4.2 Collocations and Phrasal Verbs for Part 4

Cambridge A2 Key KET

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1 Introduction & Exam Overview

1.1 What Is Cambridge A2 Key (KET)? 1.2 Exam Format: Three Papers 1.3 Who Takes A2 Key and How It Is Delivered 1.4 Study Hours and Preparation Path

2 Scoring, Grades & Results

2.1 The Cambridge English Scale 2.2 Grades A, B, C and Certificates 2.3 How Your Overall Score Is Calculated

3 Reading Parts 1–3: Understanding Texts

3.1 Reading Overview (Parts 1–5) 3.2 Reading Part 1: Short Texts and Main Message 3.3 Reading Part 2: Multiple Matching 3.4 Reading Part 3: Longer Text Detail and Gist

4 Reading Parts 4–5: Vocabulary and Grammar Cloze

4.1 Reading Part 4: Multiple-Choice Cloze 4.2 Collocations and Phrasal Verbs for Part 4 4.3 Reading Part 5: Open Cloze 4.4 Grammar Words for Open Cloze

5 Writing Part 6: Guided Message

5.1 Writing Overview (Parts 6–7) 5.2 Part 6 Guided Writing Task 5.3 Model Emails and Content-Point Checklists

6 Writing Part 7 & Assessment Criteria

6.1 Part 7 Picture Story 6.2 Narrative Language and Connectors 6.3 Writing Assessment: Content, Organisation, Language

7 Listening Parts 1–3

7.1 Listening Paper Overview 7.2 Listening Part 1: Short Dialogues and Pictures 7.3 Listening Part 2: Gap Fill Notes 7.4 Listening Part 3: Conversation Multiple Choice

8 Listening Parts 4–5 & Detail Skills

8.1 Listening Part 4: Gist and Main Message 8.2 Listening Part 5: Matching 8.3 Numbers, Times, Prices and Spelling

9 Speaking Test

9.1 Speaking Test Format 9.2 Speaking Part 1: Interview 9.3 Speaking Part 2: Discussion 9.4 Speaking Assessment Criteria

10 A2 Grammar Essentials

10.1 Present and Past Tenses 10.2 Future Forms, Modals and Obligation 10.3 Comparatives, Superlatives, Adverbs and Word Order 10.4 Questions, Negatives and There Is/Are

11 A2 Vocabulary Topics

11.1 People, Home and Daily Routines 11.2 Free Time, Hobbies, Travel and Transport 11.3 Food, Shopping, Money and Health 11.4 Places in Town, Services and Simple Technology

12 Functional Language for Exam Tasks

12.1 Requests, Offers, Invitations and Suggestions 12.2 Opinions, Agreeing, Disagreeing and Preferences 12.3 Describing People, Places and Events; Simple Narration

13 Exam Day and Test Strategy

13.1 Digital vs Paper-Based and the 2026 Change 13.2 What Happens on Exam Day 13.3 Full Practice Tests and Timing Plans

14 Results and Next Steps

14.1 Interpreting Your Statement of Results 14.2 From A2 Key to B1 Preliminary

4.2 Collocations and Phrasal Verbs for Part 4

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

Collocations are natural word partnerships (make a mistake, go for a walk); Part 4 often tests exactly these pairs.

Master high-frequency make/do contrasts and common free-time, school, and travel collocations at A2.

Learn a small set of everyday phrasal verbs (look after, get up, turn off, put on, find out) with their objects and meanings.

Study collocations in full chunks, not as isolated translations of single words.

Use short mini-drills: delete the verb or particle from a sentence and recover it under time pressure.

Last updated: July 2026

4.2 Collocations and Phrasal Verbs for Part 4

Quick Answer: A collocation is a natural word pair or group ( make a noise , go for a walk ). A phrasal verb is a verb + particle with a special meaning ( look after , turn off ). Part 4 loves both. Learn them as chunks , practise them in gaps, and prefer the everyday partnership over a “logical” but unnatural synonym.

You can know the dictionary meaning of make and do and still miss Part 4 marks. Cambridge is checking whether your English sounds right at elementary level. This section is a practical word-partnership gym for that skill.

Why Chunks Beat Word Lists

• Weak study habit Stronger habit for Part 4
• Memorise make = crear only Memorise make a cake / a mistake / friends / a noise
• Translate each option alone Insert each option into the full sentence
• Learn 50 rare words Master 40 high-frequency pairs deeply
• Study particles without objects Learn turn off the light , look after my sister

When a gap offers make / do / have , your brain should search for the object after the gap, not for a general translation of the verb.

Make vs Do (Highest-Value A2 Contrast)

• Use make for… Examples
• Creating / producing make a cake, make a sandwich, make a film
• Mistakes / noise / plans make a mistake, make a noise, make a plan
• Social results make friends, make money
• Causing a state (simple patterns) make someone happy / sad (recognition level)

• Use do for… Examples
• Work / tasks do homework, do housework, do the shopping
• Activities with do do exercise, do sport (also play for many sports)
• General actions do something, do well / badly in a test
• Jobs / duties do the washing-up, do a job
• Mini-practice A (choose make or do)
• Please don’t _____ a noise—the baby is sleeping. → make
• I need to _____ my homework before dinner. → do
• She _____ a big mistake on question five. → made
• Can you _____ the shopping on your way home? → do
• They _____ friends easily at the new school. → make

If you miss these, drill them daily for one week before any full Reading mock.

