British and American Technical English Collocations

British and American technical English collocations dominoes

Instructions for teachers

Cut up one set of cards per group of 2-4 students. Only cut horizontally, so the two halves of each domino are still together. Ask students to spread the cards out face up and work together to put all the cards together in a big circle by matching beginnings and endings of the two engineering collocations with the same meaning on each pair. After checking with the worksheet, they can then deal out 7 cards each and play dominoes, with any extra cards staying face down on the table until someone can’t go and so needs to take another.

 

Cards to cut up/ Suggested answers

Don’t cut between the two columns

hoover (e.g. Roomba) vacuum cleaner (e.g. Roomba)	paraffin kerosene
stove heater	petrol gas
station station	front/ rear/ back front/ rear/ back
bumper fender	windscreen windshield
wipers wipers	snow snow
tyres tires	exhaust tail-
pipe pipe	accelerator gas
pedal pedal	hand- parking
brake brake	automatic/ manual automatic/ manual
gearbox transmission	lorry truck*
driver driver	fire fire
engine truck	(rubbish) trash-/ garbage
bin can	hot/ cold (water) hot/ cold (water)
tap faucet	(electrical) (electrical)
socket outlet	TV TV
aerial antenna	pocket pocket
torch flashlight	hash pound
sign sign	maths math
teacher teacher	turn turn
anti-clockwise counter-clockwise	nought point zero point
oh five zero five	mobile cell-
phone phone	hard bump
hat cap	adjustable adjustable
spanner wrench	service (service)
engineer technician	a hundred a hundred
and thirty thirty	dustcart garbage truck
driver driver	bonnet hood
ornament ornament	rental rental/ hire
skip Dumpster	lift elevator
to the 12th floor to the 12th floor	robot robot

 

Without looking at the cards, write a synonym of each phrase below:

paraffin stove

(robot) hoover

petrol station

(front/ rear/ back) fender

windscreen (wipers)

tyres

exhaust

gas pedal

handbrake

(automatic/ manual) transmission

lorry

fire engine

(rubbish) bin

(hot water/ cold water) faucet

(electrical) socket

(TV) aerial

(pocket) flashlight

hash (sign)

maths (teacher)

anti-clockwise

nought point five

mobile phone

bump cap

(adjustable) spanner

a hundred thirty

hood (ornament)

(rental) skip

lift

 

--------------------------fold, cover or cut---------------------------

 

Use these mixed answers to help with the task above.

… and…                                        … truck                             accelerator

antenna                                          bonnet                              bumper

cell…                                              counter…                                       Dumpster

elevator                                          gas…                                              gearbox

hard hat                                          kerosene heater                           math

outlet                                              parking…                                       pound

tailpipe                             tap                                                   tires

torch                                               trashcan/ garbage can  truck

vacuum cleaner                            windshield                                     wrench

zero…

 

Check with the dominoes cards.