Collocations for Confident Communication
NOTICE • INVESTIGATE • PRACTISE • REFLECT
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A sustainable business combines customer insight, sound financial decisions and a willingness to adapt when conditions change.
Business growth is rarely accidental: it develops through purposeful choices, practical learning, feedback and adaptation.
Explore the readingLexiLink · Business, Finance and Entrepreneurship B2–C1 80 minutes
Complete the tasks, investigate business and finance collocations in SkELL, and use the expressions to analyse realistic business decisions.
Teacher-facing timing plan; the tasks below follow this sequence.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to interpret and use collocations related to entrepreneurship, market research and financial management; distinguish their meanings in context; test hypotheses with SkELL evidence; and justify business decisions using natural English word partnerships.
Study each word partnership, its precise meaning and related expressions. Pay attention to combinations that may be translated word for word from your first language, especially when English uses a different verb with a familiar noun.
Read the text carefully or listen to it. Target collocations are shown in bold.
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Many businesses begin when an entrepreneur notices a problem that customers want solved. Before investing substantial time or money, the founder should conduct market research, learn about competitors and identify a target market. Research can reveal whether enough people are likely to buy the product and which features matter most. A company that understands its audience is better placed to meet customer needs rather than simply offering what its founders personally prefer.
A strong idea still needs planning. Entrepreneurs should develop a business plan that sets out the product, operating model, expected costs, sales strategy and financial assumptions. The plan can guide decisions about when to launch a business, how to price its offer and which resources are essential at the beginning. A plan should be specific enough to guide action, but flexible enough to change when new evidence appears.
Financial management is central to survival. A business needs to manage cash flow so it can pay employees, suppliers and other bills when they fall due. Owners often set a budget, monitor spending and look for ways to reduce costs without damaging product quality. Sales help a company generate revenue, but revenue is not the same as profit: a business can earn substantial income and still incur losses if its expenses are too high. To make a profit, income must exceed costs over the relevant period.
Growth may require additional resources. Some founders raise capital from lenders or investors, and a convincing plan can help them attract investment. Before expanding, however, a company should assess risks, including changes in customer demand, supply costs and competition. A business may gain a competitive advantage through reliable service, distinctive products or efficient operations. It can also build customer loyalty by consistently delivering value and responding to feedback.
When the business becomes stable, its owners may choose to expand operations or enter a market in another region. Expansion should be linked to a clear objective, such as reach a target for sales or customer retention, rather than growth for its own sake. Entrepreneurs who compare costs, evidence and likely consequences are more likely to make an informed decision. There is no single formula for success, but careful research, realistic financial planning and regular review can help a business adjust before a manageable problem becomes a serious one.
Choose True or False according to the text.
Choose the paragraph number (1–5). Some paragraph numbers may be used more than once.
Start with recognition: choose the correct ending to complete familiar business and finance collocations.
Build natural collocations by identifying the verb that combines naturally with business and finance expressions.
Use sentence meaning and grammar to select a collocation that fits the context.
Choose verbs that form natural combinations in business and financial contexts.
Choose complete expressions using context, register and meaning rather than word matching alone.
Open SkELL. Search business, budget, profit and risk in Word Sketch, inspect authentic example sentences and open Similar words. For each keyword, record two collocations, write an original sentence for each, add two related words and note one example that helped you test your initial hypothesis. Pay special attention to verb choices in phrases about money and business activity.
Teacher scoring: up to 10 points for accurate and varied collocations, original contextual sentences, relevant related words and evidence-based revision of a language hypothesis.
The structured fields are included in the lesson submission and appear as individual records in the teacher's spreadsheet.
Analyse naturalness: identify the expression that does not form a conventional collocation. Some distractors reflect common word-for-word translation errors.
Correct unnatural combinations by considering meaning, grammatical pattern and business context.
These tests become progressively harder: recognise common business collocations, choose expressions in financial contexts, distinguish closely related meanings and evaluate realistic commercial decisions. The practice score is reported separately from the 115-point lesson total.
Write at least 100 words on Business, Finance and Entrepreneurship. Use at least eight target collocations from this lesson. Write directly in the box; clipboard paste and drag-and-drop are disabled in this field.
Please compose your paragraph here rather than pasting a prepared text. Normal paste, cut/copy shortcuts and drag-and-drop are blocked in this writing field. This browser restriction supports the task rules but is not a complete plagiarism-detection system.
0 words — 100-word minimum to submit; no maximum
Write at least 100 words about a business idea or financial decision. Explain the target market, likely costs and risks, and how the business could generate revenue or gain a competitive advantage. Use at least eight target collocations and support your points with realistic examples.
Your name and group from the student profile above, your SkELL collocations and original sentences, related words, corpus notes, writing paragraph and available exercise scores will be collected in the teacher's spreadsheet.
Auto-scored sections: reading MCQ, True/False, paragraph matching, Matching, Sentence Completion, Odd One Out, Find the Collocate, Sorting, Lexical Cloze and Collocation Repair (100 points total). SkELL cluster (10) and productive writing (5) are teacher-scored. Maximum lesson total: 115 points. The 24-point Progressive Lexical Test is submitted as a separate practice result and is not added to the lesson total.
Vocabulary bank informed by the Lesson 21 topic, “Business, Finance and Entrepreneurship,” in the supplied collocation lesson collection. Definitions, reading and interactive exercises were adapted or written for LexiLink.
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