In English, like in any language, certain word combinations belong together eg a golden opportunity, a bright future; a fatal accident; a deadly poison; a narrow escape; a lucky break. If you changed the combinations to, for instance a deadly accident or a fatal poison it would betray a lack of proficiency in the language, but not normally result in misunderstanding. There are no strict rules about this, but for those who want to improve linguistic ability, awareness of this can be beneficial. Collocations help with efficiency in reading and listening as you can learn to anticipate the next word. Keep a record of the combinations that you find interesting and/or relevant and start using them in speech and writing.
10 New Year’s Resolutions for Learning English
It is hard to believe but we have almost reached the end of
