.000 + 67,31%
Google France 10.700.000 1.650.000.000 + 93,52%
Google Germany 29.100.000 1.640.000.000 + 82,26%
Google Spain 15.100.000 1.640.000.000 + 90,80%
Average 31.033.333 1.640.000.000 + 83,47%


83%
17%
The representation of the frequency rate
(in percentage)
funny videos'
amusing videos'
The number of search engine results
20





According to the previous scheme, it is clearly that the number of results of the
collocation funny videos dominates over other adjectives + noun video structures.
However, these results are purely informative because the search engine has its own
algorithm that also includes synonyms, translation and rank factors. What is more
interesting is that the word amusing also exists in other languages (German amsant,
French amusant, Romanian amuzant) but even so, almost all the foreigners combine the
adjective funny with the noun video. In fact, from 10 sites, more than 8 contain this
collocation, fact that points out the tendency of massive replacing of some word
combinations with another. As a consequence, it is very possible that in the near future
some collocations to be completely substituted by some alternative combinations.
2.3 Phrasal verbs: idioms or collocations?
Idioms represent a major source of confusion for the foreign learners. First of all, a
distinction between a collocation and an idiom needs to be made. When comparing the
collocation to take into consideration with the phrasal verb to take off it is hard to say
whether the first or the second one is a collocation or a phrasal verb. However, the
difference can be observed at the level of meaning, while the collocation preserves
somehow its literal meaning, the phrasal verb to take off acquires a new one:
Example Literal
meaning
Idiomatic
meaning
Actual meaning
to take into
consideration
X - -
to take off - X to start flying

Phrasal verbs are the most frequent idioms, so learning them should be mandatory
for the foreign learners. They consist of a verb + a particle, for instance the to take and
the particle off. The easiest way of learning this structures is to understand the particles
21

and their function but also to recognize the verbs that are more likely to transform into a
phrasal verb. There are many verbs and particles that can that can generate a phrasal verb,
but now lets analyze the most frequent particles, off and on and see their meaning and
also the verbs that are connected with them.


The particle off may possess the following meanings:
1) Leaving places (one of the meanings is that of leaving different places by
someone or something). The verbs connected with this meaning are
15
:




2) Ending or changing state:


15
Michael McCarthy, Felicity O'Dell, English Phrasal Verbs In Use, Cambridge University Press, 2004, page 34
Example Actual meaning
The aircraft will lift off in a few
moments.
The aircraft leaves the ground
Martha did not send off the letter. To send a letter by post
This is my room so clear off! To leave a place quickly
In order to join the conference we must
slip off immediately.
To quietly leave a place, without alerting
anyone
Joey should head off at 4 a.m., just before
the sunrise.
To leave a place or star a journey
Example Actual meaning
Your father will come and see you off the
train station tomorrow.
To go in the train station and say
goodbye
After a long speech, the student broke off
in the middle of the lecture
The student suddenly stopped speaking
22



3) Other uses of the particle off

The particle on may hold the following meanings:
1) It is directly connected with the basic physical meaning of on

2) It is used in order to induce an idea of further or an idea of dependence


Example Actual meaning
My friends made me to put off the idea of
going on a trip.
To postpone the idea of going on a trip
They should hold off and go shopping. To delay doing something
Billy didnt get offended by the joke; he
just laughed it off.
To make something unpleasant less
important
Example Actual meaning
You need to try on these brown leather
shoes.
To see if a piece of clothing fits on you
Although you are very sick, try to put on
a happy face when we arrive at his
birthday.
To pretend that you feel in a particular
way
I feel that something is weighting on my
mind.
Upsetting, Worrying
Example Actual meaning
She never relies on her siblings. To be confident that someone will give
you support.
In order to pass your exams you have to
keep on learning.
To continue to do something
If you are not interested in reading this
comic book, pass it on to another student.
To give something further
23

As we have seen, working with phrasal verbs may represent a problem for learners
because they have to determine and use the correct combination between a verb and its
particle. Moreover, any mistake at this level can completely change the meaning of this
structure. However, phrasal verbs are not the most difficult idioms because they have a
short structure, consisting only of a verb + an adverb or a preposition. In addition, they are
frequently used, being easier for the foreign learners to understand and to use them in
everyday activities.



