Collocations: Have and Take

Have and take are the second pair of B1 collocation traps after make / do. Have tends to suggest possession, experience, or undergoing: have breakfast, have lunch, have a shower, have a meeting, have a problem, have a baby, have an idea, have time, have a good time. Take tends to suggest action, movement, or duration: take a photo, take a break, take medicine, take time, take responsibility, take a chance, take notes, take an exam, take the bus. Some pairs are interchangeable (have a shower / take a shower), some are not (have lunch only; take notes only). The worksheet trains the B1 learner to internalise the high-frequency have / take collocations.

This worksheet builds B1 fluency with have / take collocations in everyday and workplace contexts.

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Worksheet preview

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What’s inside:

• Collocation table with 30+ have and take pairs grouped by topic
• Multiple-choice items targeting have vs take choice
• Gap-fill in everyday-and-workplace contexts
• Comparison task: which pairs allow both (have / take a shower) and which don’t
• Personalised production: write five sentences using different have / take collocations

Common challenges: Overlap with make / do creates four-way confusion at B1 (have an idea, make an idea, take an idea, do an idea — only have works). Regional variation: have a shower (BrE) and take a shower (AmE) are both fine internationally; have lunch universal, take lunch sounds odd. False friends: German eine Pause machen maps to take a break, not make a break.

For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B1, in intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Have / take collocations appear in Cambridge B1 Preliminary (PET) and B2 First (FCE) Reading-Use of English. Part of the Word Building & Style collection — the natural next step is Collocations: Common Verb-Noun Pairs, which broadens collocation work beyond make / do / have / take.