English Collocations in Dialogue: Master Hundreds of Collocations in American English Quickly and Easily - Jackie Bolen 2021

Bitter divorce

Sierra: Did you hear the Jeremy and Katie are going through a bitter

Brian: Really? What about the kids? Are they doing joint custody or sole

Sierra: Joint custody. Jeremy will have them on weekends but he has to pay child

Brian: Poor kids. That was a pretty dysfunctional family and they've already had a troubled childhood.

Sierra: A broken home might be better than all that conflict though. It's too bad that Jeremy and Katie aren't on good

Vocabulary

Hear the news: Catch the latest gossip.

Bitter divorce: A divorce that is hostile with both people feeling angry towards the other.

Joint custody: When divorced parents each spend some time taking care of their children.

Sole custody: When a divorced parent is responsible 100% of the time for the children.

On weekends: On Saturday and Sunday.

Pay child support: When one divorced parent has to give money to the other parent to help pay for the care of the children.

Dysfunctional family: A family with many problems.

Troubled childhood: Growing up in a family or situation with a lot of problems.

Broken home: A home where the parents are divorced.

On good Friendly and get along well.

Practice

Thankfully my former boss and I are ... . I need him for a reference.

I grew up in a ... but have worked hard to overcome this.

Alex and Jen seem to be doing well with their .... agreement.

Did you ...? Jeremy cheated on his wife.

..., I like to spend as much time outside as possible.

He's had a ... so far. I'm surprised that he still does well at school.

I want to get ... of the kids. Tom is a terrible father.

I grew up in a ... and have tried my best to make things better for my kids.

I had such a ... but I'm happy that I don't have to see him anymore.

She does ... but it should be way more than $500 a month I think.

Answers

on good terms

broken home

joint custody

hear the news

on weekends

troubled childhood

sole custody

dysfunctional family

bitter divorce

pay child support