2.4 Metaphor, Proverb or Idiom?
It is hard to determine whether a structure is an idiom or not. The main
classification criterion in represented by the encryption level of a word construction. For
example lets analyze the meaning of the metaphors: my house is a prison and the clouds
sail across the sky. As you can notice, the meaning of these structures can be easily
decrypted by any foreign learner, because they are in fact quasi-metaphorical idioms, used
in order to beautify and enrich the vocabulary of a language. Therefore, metaphors do not
represent a problem for learners because their meaning doesnt usually change from one
language to another. A good example is marriage: a souvenir of love
16
, metaphor that can
be translated word for word into another language without affecting its meaning: in
Romanian cstoria: suvenir al dragostei has exactly the same form and the same
meaning as the English version. This phenomenon also occurs in the study of the proverbs,
structures that are different from metaphors because of their meaning nature.
Proverbs represent a vital characteristic of a language because they are generally
known sentences of the folk which contain wisdom, truth, morals and traditional views in a
metaphorical, fixed form which is handed down from generation to generation
17
. It is clear
that the main difference between a proverb and a metaphor in that a proverb it is not used
only to enrich the language but it also contains a complex moralizing message. For
instance the metaphor love is a rose, is used to beautify the language, pointing out the
ephemerality of love. On the other hand, a proverb like whom the Gods love die young

16
Helen Rowland, Reflections of a Bachelor Girl, Dodge Publishing Company, 1909 page 44
17
Wolfgang Mieder, Proverbs: A handbook Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, page 4
24

has a platonic and more complex meaning because it is believed that Gods need young
people in order to be with them in the afterlife. A further analysis of this proverb reveals
the fact that it has been used since the existence of the Ancient Greek, being actually an
expression based on a myth, so in order to completely understand its connotation, a foreign
learner also needs additional knowledge about the Greek Mythology. Proverbs are
considered sememic idioms, a more transparent type of idioms because most of their
meaning can be deduced from their constituent parts. However, there are some proverbs
with a cryptic meaning such as a cat may look at a king or every dog has its day that
can be considered opaque idioms, because their constituent parts dont point out the actual
meaning.

As a conclusion, proverbs can behave as both transparent and opaque idioms, but
even so, they should not represent a problem for a foreign student, mostly because they can
exist under the same form or as an equivalent in almost all languages, their meaning being
part of common knowledge of a large amount of population. For instance lets analyze the
proverbs there is no place like home and an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and see
whether differences exist or not:



English Romanian
- There is no place like home - Niceri nu-i ca acas
- An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - Ochi pentru ochi i dinte pentru dinte


Spanish German
- No hay nada como el hogar -Ob Osten, ob Westen, zu Hause ist's am
besten
-Ojo por ojo, diente por diente -Auge um Auge, Zahn um Zahn
25

It can be observed that there is not a significant difference between these proverbs
forms, in German the meaning of the proverb there is no place like home is being
rendered using the expression whether East or West, home is the best, construction that
does not affect the final meaning of the proverb.
These constructions should not represent a problem for a foreign learner, but in
some cases both metaphors and proverbs can possess an opaque meaning. The best
example is represented by the frozen similes, a type of metaphor that cannot be easily
decrypted by a foreign learner.
2.5. Problematic idioms
Beside the phrasal verbs, which represent a great source of mistakes, an English
learner will also have to deal with other idiomatic structures. A good example is, as I have
already mentioned, a frozen simile, idiom that compare two distinct terms such cool as a
cucumber, giving the learner no hint about its meaning. By hearing this idiom, a foreign
learner will immediately imagine a vegetable and not an expression that means extremely
calm. It is to be observed that not all the similes are idioms. For instance, the idiom clear
as a crystal has a literal meaning where some of its constituent parts can be replaced with
others: clear as water.
As an observation, frozen similes are not as frequent as phrasal verbs, so a foreign
learner is likely encounter difficulties in using any of them. Some of the most common
frozen similes can be found in the following table:

Contain wisdom,
morals
Their meaning
cannot be decrypted
Make the language
more vivid
Proverbs X - X
Metaphors - - X
Frozen Similes - X X
26

