The Collocation Games

How the Collocation Games work and which versions are available

The Collocation Game Versions

Currently there are five versions of this game.

Five-A-Day:

A short daily collocation game requiring the selection of a suitable headword for each of five sets of collocates. Five new sets are presented each day.
Link Go to Five-A-Day.

Collocation Game 1 - Web Version:

Vocabulary: The most frequent 794 content words in English. You can download a pdf of the words used in the game which gives the exact numbers of the words used and whether they are used as headwords, collocates or distractors.
Levels 150.
Target Pre-intermediate. Even though this version contains the most common content words in English as headwords, some of the distractors and collocates are less frequently used words. Also some grammatical knowledge and an awareness of collocation is needed. So it's not suitable for students who are just beginning to learn English.
Link Go to Collocation Game 1.

Collocation Game 1 - App Version:

Vocabulary: The most frequent 1147 content words in English. You can download a pdf of the words used in the game which gives the exact numbers of the words used and whether they are used as headwords, collocates or distractors.
Levels 225.
Subversions: The app version has two subversions: a free version and a premium version. They both have the same number of levels and the same head words but the premium version has much more feedback information than the free version.
Target Pre-intermediate. Even though this version contains the most common content words in English as headwords, some of the distractors and collocates are less frequently used words. Also some grammatical knowledge and an awareness of collocation is needed. So it's not suitable for students who are just beginning to learn English.
Link To download the app version of Collocation Game 1 go to Collocation Game 1 on the Apple App store.

Collocation Game Academic - Web Version:

Vocabulary: 772 academic content words in English. You can download a pdf of the words used in the game which gives the exact numbers of the words used and whether they are used as headwords, collocates or distractors.
Levels 81.
Target Post-intermediate. The focus of this version is academic vocabulary for those who are studying in tertiary education.
Link Go to Collocation Game (Academic).

Collocation Game Academic - App Version:

Vocabulary: 772/1302 academic content words in English.
Levels 81/135. You can download a pdf of the words used in the game which gives the exact numbers of the words used and whether they are used as headwords, collocates or distractors.
Subversions: The app version has two subversions: a free version and a premium version. The free version is very similar to the web version with 81 levels and 772 separate headwords. The premium version has more levels (135) and more headwords (1302). The premium version also has further information and more collocates for every headword.
Target Post-intermediate. The focus of this version is academic vocabulary for those who are studying in tertiary education.
Link To download the app version of Colllocation Game Academic go to Collocation Game (Academic) on the Apple App store.

How to Play

The video below explains all of the important features of the game.

Scoring and Levels

Each correct choice scores 5 points. Each incorrect choice scores minus 1 point. If you lose more than 5 points in a level, the level will be repeated before you can move up to the next level. You need to score 40 points to reach level 2, and 40 more for each subsequent level.

Once you have made a correct choice of headword, you can access further information about the headword by touching the round blue i button. This information is available for many words in the free version and all headwords in the premium version. You can dismiss the extra information panel by touching the close button or by swiping up at the top of the panel.

Your score is saved so that when you start a new game you can pick up from where you left off. Revisit the previous level by pressing the i button and then the "Previous Level" button. If you want to start from zero, press the red i button and then the "Reset" button. You can dismiss these options by touching the close button or by swiping up at the top of the panel.

Items in each level are presented in random order, as are the collocates, the distractors, and any further collocates in the feedback panel. So if you repeat a level you will probably not see the items as they were first presented.

Privacy

No user information is required or stored in this game. Two cookies are set and updated as the game is played. They only contain the score and the level at each stage of the game; nothing else.

You can contact Writing Support on the contact page of the Writing Support site.