verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
depth of knowledge/understanding/experience
▪ I was impressed by the depth of her knowledge.
difficult (for sb) to understand/find/obtain etc
▪ That’s rather difficult for me to explain.
▪ He’s finding it difficult to get a job.
easily understood/identified etc
▪ It’s easily recognised by its bright blue tail feathers.
enlarge sb’s understanding/knowledge etc
▪ A good way to enlarge your vocabulary is to read a daily newspaper.
gain an understanding (=get knowledge based on learning and experience)
▪ Drama is one of the key ways in which children can gain an understanding of themselves and of others.
grasp/appreciate/understand the significance of sth
▪ The press was slow to grasp the significance of what had happened.
lead sb to believe/expect/understand sth
▪ He had led everyone to believe that his family was very wealthy.
▪ The hotel was terrible, and not at all what we had been led to expect.
little known/understood etc (=not known about by many people)
▪ a little known corner of the world
mutual respect/trust/understanding etc
▪ Mutual respect is necessary for any partnership to work.
▪ European nations can live together in a spirit of mutual trust.
understand a concept
▪ The class will help you understand the basic concepts of physics.
understand a point
▪ I’m sorry, I don’t understand your point.
understand the extent of sth
▪ Other people didn’t seem to understand the extent of his disability.
understand the meaning
▪ The pictures help the children understand the meanings of the words.
understand/see sb’s logic
▪ I could not understand the logic of her actions.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
better
▪ Now that I know that George was not his father I can better understand why they always clashed.
▪ I want to understand better why I quit.
▪ Now he has had a chance to work with them and perhaps better understands the intricacies of their job.
▪ S Department of Defense in the hopes of understanding better the concept of deception.
▪ One feels guilty about not having understood better what was going on.
▪ Promote effective two-way communication between employees at all levels to understand better the problems and concerns that affect productivity; 7.
▪ It does help our chances of success however, if we can better understand why reef fish are aggressive towards each other.
▪ Perhaps in the future we may come to better understand more complex processes, such as memory and learning.
easily
▪ Within these two sentences, the situation is easily understood and explained.
▪ If this problem were easily understood or amenable to fast solutions, there would be few work-inhibited students.
▪ Bosses still had to be bosses when the occasion required but that was understood easily and early.
▪ What is happening is most easily understood in terms of the wave picture of light.
▪ From a wave point of view this is easily understood.
▪ Meteor Crater is easily understood as the result of a surface impact of a body bearing about fifteen megatons of energy.
▪ Reality is sometimes too complex to understand easily.
▪ The modern trial is a contest in which justice is defined in easily understood, monetary terms-dollars.
fully
▪ Diana was sympathetic, but did not fully understand his unrest, nor his frantic soul-searching.
▪ Instead, when fully understood, the apparent contradiction may reveal a new causal factor that was not considered before.
▪ Most errors in radiocarbon dating arise because the excavator has not fully understood the formation processes of the context in question.
▪ Things that before had been mysterious are now fully understood.
▪ The technical question of how far the biological continuity between man and other animals is already fully understood is complex.
▪ So I fully understand and am in compliance with that kind of feeling.
▪ I don't fully understand why he does so much to distance me.
▪ For some reason we do not fully understand, the blotched tabby cat was a winner.
how
▪ To understand how engineers are preparing for earthquakes, one needs to know a little about how buildings behave when shaken.
▪ And so now, perhaps, you will understand how it is and has always been with us.
▪ I do not understand how so many Black men stay sane, look after their children and strive to walk beside them.
▪ They want leaders to spend time helping them understand how change can happen.
▪ Again we must delve back in history to understand how we got to this position.
▪ For now, the Raiders have something to enjoy, but they understand how quickly that can fade.
▪ I don't understand how anyone so musical can hum so out of tune with himself.
▪ I can understand how the school thing would be a problem for them.
never
▪ There was much about the Spencer children that I would never understand, especially their relationship with Raine.
▪ Never understood why Dandy Dan picked him but from all the others.
▪ He'd never understand women, he thought.
▪ We never understood them, and that was another surprise.
▪ The sergeant could never understand rich people with imperfect features who did not spend money on cosmetic surgery.
▪ He never understood her moral ignorance so well before.
