RESEARCH


Meaning of RESEARCH in English

noun

1

BAD : I'm doing a research into the causes of child abuse.

GOOD : I'm doing research into the causes of child abuse.

BAD : The government invests a lot of money in scientific researches.

GOOD : The government invests a lot of money in scientific research.

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Research is usually an uncountable noun: 'A team of American scientists is carrying out research into the effects of acid rain.'

Researches (plural) is also used, especially in formal styles of British English and usually refers to a series of related studies by a particular person or team: 'His researches go back to the 1950s.' 'Their more recent researches point to a decline in the mortality rate.' The more usual word for this meaning, especially in American English, is studies .

2

BAD : The project involves research of major lung diseases.

GOOD : The project involves research into major lung diseases.

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research into/on sth : 'We need more research into public attitudes to nuclear power.' 'To date, there has been very little research done on the subject.'

research on sb : 'It's a review of recent research on East Anglian fishermen.' 'She wishes to pursue her research on Edward VI.'

3

BAD : Where is he making his research?

GOOD : Where is he doing his research?

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do/carry out/conduct/be engaged in research : 'We have received a small grant to conduct research into housing design for older women.'

DO · HAVE · MAKE · TAKE

Many phrases begin with a very common very such as do, make, have, or take : ‘I felt very nervous about taking the test but, after having a long talk with Mrs Fisher, I decided I would just do my best and try not to make too many silly mistakes .’ These verbs can be combined with some nouns but not with others and since they do not have a clear meaning of their own, choosing the right combination can be a problem. Phrases which tend to cause difficulty are shown below.

HAVE

have a bath (or esp. AmE take ) ‘She’s probably upstairs having a bath.’

Have (your) breakfast ‘We usually have breakfast in the kitchen.’

Have (your) dinner ‘We had dinner and then went for a walk.’

Have a drink ‘I’ll collapse if I don’t have a drink soon.’

Have (an) experience ‘He has no experience of running a large company.’

Have fun ‘You can’t stop people from having fun.’

Have a holiday ‘It’s almost a year since we had a real holiday.’

Have an interview ‘I’ve had six interviews but no one has offered me a job.’

Have a lesson ‘Every morning we have three fifty-minute lessons.’

Have (your) lunch ‘Isn’t it about time we had lunch?’

Have an operation ‘Before I had the operation I could hardly walk.’

Have a party ‘On Saturday we’re having a party.’

Have a picnic ‘If it’s sunny we could have a picnic.’

Have a shower (or esp. AmE take) ‘It only takes me a minute to have a shower.’

TAKE

Take/do an examination ‘Why do we have to take so many tests?’

Take (your) medicine ‘Don’t forget to take your medicine.’

Take a pill ‘He refuses to take sleeping pills.’

Take/do a test ‘The last test I took was a disaster.’

MAKE

Make an effort ‘I had to make a big effort not to laugh.’

Make a journey ‘It was the first journey he’d made all on his own.’

Make a mistake ‘He has made a serious mistake.’

Make a noise ‘How can one small child make so much noise?’

Make progress ‘I made very little progress at the start of the course.’

DO

Do your best ‘Don’t worry, Tim. Just do your best.’

Do (or cause) damage ‘The storm did a lot of damage to the crops.’

Do an exercise ‘Have you done your exercises today?’

Do an experiment ‘To do this experiment, you’ll need two eggs.’

Do (sb) good ‘The holiday has done him a lot of good.’

Do harm ‘A scandal would do his reputation a lot of harm.’

Do your homework ‘Have you done your homework yet?’

Do a job ‘I’ve got one or two jobs to do this evening.’

Do the/some shopping ‘Jake has gone into town to do some shopping.’

Do research ‘We need to do a lot more research.’

Do things ‘We’ve done lots of different things today.’

Do your training ‘Where did you do your training?’

Note also: do something/anything etc: ‘I can’t come now – I’m doing something.’ ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong.'

Longman Common Errors English vocabulary.      Английский словарь распространенных ошибок Longman.