TOEFL SKILLS & EXERCISES

#Collocations ⚜"Get" is a very common verb in English, but it is not always appropriate for talking about changes. 🔆Note also alternatives to get which can improve your style. 📌Go, not get 🔘Go is used for changes in people's personality, appearance and physical abilities: ~ People go mad/bald/grey/blind/deaf. 🔘Go is often used for sudden, usually negative, changes: ~Suddenly the sky went very dark and it started to rain. 🔘Go can also be used for slower colour changes: ~The pages of the book had gone yellow over the years. 📌Turn, not get ▫️Turn often collocates with colours: ~When the tomatoes turn red, the farmers pick them and sell them. ~The news gave his mother such a shock that her hair turned white overnight. ⏺Get and become 🔘Get and become can often be used with the same collocations, but become is more formal and is therefore more appropriate in essays: ~She gave up smoking when she became pregnant. ~I would like to become involved in raising money for charity. ▪️The same is true for collocations with adjectives such as angry, bored, excited, depressed upset, impatient, violent: ~He became depressed after his wife's death. 🔹Become, not get, is used with the following: extinct, (unpopular, homeless, famous. ~Our local baker's has become famous for its apple tarts. ☑️Alternatives to get and become ~She fell ill and was taken to hospital. ~Everyone fell silent when they heard the shocking news. ~As my father grew older, he spent less time working. ~The noise grew louder and soon we realised it was a plane approaching. 🚫Overusing and misusing get Here are some sentences from students' essays where get is wrongly used. 🔅sentences with get : ❎I was able to get new friends. ❎If I get a child of my own one day ... ❎A year ago he got a heart attack. 🔅more appropriate alternatives: ✅A year ago he had/suffered a heart attack. ✅If I have a child of my own one day ... ✅In June. I had a baby, James.