COLLOCATIONS

Words that happen together and therefore sound natural.

For example:

Strong collocates with wind but not with rain.

Strong wind

Strong rain

However, heavy collocates with rain but not with wind.

Heavy rain

Heavy wind 

Note that in Spain, the combination of “strong + rain” does work: “llueve fuerte”. This is why learning collocations is important if you want to sound natural. Wouldn’t it sound weird to you if a Spanish learner said: “llueve pesado”?

You can learn collocations by yourself with a self-study book. Here is one that I highly recommend. English collocations in use.