▪ Nevertheless, as combat approached, the pilots became intensely alive in a way that Skull could always recognise but never understand.
▪ Everything had changed for me, and words that I had never understood before suddenly began to make sense.
really
▪ In reality, most attorneys have made almost no preparation for this phase and do not really understand it.
▪ Of all the servants, the only one who really understood my need to do things for myself was Koju.
▪ Start with the very simplest pattern, possibly imitating Card No. 1 to make sure that you really understand the system.
▪ It took me four years to really understand the business and begin to turn it around.
▪ Some one who really understands me and knows all my secrets.
▪ Both are nuts, leave a bad taste and no one really understands why this tradition continues.&038;.
▪ I still meet research managers from other businesses who feel that their companies don't really understand or want them.
▪ He really understands how to sell things.
why
▪ I can't understand why Mum hates her.
▪ He never could understand why Morgan was so good, why she moved him so.
▪ But a spokesman said that while the authority had every sympathy for Richard it understood why the school had expelled him.
▪ On the other hand, we understand why you would prefer not to see usable food go down the garbage disposal.
▪ He could not understand why he should not put them in the moats.
▪ Excavators have been reluctant to put dates to their finds and one can understand why. carbon dating being expensive.
▪ I understand why the Government have maintained an exemption for small businesses, for which survival is of the essence.
▪ I couldn't understand why they bothered to take him on, because he hadn't won anything for years.
■ NOUN
meaning
▪ The story has to be decoded in order to understand its meaning.
▪ Children understand your meaning by perceiving the tone of your voice.
▪ Seek confirmation that the other party understands your meaning.
▪ If we can understand the identity of the criteria of sameness of use, then we can understand the sameness of meaning.
▪ This tension between change and continuity is the key to understanding the inner meaning as opposed to the outward form of working-class sport.
▪ You will use your powers of anticipation and imagination to read between the lines, to understand message and meaning.
▪ Even so, those with grace always know how to be graceful and she would probably understand the true meaning of the gesture.
▪ I understood their meaning and was full of jealousy.
nature
▪ For everyone there is a problem in understanding the nature of the crime when no motive can be identified.
▪ Therefore, self-understanding comes to have a transformative effect on our understanding of the nature of reality.
▪ As we have discussed, there is now available a conceptual framework for adequately understanding the changing nature of contemporary civil society.
▪ The overriding goal of this chapter is to understand the nature of markets and how prices and outputs are determined.
▪ How then could we ever understand the nature and functioning of the whole belt?
▪ One can understand why a cheerful nature is important.
▪ Consent means that the patient must be capable of understanding the nature, purpose and likely effects of the proposed treatments.
▪ He very likely does not understand the nature of the risk that he describes.
need
▪ Managers will need help to understand people's needs during a period of transition and also their own reactions to change.
▪ Of all the servants, the only one who really understood my need to do things for myself was Koju.
▪ You must make him understand the need for secrecy.
▪ He understood the need to eat.
▪ NatWest understands your needs and is pleased to help.
▪ On board there was now a widespread and unspoken understanding of the need to husband our resources.
▪ That's because I understand her needs and I don't make demands.
▪ Which people in which jobs understand the need for and nature of the changes at hand?
problem
▪ Some fresh approach to understanding the management problems in secondary schools could be much needed after the upheavals of 1985/86.
▪ More research needs to be done to attempt to understand these problems but statistical modelling is not appropriate.
▪ She begins to understand the health problems of having too many kids.
▪ Peer pressure was a key factor in understanding the problem, he said.
▪ Based on this experience they came to an understanding of a fundamental problem of flight: control.
▪ Professionals often intervene before they understand the problem in full and so fail.
▪ His own rise from the bottom of the heap guarantees that he understands problems of a class-ridden society, he tells audiences.
process
▪ As long as you understand the process, it will all come together, whatever the terms and instructions.
▪ They understood statistical process control, total quality customer service, reengineering, and the economics and finance of film manufacturing.
▪ What had to be understood was the process which led to the evolution of society seen in this new light.
▪ Regardless of how fantastic our political visions are, it is important to understand the processes of political communication that support them.
▪ Like de Schweinitz, Moore seeks to understand the relationship between processes of economic development and political form through comparing few countries.
▪ Must gain an understanding of the political process.