There are also other types of idioms that can represent a problem for a foreign
learner. For instance, the expression to play your cards right actually describes someone
that needs to take advantage of every opportunity. Again, an idiom like to sell someone
short means to underestimate someone, significance that cannot be deduced from its
constituent parts. As an observation, between these two idioms exists a transparency
difference, because the first one has its origins in a card game, while the second one is
completely opaque. However, this characteristic doesnt affect the way learners perceive
idioms because when they discover such constructions, they will immediately try to make a
connection between the idioms constituent parts and their meaning, procedure that is not
accepted. Moreover, some will try to translate the idiom and to find other expressions that
are very similar with the respective form. Neither of these methods are accepted because
idioms cannot be translated, their meaning being topic and culture specific.
As a result, in many dictionaries, idioms are organized according to their topic and
country, classification that points out the fact that idioms can be different even between the
Frozen simile Meaning
as dumb as an oyster Someone who will never reveal a secret
dead as a dodo Someone that has gone out of fashion
as nice as pie Someone that is as nice as pie, is
surprisingly kind and friendly
as keen as mustard To be very eager or motivated
as slippery as an eel Someone that avoids answering questions
like a cat on hot bricks Someone that is very nervous or restless
like a headless chicken A person that acts without thinking or
analysing the situation carefully
as good as gold Someone that is obedient and well-behaved
as mad as a hatter Someone that is very strange or insane
as thick as thieves Two people that are as thick as thieves are
very loyal friends
as pleased as punch Someone that feels satisfied about something
like a broken record Someone that repeats itself
like a bear with a sore head Someone that is very irritable and bad-
tempered;
straight as a ramrod Someone who looks very serious;
27

countries that share the same native language. In addition, some idioms were introduced
from certain domains such as: sport, business, music etc., being better understood by the
people that are in touch with these activities.
Examples of topic-specific idioms:
Business:
To compare apples with oranges = to make an invalid comparison;
Ace up your sleeve = to have something in reserve with which you
can gain an advantage;
Blue chip company = a company with a solid reputation;
Cash cow = a regular source of income;
Foot in the door = to have a successful start;
Lame duck = an organization or person that cannot manage without
help;
Monkey business = an activity organized in a deceitful way;
Sports:
To go overboard = to do or say more than you need to;
Learn the ropes = to understand new things;
Plenty of other fish in the sea = many other men and women to date;
Out of someones league = to not be good enough for someone;
Music:
To blow your own trumpet = to boast about your achievements;
Swan song = the final act before dying or ending something;
It takes two to tango = when something goes wrong, neither side is
completely innocent;
Face the music = when you have to accept the consequences of your
actions;
Jazz something up = when someone tries to improves something;
Strike a false note = to do something wrong or inappropriate;
Body:
Bite someones head off = to strongly criticize someone;
28

One hand washes the other = when people work together, there is a
better chance of a achieving results
More than meets the eye = things are more complicated that they
appear to be;
Make no bones about something = someone that doesnt hesitate to
say something in a frank and open way;
To be down in the mouth = when someone looks unhappy,
depressed or discouraged;
Travel and transport:
To miss the boat = fail to take advantage of an opportunity because
you wasnt quick enough
Ships that pass in the night = people that are unlikely to meet again;
Cart before the horse = someone that is doing things in the wrong
order;
To kick the can down the road = to delay a decision, hoping that the
problem will disappear;
To jump on the bandwagon = to get involved in something that has
recently been very popular;
Wheels within wheels = complex processes that are hard to be
understood;
Idioms are not only language-specific but also country-specific, their meaning
being easily decrypted by the inhabitants but opaque to foreigners. A good example is
represented by the particular idioms present in American English, Australian English and
British English.
Examples of country-specific idioms:
American English:
Uncle Sam = the governor of the USA;
From Missouri = someone that require clean proof before
believing something;
Big Apple = New York
Duck soup = something that is very easy
29

New York minute = something that happens really fast;
Whole ball of wax = everything
Whistling Dixie = someone that talk about things in a more
positive way, comparing with the reality;
In the catbird seat = someone that is in an advantageous position;
British English:
To spend a penny = to go to the toilet;
Double Dutch = something that is completely incomprehensive;
To send someone to Coventry = to refuse to talk or cooperate with
someone;
Queer fish = a strange person;
Man on the Clapham omnibus = the ordinary person in the street;
Banana skin = something that is an embarrassment or causes
problems;
Australian English:
To cut down the tall puppies = to criticize people who stand out
from the crowd;
Talk the legs on an iron pot = someone who is very talkative;
To be on a wallaby truck = someone who is unemployed;
she will be apples = everything will be all right;
As an observation, the same idioms may have a different meaning from one
country to another. A good example is wallflower, idiom that in American English
describes a shy person who is not asked to dance, while in British English a woman
politician given an unimportant government position so that the government can pretend it
takes women seriously. This very different interpretation can be a real problem for a
foreign learner, so studying the idioms provenience should be a mandatory task.
There are also cases where the form of the idioms can alternate between one
country and another. Linguist Rosamund Moon, observes the main differences between
30