Everyday Free-Time and Daily-Life Collocations

• Chunk Meaning / use Near-miss wrong partner
• go for a walk take a walk for pleasure make a walk , do a walk

go shopping activity of visiting shops do shopping (possible in some dialects) vs exam-preferred go shopping / do the shopping for the task list

• have a shower / bath wash yourself make a shower
• have breakfast / lunch / dinner eat a meal take breakfast (less natural in many A2 materials)
• take a photo use a camera/phone make a photo
• take a bus / train travel by that transport drive a bus (only if you are the driver)
• catch a bus get on a bus in time take also possible; watch options
• miss a bus / lesson arrive too late / not attend lose a bus
• spend time / money use time or money pass money for this meaning
• tell a story / the truth speak narrative or facts say a story
• say hello / sorry short fixed speech acts tell hello
• play football / the guitar sports / instruments do football (sometimes heard; play is safer in options)
• ride a bike / horse sit on and control drive a bike
• watch TV / a film look at a screen story see TV as the activity
• look at the board direct eyes watch the board can appear; match exact options
• Mini-practice B (complete the collocation)
• Let’s _____ for a walk after lunch. → go
• He _____ a photo of the castle. → took
• We usually _____ dinner at seven. → have
• Don’t _____ the bus—run! → miss
• She _____ a lot of time on her phone. → spends
• School and Exam-Life Collocations

These appear in factual texts about students, courses, and projects:

• Chunk Note
• take an exam / a test sit the paper
• pass / fail an exam result verbs
• get a good mark / grade result noun partners
• do a project / an exercise school tasks
• make notes write notes
• pay attention focus
• learn by heart memorise (recognition)
• hand in homework submit
• break up (for holidays) school term ends (phrasal; see below)

Original mini-gap: Students must _____ in their projects on Friday. Options: hand / take / make → hand ( hand in ).

Common A2 Phrasal Verbs for Part 4

Learn meaning + typical object together.

Phrasal verb Meaning Example

get up leave bed I get up at seven.

wake up stop sleeping She wakes up early.

go out leave home for social/free time They go out on Saturdays.

come back / go back return Come back before dark.

look after take care of He looks after his little brother.

look for try to find I’m looking for my keys.

look at direct eyes to Look at the map.

turn on / turn off start / stop a machine or light Turn off the lights.

put on / take off dress / undress an item Put on your coat. Take off your shoes.

pick up lift; also collect someone Pick up your bag. / Pick me up at 5.

find out learn information Find out what time it starts.

grow up become an adult She grew up in Spain.

give up stop trying / stop a habit Don’t give up!

fall over lose balance and drop He fell over on the ice.

sit down / stand up change body position Please sit down.

Particle traps

• Wrong Right
• look after for my sister look after my sister

turn off it (pronoun position can vary in teaching; at A2 prefer turn it off as a chunk) turn it off / turn off the light

• put on it (same idea) put it on / put on your jacket
• look my keys look for my keys
• Worked Part 4-Style Lines (Original)

Line 1: Please _____ off your phones before the film starts.

Options: turn / take / go → turn ( turn off ).

Line 2: My neighbour _____ after our cat when we travel.

Options: looks / watches / sees → looks ( look after ).

Line 3: We usually _____ up at 6:30 on school days.

Options: get / go / make → get ( get up ).

Line 4: Can you _____ out what time the museum opens?

Options: find / look / take → find ( find out ).

Line 5: It’s cold—_____ on a warmer jumper.

Options: put / take / turn → put ( put on ).

Notice how wrong options are often real verbs that simply partner with other particles or objects.

How Part 4 Writers Build Options

Typical three-option sets:

• Correct collocation verb
• Common rival from make/do/have/take/get
• Topic-related verb that fails the object

Example: gap before a mistake → make / do / take . Only make is standard.

Another set: gap in interested ___ music → in / on / at . Here the “vocabulary” item is really a dependent preposition —still trained with chunks ( interested in ).

Weekly Practice Routine (20 minutes × 4 days)

• Day Task
• 1 Copy 15 make/do sentences; cover verbs; rewrite from memory
• 2 Phrasal verb flash: particle side only; say full sentence aloud
• 3 Write a 90-word paragraph using 8 target chunks; gap them for a partner
• 4 Timed six-gap micro-text (original or homework-made) in 6 minutes

Track errors in a “danger list.” If make a photo keeps appearing in your writing, circle it in red and replace with take a photo ten times in new sentences.

• Transfer to Other Papers
• Writing Part 6: I’m writing to say… / How about going for a walk… / Please look after…
• Writing Part 7: story verbs— got up, put on, went out, fell over
• Listening: same chunks in short dialogues
• Speaking: fluency improves when you retrieve chunks, not word-by-word translations

Checklist: Are You Part-4 Ready on Vocabulary?

• I can list 10 make and 10 do collocations without notes
• I know at least 12 phrasal verbs with example objects
• I automatically check the noun after a verb gap
• I review a danger list of my personal wrong partners weekly

Collocations make Part 4 feel “easy.” Grammar-function words make Part 5 feel “easy.” Train both—next we open the open-cloze task itself.