Collocation, in the English language, is a natural combination of words that are usually found and used together. Some examples are “superior to”, “debate on”, “go on foot”, “diagnosed with”, and “prefer to” etc.
Your ability to speak and write in a way that is both commonly understood, and grammatically correct, depends on this fixed combination.
This is because collocation is so often used and useful in English speech and writing. For instance, it is wrong to write or say God is superior than man. This is because the correct collocation is God is superior to man.
In the same vein, we write or say that ‘I prefer rice to (not, prefer than) beans’, ‘the man has been diagnosed with (not, diagnosed of) cancer’, and ‘you can go to a place on foot (not, by foot)’.
However, it is correct to say ‘he received a diagnosis of cancer’, with ‘diagnosis’ being a noun.
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However, our highlight today is crime-related collocations
These are charge with, convicted of, accused of, guilty of, and indicted on. While these collocations may have the same meaning, it is important to pay attention to their slight changes.
According to Cambridge Dictionary online, to charge someone with a crime is (of the police) to make a formal statement saying that someone is accused of a crime:
- Two brothers have been charged with murder.
- Mmesoma Ejikeme was charged with result manipulation by JAMB.
- The paper charged her with using the company’s money for her own purposes.
If Mmesoma is guilty of this offense, she can be indicted on (if a law court or a grand jury indicts someone, it accuses them officially of a crime) the crime of result manipulation, or she can be convicted of the crime.
To convict someone of a crime is to decide officially in a law court that someone is guilty of a crime. ‘Indict on’ and ‘convict of’ both have the same meaning.
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