American and British idioms and points out the parts of speech which are more likely to
vary
18
:
Verbs :
- Cut a long story short (BrE) Make a long story short (AmE)
= to leave out details in a narration;
- Let off steam (BrE) Blow off steam (AmE) = to do or say
something that helps you to get rid of strong feelings or energy;
Noun or noun modifier :
- Red as a beetroot (BrE) Red as a beet (AmE) = to have a red
face because you are embarrassed;
- Wear the trousers (BrE) Wear the pants (AmE) = to be the
person who controls a relationship, (especially in a marriage);
I diosyncratic distinctions
- If the cap fits (wear it) (BrE) If the shoe fits (wear it) (AmE)
= used to tell someone that they should accept a criticism that
another person has made;
- Have green fingers (BrE) Have green thumb (AmE) = the
ability to make plants grow;
Prepositional variation
- At a pinch (BrE) - In a pinch (AmE) = something that can be
done if it is really necessary, but it will be difficult, not perfect, or
not what you would really like;
- On the cards (BrE) In the cards (AmE) = to be likely to
happen;
These form differences do not affect the meaning of the idioms so they should not
represent a problem for a foreign learner.
This is a generally presentation of the major difficulties that the foreign learners
will encounter using idioms. After reading this, they should be able to understand the
importance of these structures and to realize that a good level of English can be achieved
only by learning and properly using idioms.

18
Rosamund Moon, Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English, Oxford University Press, 1998, page 133
31

2.6 Multimedia idioms
Nowadays, we are permanently exposed to a large amount of idiomatic expressions.
The main source is represented by papers, magazines, books, but also Internet sites, music
and movies. In fact idioms are part of our lives, because they exist in almost every text or
multimedia content.
During a movie or a TV show it is impossible not to hear a phrasal verb, or any other
idiomatic expression, but the question is how the foreigners understand the meaning of
these expressions? A quick answer will be that during a movie, they will simply read the
subtitles, a good but also a bad method, because idioms cannot be translated and even for
an experienced translator, finding a translation equivalent will be sometimes an impossible
task. Moreover, learners can be confused by the contrast between a movie scene and its
subtitles. For instance, the idiom Big apple is frequently used to describe an American
city, but when the learner sees that the meaning of this idiom is actually New York, he
may believe that is a translation error where the picture does not match with the subtitles.
However, seeing this association again and again, the human mind will eventually make a
connection between the image, the sound and the translated meaning, being sometimes a
very good method of learning idioms, where the information is not only learnt but it can be
also acquired.
Another good method of discovering and learning idioms is represented by the songs
lyrics. Everyone has a favourite artist and a favourite melody, and almost everyone tried to
translate and to understand the message of their preferred refrains. For instance, a foreign
learner who listened to Queens song Show must go on should not encounter any
problems when using the phrasal verb go on, knowing that this expression is assimilated
with the idea of continuity.
As a conclusion, nowadays is easier to work with idioms because they can be found
even in some leisure activities, such as watching a movie, listening to your favourite music
or navigate the Internet, simplifying and also accelerating the learning process of these
structures. On the other hand, a foreign learner needs to realize the fact that idioms cannot
be learnt only from multimedia activities, because neither videos, nor music provide a
comprehensive analysis but just a simple presentation or translation of an idiom. As a
result, the best method of learning idioms remains the same, books and dictionaries
providing the most complete and accurate pieces of information.
32

