 30 English Collocations with the word country from espressoenglish.net Let's learn some collocations, words that commonly go together. You can also learn more of these in my e-book, 1000 collocations in 10 minutes a day. Click on the link in the video for more information. You can describe a country based on its climate or temperature. For example, a tropical country is hot and humid near the equator. The opposite is a cold country and a temperate country is in the middle. A temperate country has mild weather and or four seasons. When talking about a person's country you can say someone's native country or home country referring to where they were born and raised. Or someone's adopted country. That refers to where they have chosen to live long term. For example, my native country is the United States. But my adopted country is Brazil because I've lived there for many years and I feel like it's also my home even though I wasn't born there. We also have the expression a foreign country which simply means a different country from the one the speaker lives in or the conversation is based in. Note that the letter G in the word foreign is silent. You can also talk about a neighboring country. That's a country that is right next to another one. Canada and the United States are neighboring countries. Or a distant country or a far away country like the US and Australia which are far away from each other. When talking about how advanced a country is you might hear these terms. A developed country or a first world country meaning a country that is stronger economically and has a higher quality of life. A developing country or a third world country refers to a country that is weaker economically and has a lower quality of life. The best terms to use are developed country and developing country since the terms first world and third world are considered rather out of date. However, some people still use them. Here are more collocations specifying a country's economic or political system. You can have a capitalist country, a socialist country, a communist country, or a democratic country. If a country is ruled by a king or queen or a royal family then it is a monarchy. If a country is ruled by a dictator, a single person with absolute power, then it is a dictatorship. Both of these words are nouns used alone. We don't include the word country after monarchy or a dictatorship. You can also describe the official or main religion of a country. For example, a Catholic country, a Muslim country, or a Buddhist country. An occupied country is one in which another country's military forces are controlling the area. In contrast to an independent country which controls itself. Let's look at some verbs. The leaders of the country govern, rule, or run the country. The word run is the most informal, talking about being in charge and controlling things. To serve one's country means to be in the military or work in a government job. These are considered to be doing good things for your country. Finally, you can love your country if you feel good about it. I'll finish today's lesson by explaining the difference between country and countryside because some students find this confusing. The word country has multiple meanings. A country can be a nation such as Japan, France, or Ecuador. All of the examples I gave in this lesson refer to this definition of country. Country can also be used for an area or region that is defined by a characteristic. For example, this is hunting country, meaning an area where people hunt. It doesn't refer to the entire nation, just one region. Another example is this. My relatives live in Bible country, referring to an area where people are Christians and believe strongly in the Bible. Finally, the word country can also refer to a rural area, an area where there's a lot of nature and few people living there. For example, we own a house out in the country. Those are the three possible definitions of the word country. The word countryside refers only to the third definition, a rural area. So you could also say, we own a house out in the countryside. It is also correct. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next lesson.