PTE Reading and Writing: Fill in the Blanks (Collocations)

Collocations can be defined as two words or a group of words joined together to form natural sounding speech. For example, words like strong coffee, quick shower, heavy rain, fast food and quick meal often come together and thus, form a collocation. Let talk more PTE Reading and Writing.

In PTE, collocations will be given in the form of a passage which will contain several blanks. Each blank will have a drop-down list of options and the candidates need to select the right option. Both the reading and writing skills are judged in this task. There are 5 to 6 questions in the exam and does not have any negative marking. Therefore, it is recommended that every question should be attempted, even if unsure.

Some strategies can be used to solve collocations such as eliminating unfamiliar words, reading before and after the blank to identify the correct word, following grammar rules, getting clues from punctuations etcetera.

Overall, one should use the knowledge of grammar and develop a good vocabulary to correctly solve the questions related to collocations. In addition to this, one should also learn how to appropriately use the words that have a similar meaning, for example, “foresee” and “predict” have a similar meaning but one should understand how to use these words in different contexts.