2.7 False Friends: Language interference or source of comic?
Almost every foreign learner has met a false friend, phenomenon that is
characterized by the interference between the native language and a second language. In
fact, words or expressions that share the same spelling or pronunciation among different
languages, can have a completely different meaning. For instance, the pronunciation of the
English word chef coincides with the pronunciation of the Romanian ef, meaning
leader or boss. Furthermore, the spelling of this word also coincides with the Romanian
chef, meaning party. These similarities represent a real trap for any learner because
using a false friend can completely change the meaning of a message. Imagine that a
Romanian person hires as a chef but instead of leading the company, he will prepare food
for the company, confusion caused only by a small but significant language error.
A great amount of false friends are actually generated by real friends or true
cognates, words that share the same form and the same meaning between various
languages. For example, Romanian word librrie is a true friend of the Spanish librera
and the French librairie because it shares the same meaning, describing a bookshop. On
the other hand the English word library is a false friend for all these languages because it
has a different meaning, showing another institution, the place where you can read or
borrow books and not an actual bookstore. This phenomenon occurs because all of Latin
languages share a great number of words, expressions and even grammatical structures.
Consequently, for a French, Spanish, Romanian, Italian or any other Latin language
speaker, it is very difficult to decide whether a word that has the same spelling or
pronunciation is a false friend or a real friend. However, this phenomenon affects all the
languages, not only the ones that have Latin roots. The Romanian word ananas is a real
friend of almost all the worlds languages: German ananas, Russian (ananas),
Finish (ananas), Greek (ananas), Arabic (ananas), but an unknown word for
the English speakers, because they use the term pineapple. As a result, a foreign learner,
especially an unexperienced one, will be confused by the name of this fruit and use the
word ananas even in English.
However, this cannot be considered a false friend, but just a language confusion
caused by the wrong usage of a real friend in an unfriendly language. But now lets focus
more on the presence and frequency of these language interferences in everyday usage, by
pointing out which are the most commonly used false friends, according to their country:


33





English word Romanian false friend Romanian meaning
Ban Ban Coin
Far Far Headlight
Magazine Magazine Shops
Camera Camer Room
Chef Chef/ef Party/leader
Crime Crime Murders
Cutie Cutie Box
Sensible Sensibil Sensitive
Fabric Fabric Factory
Shoulder old Hip
English word French false friend French meaning
Chance Chance Luck
Journey Journe Day
Coin Coin Corner
Car Car Coach
Chair Chair Flesh
Advertisement Avertissement Warning
Process Procs Trial
Quit Quitter To leave
Tissue Tissu Fabric
Cave Cave Cellar
34




An English learner can be also confused by the presence of partial false friends,
words that have multiple meanings. For instance the Spanish word blanco means white,
but in some cases can be translated as blank. In addition, a foreign learner needs to know
that a false friend can also appear in countries that speak the same language. For instance,
in the South African English, the word robots may refer to the traffic lights, while in the
Australian English the word stack means a car accident and not a pile of things
arranged one on top of another (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary).

English word German false friend German meaning
Brief Brief Letter
Concrete Konkret Specific
Eagle Igel Hedgehog
Failure Fehler Mistake
Fast Fast Almost
List List Trick
Pregnant Prgnant Concise
Stool Stuhl Chair
Spices Speisen Dishes
Rat Rat Advice
English word Spanish false friend Spanish meaning
Direction Direccin Address
Particular Particular Private
Idiom Idioma Language
Rare Raro Strange
Rope Ropa Clothes
Once Once Eleven
Code Codo Elbow
Embarrassed Embarazada Pregnant
Parents Parientes Relatives
Gang Ganga Bargain
35

As we have seen, a false friend can completely change a meaning of a sentence,
being a frenquent and common mistake for any foreign learner. On the other side, these
language interferences can also represent a source of humour and embaressment. For
instance, there is a major difference between someone who is embarazada or just
embaressed. Again, someone who is accused of crime is not a murderer, like a Romanian
learner may think. However, this phenomenon represents a problem even for the advanced
users, the best example in this case being a Romanian spokesman who, in a official
meeting, translated the expression shoulder by shoulder old la old meaning hip to
hip, affected probably by the similar pronunciation between these two distinct terms.
As a conclusion, a foreigner learner needs to realize the importance of a false
friend and to try to avoid it as much is possible because this interference can affect the
meaning of a message or can just embarass the person who use them.




















