How to Use the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)
1. Go to: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
OR
Enter “COCA” into Google. It should be the second result.
2. You will see this page. Press “Enter”:
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3. You will see this page. Now you can start searching for words!
4. To look up a word and see which other words usually appear near it, enter the word in the “WORD(S)” box. For example, let’s
look up the word “set” and see which words usually appear near it.
5. Click on the word “COLLOCATES” (under “WORD(S)”). Change the number boxes to say 0 and 4.
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6. Check your screen with this picture to make sure yours matches it:
7. This will search for “set” and all of the words that appear within 4 words to its left. It will give a list that is based on how
common the word pairs are. Click “SEARCH”
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8. This is what your screen should look like now:
9. The PINK box is your results. “Up” is the most common word to appear near “set” (they appear together 24,584 times). “Set
up” is a phrasal verb!
10. Now we can look at the real sentences that have “set” and “up” near each other. Click on “UP”.
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11. Your screen should now look like this:
12. You can see the year, type of text, publisher, and finally the actual sentences the words “set” and “up” are used in. In this
picture, all of the sentences are from NEWS publications, the Associated Press and the New York Times.
13. In this picture, “set” and “up” usually appear next to each other. Do you see a sentence where another word is between “set”
and “up”? So, is “set up” a separable phrasal verb?
14. You can look down at all the sentences and see more examples.
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15. Look at some more sentences (like in the picture below). Does “set up” always have an object after it?
16. No, not always. This means it is both transitive (needs an object) and intransitive (can’t have an object).
17. Look at the sentences again. What do you think are a couple of meanings for “set up”?
18. Have fun and explore this site. It is very useful when you are learning English to see how English is really used, and learn what
the common words are!
IMPORTANT NOTE: This website is FREE. However, after about 10-15 searches, it may ask you to register before you can search
more. Registering is free, and the website will always be free because it is for research.
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