Heavy smoker, heavy schedule, heavy losses...
Common collocations with heavy

    If I asked you to translate 重い (omoi) into English, you'd probably say heavy. And, of course, you would be right. 重い often occurs in phrases like:

    • 重いかばん (heavy bag)
    • 重い荷物 (heavy luggage)

    where it means something like "weighing a lot of kilograms."

    However, 重い can also occur in phrases like these:

    • 重い責任
    • 重い罪
    • 重い病気で入院した

    Of these 3 examples, 重い責任 (heavy responsibilities) is the only one we can translate using heavy. 重い罪 is serious crime or grave crime, 重い病気 is serious illness.

    An example from English:
    In English, we can say:

    • I caught a very heavy cold last winter

    but you don't say 重い風邪 in Japanese, do you? I think that ひどい風邪 is the usual collocation.

    In this week's lesson, let's take a look at the English word, heavy and some of its common collocations. As you look at my examples, try to translate them back into Japanese. I think you will be able to use 重い in some cases, but certainly not for all of them.

Some collocations with heavy

    CERTAIN TYPES OF WEATHER
    You can talk about:

    • a heavy snowfall / heavy snow
    • a heavy frost
    • heavy rain
    • a heavy storm
    • heavy (storm) clouds

    (But probably not, for example, a heavy typhoon or a heavy typhoon).

    WORK SCHEDULES
    You can talk about:

    • a heavy schedule
    • a heavy workload
    • heavy day at the office

    EATING, SLEEPING, DRINKING, SMOKING
    You can be a...

    • heavy eater
    • heavy sleeper
    • heavy drinker
    • heavy smoker

    You can also eat a heavy lunch and certain types of cakes and sweets can be very heavy. (Christmas pudding, for example is very heavy - eat a lot and you'll probably feel sick).

    TOO MUCH OF SOMETHING
    We can talk about:

    • heavy make-up
    • heavy traffic

    DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND
    You can talk about:

    • heavy reading material
    • a heavy discussion

    (But probably not a heavy explanation).
    You can also say that a person speaks English with a heavy foreign accent (also a strong foreign accent).

    RELATING TO LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY
    We often use this with large amounts money that we are unhappy about paying:

    • If you park your car in the wrong place, you may have to pay a heavy fine.
    • An investor can suffer heavy losses on the stock exchange.

    (But probably not, for example, heavy phone bill. We would be more likely to say huge phone bill or hefty phone bill.

    Short exercise

    Rewrite the following sentences, using the word heavy.

    1. Our office has been very busy today.
      - We've had a ______.

    2. My brother smokes two packets of cigarettes a day.
      - My brother's ______.

    3. Pierre's English is quite good, but he sounds very French.
      - Pierre speaks English with ______.

    4. I'm sorry I'm late. I got stuck in a traffic jam.
      - I'm sorry I'm late. The traffic ______.

    5. I dropped a candy wrapper on the street in Singapore and they fined me $400.
      - I dropped a candy wrapper on the street in Singapore and I was given ______.

    6. She's quite pretty, but make-up is a bit excessive.
      - I wish she wouldn't wear such ______.

    7. It was very frosty when we got up this morning.
      - The frost ______.

    When you've finished, please click here to check your answers.

    Please click here if you want to try some of my other one-point lessons.

    © Robert E. Jones, 2004