You have just
committed a
crime!
But I havent
killed
anyone
36

CHAPTER III CASE STUDY

3.1 Introduction
The main purpose of this chapter is to test the learners ability in using these
structures and to show the issues that they can encounter. In order to do this, I elaborated a
series of multiple choice tests, which can display the learners actual level of knowledge.
Moreover, I will try to answer the question Which are the most problematic structures:
collocations, idioms or false friends? by analysing and comparing the answers. After
doing this, I will go further and analyse the subtypes of these structures, pointing out the
most common language errors and giving instructions in order to prevent these
interferences.
3.2 Testing Methodology
In order to achieve my goal, I created two surveys, the first one being created
especially for the Romanian students and the second one for other nations and professions.
I need to mention that the first survey contains more questions than the second one, being
designed exclusively for the linguistics students, containing eight more questions.
Moreover, the first survey contains additional questions about false friends, topic that
cannot be discussed very easily with a group of various nationalities.
The first survey is actually a multiple-choice test, formed of fourteen questions.
Each question has four answers, but only one of them is considered to be correct. This
survey was applied on twenty subjects, with ages between 22 to 24 years old, all students
of the Faculty of Letters, Romanian and English Section.
The second survey is formed only of six questions. Each question has also four
possible answers, but only one is correct. Is to be noted that these questions can also be
found in the first survey, but differently organised. The survey was applied on fifteen
subjects, with ages between 18 to 40 years old, people of different nationalities: Arabs,
Filipino, Indian, French, Greek and Italian. Most of them work in the public services
especially in tourism, others are part of the student exchange program. This study was
realised after six months of research, starting from December 22
nd
2013 to June 16
th
2014,
travelling in various locations: United Arab Emirates, Greece and France, and directly
asking the subjects about the study of collocations and idioms. Fourteen of them told me
that they had never heard about this terms, and only one of them was guessing the actual
function of this structure. By analysing the results I observed that the study of collocations
37

and idioms is still an unknown subject for a large amount of population (over 90%). A
better percentage can be found at the Romanian students, where, from twenty subjects,
twelve can recognize a collocation or an idiom, only eight of them (40%) encountered
problems when hearing about these structures. Now I will present the first survey,
exclusively designed for the Romanian students:


ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS, IDIOMS AND FALSE FRIENDS
SURVEY NO.1

Choose the correct answer:
1) I have just bought a .. Computer.
a) Strong
b) Good
c) Powerful
d) Smart
2) She has the advantage speaking two foreign languages.
e) In
f) On
g) Of
h) For
3) The girl doesnt find a effective method to lose weight.
a) Very
b) Highly
c) Greatly
d) Notably
4) Martin usually goes to school . bus but today he is going . foot.
a) With/On
b) By/By
c) With/By
d) By/On
5) In order to pass your exams you need to keep learning:
a) It
b) On
38

c) In
d) Out

6) George is surprisingly nice and friendly. He is as nice as a :
a) Lord
b) Dog
c) King
d) Pie
7) Jane lives in The Big Apple means:
a) She lives in a house that looks like an apple
b) She lives in New York
c) She lives with her parents
d) She lives in the countrys capital city
8) Sophias mother doesnt cut the mustard with her new barbecue recipe
means:
a) Sophias mother forgot about the mustard
b) Sophias mother didnt have enough mustard, so she cut the mustard and
shared it equally
c) Sophias mother failed with her new barbecue recipe
d) The barbecue is still pretty good: with or without mustard
9) The little boy needs to spend a penny means:
a) He needs to buy something that costs exactly 1 penny
b) He needs to go to the toilet
c) He needs to be more careful when using coins
d) He thinks that 1 penny is not enough
10) The last time I talked with you, you were a million miles away means:
a) You were very far from my location
b) You were not paying attention to me
c) You were in an exotic place
d) You didnt have enough mobile phone signal
11) John works in the Army Intelligence, so he must have heard of X-Factor
means:
a) John has enough free-time to watch every single X-Factor show
b) John must have some hidden talent
39

c) John knows about the dangers of working in the Army
d) Being in the Army, John is always up-to-date with the latest news


12) She seems to be a sensible person means:
a) Ea pare s fie o persoan sufletist
b) Ea pare s fie o persoan sensibil
c) Ea pare s fie o persoan raional
d) Ea pare s fie o persoan stingher
13) This is a high-quality fabric means:
a) Aceasta este o fabric de nalt calitate
b) Aceast fabric produce bunuri de calitate superioar
c) Aceasta este o fabric de ultim generaie
d) Aceasta este o estur de calitate superioar
14) The man has committed a crime means :
a) Brbatul a comis o infraciune
b) Brbatul a comis o crim
c) Brbatul este acuzat de omor
d) Brbatul este acuzat de comiterea mai multor crime