▪ In order to understand the process, the study focuses upon important incidents that subjects can recall or are experiencing.
▪ Before beginning the proposal writing task, an overall understanding of the research process is essential to the writer.
word
▪ The reason, quite simply, is that pruning is little understood - again that word why.
▪ Neither of them understood the words but the music represented all that was fair and just.
▪ It became clear to them that she had understood their every word.
▪ He doubted that the policeman had understood a word he had said.
▪ You could understand every word when I was singing.
▪ But this time - and the photographer couldn't understand why - the words had less effect.
▪ Other symptoms of dyslexia can include difficulty in writing, calculating or even understanding the spoken word.
■ VERB
begin
▪ It was only now she began to understand her cruelty.
▪ I began to understand why they gave you a talk before they give you the money.
▪ Philip himself now began to understand Innocent better.
▪ But after seeing the tomographic maps, researchers began to understand why the continents had no effect.
▪ Creed began to understand why Evelyn had imposed a diet.
▪ And you might begin to understand the scale of the problem.
▪ During the early school years, a child can begin to understand the physical basis for some of his feelings.
fail
▪ No one who had ever struggled in the mire as she had, could fail to understand.
▪ Even ten years later, he felt the sting of the rebuke, the motive for which he still fails to understand.
▪ In all probability he failed to understand the consequences of his actions.
▪ If they failed to understand the settled peasants, the latter returned the compliment.
▪ Student leaders accuse him of failing to understand the system.
▪ The two men failed to understand each other.
▪ Mysticism is the product of those who fail to understand, the substitute for comprehension and the margarine of philosophy.
▪ She is described by the Argive elders as speaking in riddles because they fail to understand her predictions.
help
▪ It helps you understand other people's tasks, avoid problems and keep in mind that crucial overview I spoke of earlier.
▪ He was clear about what he wanted, but gave the dancers evocative images to help them understand and deepen their interpretations.
▪ The historical background provided in this chapter helps us understand some of these diagnoses as well as some of the prescriptions.
▪ They want leaders to spend time helping them understand how change can happen.
▪ Gardens A garden is useful in helping the children to understand space comparisons and the seasons.
▪ It helps me to understand things.
▪ Having done the job myself, it helps me to understand that departments are being asked to review everything continuously.
▪ She helps the girls understand issues such as puberty, hygiene, boys, crime, and drugs.
try
▪ We also seek wisdom when we try to deepen our understanding of what the world is like.
▪ Users need not spend their time trying to understand where something is.
▪ I must say it was a great relief not to have to try to understand it all from books.
▪ Let us try to understand the basics of special relativity in terms of the magnificent space-time of Minkowski.
▪ Not content with stars and galaxies, they try to understand the whole universe, its provenance and fate.
▪ Now, and not later, I will try to understand.
▪ We are all aware of the problems of trying to understand a complex document written for a specialist audience.
▪ He calmed himself, trying to understand why he was imprisoned and who was responsible.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
I fail to see/understand
▪ I fail to see the humor in this situation.
▪ How presumptuous my claims to knowledge based only on what I see, leaving out what I fail to see.
▪ However I fail to see firstly what you are trying to prove with your figures.
▪ Last year? I failed to see the connection.
can't begin to understand/imagine etc
gain an understanding/insight/impression etc
▪ By analysing simple situations, with essential features in common, we can gain insight into the behaviour of these complicated beams.
▪ It is difficult to see how avoiding teaching about what is distinctive of religion can help people gain an understanding of it!
▪ One way to gain insight into these issues is to view them through the work of some of the main protagonists.
▪ Pupils use drama to gain insights into moral and social issues in works of literature.
▪ Self-assessment Building self-esteem is about appreciating strengths and developing them as much as it is about gaining an understanding of weaknesses.
▪ The trust wants to gain an insight into the county's butterfly population.
▪ This guidance helped them gain insight into the characteristics that inhibited their own ability to persist and to complete schoolwork.
▪ To visit them is to gain an insight into what many of our own wetlands must have been like.
get to like/know/understand sb/sth
▪ All I had to do was got to know his taste in food.
▪ Come to think of it, he'd seemed rather a decent chap, some one it might be worth getting to know.
