若稍有疑问，就去认真查下字典
除了常见的一些搭配外，我们要注意一些英文的“惯用法”，也就是一些“难以解释但是native speakers认为理所当然的用法”。有些词一般用在形容词前有些词一般用在形容词后；有些词是自带“情感态度价值观的”; 有的词是formal用法，有的是informal，有的是在英国常用有的是在美国常用。在我们学习的时候要注意这个词的“使用特点”“感情色彩”还有“语域”(register)。
我们在学习单词的时候不能只顾生词，还要兼顾到不断复习和补充自己认为已经掌握的词，问问自己“这个词我会用吗？” 能否立刻说出这个词的“语法特点是什么？习惯搭配有哪些？” 若稍有疑问，就去认真查下字典。晨读群在读A Diary of a Wimpy Kid，是很多人不屑一读的儿童读物，我随手摘抄几句考考大家能否立刻说出黑体字部分的意思：
I could be in for a rough ride.
There’s this one dog that really has it in for me.
I went up to her room to thank her, but she was out cold.
But if I’m ever hard up for cash I know I can always go to the spot between Tickles four and five to get out of a jam.
So I let him take a bottle and made a note to dock his pay later on.
It was pretty obvious Cedric had cornered the lemonade market.
His parents make him get up at 5:00 in the morning to study for the geography bee.
We realized we were just gonna have to suck it up and man the lemonade stand full-time.
不认识的话不要沮丧，很多我一开始也不认识。自己没有见到过没查过字典，当然会不认识。但是要承认自己不认识，别管这个词多简单，你不认识不会用那就好好学习一下，勿以词小而不查。在这里再次推荐一下朗文字典，我认为每一位英语学习者都应该每天用它查上几十次才行，尤其是注意其中的“Longman Communication 3000”。这3000个词占了朗文语料库的86%，凡是代有标记为是属于这3000词的词汇，都应该认真研习其语法特点、习惯搭配等。配合使用一本双解词典（例如柯林斯）和Oxford Collacation Dictionary使用效果更佳。
Of course, “knowing” a word involves more than simply being able to recognise it and know a main meaning of it. Many of the most frequent words have a range of different meanings, a variety of different grammatical patterns, and numerous signicant collocations. Nonetheless, a basic understanding of the Longman Communication 3000 is a very powerful tool and will help students develop good comprehension and communication skills in English.
另外要提醒大家不要去“背字典”。字典可以放在床头和卫生间没事读一读，但是刻意地去背字典是个低效的方法。词汇的学习还是需要大量的阅读来邂逅，从陌生人搭讪到暧昧，然后慢慢找机会和ta上床把ta搞定... 在这个过程中勤查字典和总结、复习即可。
今早的晨读遇到这样一句话：
根据Mom suggested I take a look at the French horn...这句话，我问晨读的一位朋友“Eric建议Lily看一看法国号”怎么说？她说“Eric suggested Lily to take a look at the French horn...” 这个句子是错的。我问这个问题就是知道可能会掉进suggest的用法的坑里（Why? because I've been there!）
《柯林斯高阶英汉双解词典》说：
suggest 后通常不能直接跟指人的名词或代词，一般要在这类名词或代词之前加介词 to。不能说 suggest someone something，而说 suggest something to someone，例如：John Caskey first suggested this idea to me (约翰·卡斯基首先向我提出了这一想法)。一般也不说suggest someone to do something，除非 suggest 表示推荐; 一般会说 suggest that someone does something，例如：Beatrice suggested that he spend the summer at their place (比阿特丽斯提议他在他们那里度夏)。不要混淆suggest 和 advise。suggest 表示提出供他人考虑的想法或计划。advise 表示建议某人做某事，例如：I advised him to leave as soon as possible (我建议他尽快离开)。
《英语常用词疑难用法手册》说：
中文很普遍的“兼语式”（“建议”某人去做某事）不能套在suggest上，也就是说，不能suggest somebody to do something，要改为suggest that（that可省略），从句的谓语动词用虚拟语气（should + inf. 或inf.）或直陈语气都可以。【例如】What do you suggest we do about it? (John Darnton, The Darwin Conspiracy, p. 170) 咱们对此该怎么办，你有什么建议吗？/ Her uncle suggested that she (should) get (gets) a job in a bank. (*Her uncle suggested her to get...) 她叔父建议她找一份银行的工作。如果是当堂提建议，则不要用should。【例如】I suggest that you get a job in a bank. 我建议你去找一份银行的工作。
通过查查字典我们掌握了suggest这个词的用法，了解到它和advise的不同之处，学到了“兼语式”这个概念。不查不知道，一查吓一跳。
另外我们要特别记忆那些自己读得懂但是“觉得别扭”的表达（前提是这个表达是正确的），用李笑来的话说是“不直观的对应”，例如“我从未想过”我们可能会说I never thoguht of/that... 但更地道的表达可能是It never occurred to me that… 遇到这样的表达就把它背下来。葛传椝先生在《向学习英语者讲话》中有一篇题为“Knowing Just Enough Grammar to Go Wrong" 还提醒我们别纠结语法，记住地道表达即可：
There are several forms of expression that are purely idiomatic and do not admit of grammatical analysis. The word "busy", for example, may be used immediately before a gerund looking like a participle, as in "He is busy writing letters."
In your reading, reader, take care to note down those idiomatic constructions that you do not find grammatical enough. Commit them to memory and try to use them in your writing.
有些时候我们需要对语法较真，例如see sb. do/doing有没有什么不同？有时候记下来就好了。慢慢地你会发现语法书中的很多规则都会有特例，防不胜防，那就保证自己写出来的、说出来的句子都是自己读到过的、听到到过的就好了。be busy后接现在分词，记住这么用就好了！然后接触多了你会发现更多这样的句子，例如: Do you have difficulty getting up? We had a hard time getting here. Diary of a Wimpy Kid中有这么一段，我们读到了后，仿照这个句型来造句即可，至于为什么是这样的语法并不重要（能查清楚当然更好）：
我目前的做法是在印象笔记里每天写一个“日积月累”，把我能听得懂看得懂，但是没说过觉得会有用的表达、字典例句和段落整理在一起。读上几遍，把其中的一些背下来，然后有机会就用起来。通过这样的反复的记录、背诵、复习、整理和拓展，积极词汇越来越多，表达方式越来越地道。并且通过这种方式，我们可以知道自己每天到底学了多少东西，避免产生“我真的很努力啊”这种幻觉。
诚实和踏实是进步的第一步。知道自己真正学了多少，然后进行调整，一步一个脚印。
推荐两本小书，两小时就可以把每一页都看完：葛传椝的《向英语学习者的讲话》，Jeremy Webb的《愤怒的英语》，回复关键字"215book"即可收到网盘下载地址。