3.3 In-depth analysis
As I have mentioned, this survey is formed of fourteen questions, but now lets
analyze each question and discover correct answer and the possible difficulties:
1) The first question contains a lexical collocation formed of an adjective + noun.
Here, the correct answer is Powerful because a computer always collocates with this
adjective. Is to be mentioned that a computer can also collocate with the adjective Good
but the preferred answer remains Powerful because it has a greater frequency rate.
2) The second question contains a grammatical collocation formed of a noun +
preposition. The correct answer is Of.
3) The third question contains another lexical collocation formed of an adverb + an
adjective. The correct answer is Highly
4) The fourth question is a grammatical collocation formed of a preposition + a
noun. The correct answer is d) By/On. This type of collocation represents a major
40

problem for any English learner because the native prepositions can interfere with the
English ones.
5) Question number five contains a very frequent type of idiom: a phrasal verb. In
order to show the continuity of an action, the particle should be On, so the correct
answer is b) On.
6) Question number six contains a type of opaque idiom, a frozen simile. Here, the
meaning of the message is hidden, so I expect a low rate of success. The correct answer is
d) Pie.
7) The seventh question contains an opaque idiom. The main particularity of this
idiom is the fact that it is a country-specific (American) idiom. The correct answer is New
York.
8) This question holds an opaque and a topic-specific (Cooking) idiom. The correct
answer is c) Sophias mother failed with her new barbecue recipe.
9) The ninth question contains an opaque and a country-specific (British) idiom.
The correct answer is b) He needs to go to the toilet.
10) The question number ten is a transparent idiom, containing an expression
frequently used under various forms by other nations. Here the learners might choose the
base form and not the idiom. The correct answer is b) You were not paying attention to
me.
11) The eleventh question is an opaque, country-specific (American) and topic-
specific (Army) idiom. The correct answer is c) John knows about the dangers of working
in the Army.
12) Question number twelve contains similar answers, but only one is a true
friend, c) Ea pare s fie o persoan raional, the rest of them being phonetic and
graphic false friends.
13) Similar to question number twelve, the correct answer is d) Aceasta este o
estur de calitate superioar.
14) The last question is also testing the learners knowledge about false friends. The
correct answer is a) Brbatul a comis o infraciune

The second survey contains only the questions 1, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 11, but the answers
remain the same, not being affected by the different organization. A sample of this survey
can be found on the next page.

41






42



(This is a copy of a survey completed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by a Native Indian
on December 25
th
2013)
43

3.4 Results
First of all I would like to thank everyone who completed these surveys. I will start
with the results obtained on the first survey, where from 20 Romanian students, only two
(10%) managed to correctly resolve all the questions. In the following charts I will show
the number (percentage) of correct answers for each question:















Analyzing the results, we can see that learners encountered difficulties when
answering the questions 1, 4 and 11.
The first question points out the fact that they tend to associate the noun
computer with the adjective smart, 12 of them (60%) choosing smart as being the
correct answer. This phenomenon is normal because as I have mentioned before, nowadays
a foreign learner tend to associate any electronic device with the adjective smart, being
unable to distinguish between a smartphone, a smart TV or a laptop.
The question number 4 contains two collocations formed of a preposition + a noun.
Only 5 learners (25%) gave the correct answer, fact that can be easily explained due to the
Latin nature of the Romanian Language: learners tend to use the Romanian prepositions
when using the English Language.
3
12
8
5
20
16
20
10
18
12
2
10
14 14
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
100.00%
Survey 1
Correct Answers
44

The last problematic structure is represented by question number 11, where only
2 (10%) learners gave or guessed the correct answer. This question contains an opaque
idiom which made the learners to give wrong answers, probably influenced by the show
X-Factor.
Is to be observed that most of the Romanian learners (63,3%) managed to correctly
answer the false friends questions. Again, they have all scored a 100% percent when
answering the question about phrasal verbs and the question about the Big apple idiom.
As a conclusion, the most problematic structures are the futuristic collocations,
the collocations formed of a preposition + a noun and the topic-specific idioms.
Now, I will present the results obtained on the second survey, where from 15
subjects only 4 (26,6%) managed to correctly answer all the questions. As an observation,
this second test contains only 6 questions, so a test success rate comparison between this
survey and the first one cannot be realized. However, I will still analyze the questions
present in both surveys, making a side-by-side comparison chart.

