▪ He got to know Bill Clinton quite well when they were together at Oxford as Rhodes scholars.
▪ I would like to get to know customers well 8.
▪ It was one of Brian's three daughters, Karen, who got to know Kirsty.
▪ Mrs Nowak and Taczek must have got to know most of the truth and stuck by the cover story.
▪ She had seen a leaflet about the YCs and thought that this would provide a good way of getting to know people.
▪ So I got, I sort of got to know her.
give sb to understand/think/believe sth
▪ A parting sniff as she left the room gave the gentleman to understand that he had disappointed her.
▪ But he had also given her time to think what she was doing.
▪ But the knotted tensions between people and groups of people give us plenty to think about.
▪ He would have given anything to believe that Isambard was lying.
▪ Ireland would be given something new to think about.
▪ It obviously gave him plenty to think about.
▪ She'd given more time to thinking about Lucy than anything else for months.
know/understand what it means to be sth
▪ If you are overweight, then you know what it means to be in emotional pain.
make yourself heard/understood/known etc
▪ As we will soon see, the inability to make oneself understood properly was at the root of the crisis in Vicos.
▪ But only one side was making itself heard.
▪ Hardly a practicable solution when she didn't even know if she could make herself understood.
▪ He makes himself known with a tiny, metallic clink-clink-clink from within the bushes.
▪ I yelled to make myself heard above the deafening roar of the wind and the sea.
▪ To leave was to admit defeat in this peculiar ritual of making myself known.
▪ Yet lay people had almost no way of making themselves heard in Rome.
not hear/understand/believe a word
▪ Do not believe a word of it.
▪ For the rest of the journey Maria prattled on about Bradford, but Ruth did not hear a word.
▪ However, it also shows that they are not very useful, for Hera did not believe a word of it.
▪ I kept it up until I was certain you were not hearing a word.
▪ To date I've not heard word one about such a plague in the Czech Republic.
▪ We had not heard a word about my father all this time.
on the understanding that
▪ We said he could stay with us on the understanding that it would just be temporary.
▪ Darrel had mysteriously signed Littlecote over to Sir John in 1586 on the understanding that he would still be allowed to remain.
▪ It was possible for a person to be given a legacy on the understanding that he would manumit a slave.
▪ The reader who has bought your book has bought it on the understanding that this is what will happen.
▪ The work would be carried out on the understanding that the resulting products would be returned to the country of origin.
▪ They forget I took the job on the understanding that management of a national team can only be part-time employment.
▪ They hanged the couple on the understanding that Combe would become part of Berkshire and remain so.
▪ This expedition was sanctioned on the understanding that there was good money to be won at wrestling.
▪ This reaction was based on the understanding that atomic bombs cause widespread death and destruction and extreme human suffering.
sb's understanding (of sth)
▪ My understanding is that none of us are required to attend.
▪ What's your understanding of the letter?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Ben asked a few questions to make sure he understood what to do.
▪ Computer manuals should be written in a way that is easy to understand.
▪ Doctors still do not fully understand the process by which the disease is transmitted.
▪ Don't worry. I understand perfectly.
▪ How can I make you understand?
▪ I'm sorry. I still don't understand. Can you say it slower?
▪ I'm sure if you talk to your boss, he'll understand.
▪ I'm sure your teacher will understand.
▪ I understand how you feel, but I still think you should apologize to her.
▪ I completely understand how things are when money is tight.
▪ I didn't understand the teacher's instructions.
▪ She spoke slowly and clearly so that everyone could understand.
▪ Sondra doesn't understand football at all.
▪ The witness said he understood that he was swearing to give true and correct information.
▪ Unfortunately she doesn't understand English.
▪ We're trying very hard to understand what she's going through.
▪ When he's old enough to understand, we'll tell him he's adopted.
▪ You can only apologize, and hope that she'll understand.
▪ You don't need to understand how a computer works to use it.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A person watching could understand and almost envy it.
▪ Bateson now argued that the direct study of variation was the only way of trying to understand how evolution actually works.
▪ Naturally June couldn't understand why it was that I went on cutting her.
▪ The second cost associated with producing fund accounts relates to the investment of time and skill needed to understand them.
▪ They understand what we say better than we understand them.
▪ Unlike many political appointees, she was determined to understand the most complex details of her job.