 English collocations for success and failure from espressoenglish.net. Collocations are combinations of words that are typically used together. For example, we usually say a major success or a great success, but we don't normally say a big success. So today I'm going to teach you common collocations about success and failure by using a story about successful Samantha and her brother, disastrous Dan. The collocations are highlighted in yellow. Successful Samantha has a long list of impressive accomplishments. It seems like everything she does ends up being a phenomenal success. In her very first job, she created a highly effective way to motivate the company's employees, resulting in a dramatic improvement in workplace morale. Now she's developing a system for real-time translation among a hundred different languages. If she can pull it off, it'll be an unprecedented success. If something is unprecedented, it means it's the first time in history. And it will be the crowning achievement of her career. The crowning achievement is the best or most significant achievement. So far, the program has enjoyed modest success. That means some limited success, but there is still room for improvement. That means potential for improvement. However, Samantha says that the team is making good progress and that in the next month or two she hopes to make a breakthrough. A breakthrough is a sudden advance in success, especially when you overcome an obstacle. Although Samantha is very ambitious, she's also a very likable person. She brings out the best in other people and quickly wins the respect of colleagues. Samantha's brother, disastrous Dan, is the opposite. Everything he attempts seems to fail miserably. He wanted to be a doctor, but his teachers told him he wasn't smart enough, dashing his hopes. That means making him abandon hope of a career in medicine. He had the opportunity to do a prestigious internship in another country, but he lost his nerve. That means he lost his courage, and he turned down the offer. He then applied for various jobs, but completely failed to show up to the interviews on time. He was eventually hired, but later lost his job during an economic downturn due to his mediocre performance. If something is mediocre, it means it's average, not very special, and his total lack of remarkable achievements. Dan then tried to start his own software company to compete with Samantha's. That was a spectacular failure. He invested his life savings in the business, despite all his friends telling him that it would be a recipe for disaster. That means very likely to result in disaster. His sales predictions were way off the mark. That means they were completely inaccurate, and the company went under, meaning it lost all its money and shut down just eight months after it was founded. Poor Dan, it seems like he's doomed to failure, meaning destined to be unsuccessful. But if all else fails, meaning if everything is unsuccessful, he can always move into Samantha's mansion as a last resort. A last resort is a final, desperate possibility. If you want to take a quiz to help you practice and review the expressions in this lesson, click on the link in the video. If you want to learn more collocations like these, check out my e-book, 1000 English Collocations in 10 minutes a day. It will help you learn common combinations of English words with practice exercises to help you remember them. Visit espressoenglish.net, click on e-books, and look for the 1000 English Collocations e-book.