Survey 2 Survey 1
4
7
4
7
11
5
0
3
6
9
12
15
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
100.00%
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6
Survey 2
Correct Answers
45

In order to compare
the two surveys, I
need to mention
that the question
numbers will be
changed:






















It can be observed that the correct answers of the second survey has an average
increase of only 10,6% over the first one. The biggest difference can be found on the last
question where the percentage increase is over 23%. This fact cannot be explained,
because idioms have no connections with other languages, so I will pretend that it was just
a stroke of luck. Again, using the right collocation on the first question can only have one
Question 1 Question 1
Question 2 Question 3
Question 3 Question 4
Question 4 Question 8
Question 5 Question 10
Question 6 Question 11
26.60%
46.60%
26.60%
46.60%
73.30%
33.30%
15%
40%
25%
50%
60%
10%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
Question 4
Question 5
Question 6
The Results of the Comparison
The percentage of correct answers (Survey 2)
The percentage of correct answers (Survey 1)
46

explanation: most of the subjects were men, so they might know technical terms such as: a
powerful computer or a powerful processing unit. What is most interesting about
collocations is the question number 3, where I cannot see a significant difference between
the Romanian, French, Italian learners and other non-Latin populations when using
prepositions, the correct answers coming from two French, one Indian and one Arab.
Is to be mentioned that these results are purely informative and they cannot be
taken for granted.
CONCLUSION

The aim of the present thesis was to present and to analyze the usage of
collocations, idioms and false friends, structures that are unknown for a large amount of
population. By reading this thesis, a foreign English learner will develop and upgrade
his/her language skills, learning about structures that have a vital part in both written and
spoken language. Moreover, this thesis can be used in order to find the most updated
pieces of information available in this moment: books and dictionary definitions,
comprehensive classifications, theories about the future perspectives, and also a complete
analysis of these structures real-world impact.
A foreign learner will find answers to questions like: What is a collocation, an
idiom, or a false friend?, How do we learn an idiom?, Have you ever heard a
collocation, an idiom or a false friend when watching TV?, Which are the most
problematic idioms, collocations or false friends?, Which is the difference between a
metaphor, a proverb or an idiom?, Can a false friend be considered a source of humor?
and many others. In addition, this thesis contains a complex case study which was realized
in various countries, giving the reader a wide perspective upon the usage of these
structures between different countries and continents.
The innovative aspect of this thesis is given by the integration of these structures
in the 21
st
century, analyzing new types of words like smartphone or smart watch and
comparing their usage and frequency rate with the principle of an Internet Search-Engine.
An important aspect is also the fact that the present thesis contains multilingual pieces of
information, analyzing collocations, idioms and false friends in more than five languages,
creating a useful, a comprehensive and a valuable work.
47

As a conclusion, any English learner needs to understand the importance of
collocations, idioms and false friends, structures that are vital in both written and spoken
language because they can reflect your actual English level.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books
1. Adam Makkai, Idiom structure in English, Mouton, 1972;
2. Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary Third Edition, Cambridge University
Press, 2008;
3. Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguisics, Philosophical Library, 1959;
4. Helen Rowland, Reflections of a Bachelor Girl, Dodge Publishing Company, 1909;
5. John Sinclair, Corpus, Concordance, Collocation, Oxford University Press, 1991;
6. Jrg Strssler, Idoms in English A pragmatic analysis, Gunter Narr Verlag
Tbingen 1982;
7. Michael McCarthy, Felicity O'Dell, English Phrasal Verbs In Use, Cambridge
University Press, 2004;
8. Morton Benson, Evelyn Benson, Robert Ilson, The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of
English: Your guide to collocations and grammar John Benjamins Publishing
Company, 2010;
9. Nadja Nesselhauf, Collocations in a Learner Corpus, John Benjamins Publishing
Company 2005;
10. Pedro Jos Chamizo Domnguez, Semantics and Pragmatics of False Friends,
Routlege, 2008;
11. Rubn Chacn-Beltrn, Towards a typological classification of false friends
(Spanish-English), Revista Espaola de Lingstica Aplicada, 2006;
12. Sam Glucksberg, Understanding Figurative Language From Metaphors to
Idioms, Oxford University Press 2001;
13. Stephen D Krashen, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition,
Pergamon Press Inc., 1982;
14. The Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 1989;
48

15. William J. Sullivan, article Idiomaticity as a language universal;
16. Wolfgang Mieder, Proverbs: A handbook Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004;


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accesed on April 11, 2014;
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5. <http://websearch.about.com/od/enginesanddirectories/a/searchengine.htm>,
Wendy Boswell, How Does a Search Engine Work?, accesed on April 25, 2014;
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