English Vocabulary for ESL learners

ADVERB + VERB COLLOCATIONS

Common adverb-verb collocations.

Collocations are two or more words that often go together. They are combinations that are used by native English speakers all the time.
Here are some common adverb + verb collocations.

badly damage	The hurricane badly damaged the whole area.
badly hurt/injure	Two children were badly injured in the accident.
badly need	Most of the refugees badly needed food and medicine.
closely examine	The police officer closely examined the footprints.
completely forget	Jack completely forgot his wife's birthday.
completely destroy	The bomb completely destroyed the airport.
deeply regret	Later on she deeply regretted her words.
distinctly remember	Eva distinctly remembers leaving the key at the reception.
firmly believe	Dad firmly believes in the benefits of a healthy diet.
firmly reject	The authorities firmly rejected any suggestion of fraud in the elections.
flatly refuse	The passenger flatly refused to change seats.
freely admit	She freely admitted her mistake and apologised.
fully appreciate	We fully appreciate the seriousness of the situation.
fully recover	It will take some time for the patient to fully recover.
fully understand	The store manager fully understood why the customer was annoyed.
greatly admire	I greatly admire the dedication of the medical staff.
hotly deny	The boy hotly denied breaking the window.
rise steadily	Temperatures rise steadily all through the summer.
seriously doubt	The teacher seriously doubted the pupil's ability to succeed.
seriously think/consider	We are seriously thinking of taking legal action.
sincerely hope	I sincerely hope you will be rewarded for your work.
strongly advise	The doctor strongly advised him to lose weight.
strongly criticize	The new measures were strongly criticized by the opposition.
totally agree	The group totally agreed with his proposal.
thoroughly enjoy	We all thoroughly enjoyed the wedding reception.
thoroughly inspect	They received orders to thoroughly inspect all luggage.

see also:
- Collocations: adverb-adjective
- Collocations with 'go'
- English idiomatic expressions
- useful phrases

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Please note that British English spelling is used on this website.