Needs - People with iPhones learning English to a high level those with English as a second language based in english-speaking countries. What’s great - pocketable English wisdom, customisable lists

Also, it’s quick to use (lookup and find words) on an iPhone 6. You can add words to the existing topic lists (food and cooking, fruit, illnesses etc) or create your own word lists for specific learning focusses. Likewise it contains 250,000 word combinations and 75,000 examples. Pretty comprehensive - in fact, the Collocations app contains all the words from the Oxford Collocations Dictionary for students of English (2nd Edition). This could be a lifesaver (how would a European assume the word ‘binge’ should be pronounced? Possibly not the way it is: something like ‘bing-uh’ would be more logical).

Not only that, a blue and red speaker icon give you the the pronunciation in male and female voices. Type in Drinker and select it from the list of related words with a tap, and we learn that adjectives that go with this are ‘binge, hard, heavy, light, moderate, habitual, regular, problem, underage and social’, and these are accompanied by examples where relevant along with the context for the combo. In the app, you look up a word to see what words go with it. Luckily that stellar authority of the English language, the Oxford University Press, and Paragon Software of Freiburg, Germany (a company known for data management and security software) have teamed up to create an app that makes these word combos easier for learner English speakers to figure out. Also, a slim, light person might also be a heavy drinker. There’s nothing wrong, technically, with saying ‘thick tea’ or ‘heavy tea’ – but we don’t. Calling someone literally a ‘heavy drinker’ in another language might be heard as implying they are simply overweight drinkers. While native speakers tend to ‘just know’ what words can be used with what, this habitual usage is what trips up learners of any language, as learners (I’ve done this myself) tend to find their other-language words for the same instances and just translate them across. Other combinations might give the same message but would not be what we commonly expect to hear. For example, in English we tend to team ‘strong tea’ and ‘heavy drinker’.

It’s the habitual combinations of words in common usage. Do you know what collocations are? I wasn’t 100 per cent sure, I must admit.

Oxford collocation dictionary cd