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If seeing specific word groups in context would answer your question, type in each word with a + between each word, and no spaces. For example knife+and+fork.

L e x e m e	phrasal verb	take off, step down, enter into
	modals	be about to, had better, be bound to
	compound noun	coffee table, step son, word family
	compound preposition	away from, regardless of, in comparison with
	fixed phrase	in the light of, open to suggestion, up up and away
	collocation	vivid imagination, irresistible temptation, little imp
	idiom	storm in a teacup, bull in a china shop
	quotation	much ado about nothing, couldn’t give a damn
	discourse markers	be that as it may, comparatively speaking, in other words

POS tags can also be part of a search. Try impact+IN to find what prepositions follow impact. More specifically, you could try impact/VERB+IN.

Discontinuous groups

Many phrasal verbs are used discontinuously, i.e. other words appear between the verb and the particle. Add the maximum number of intervening words you want in your search. For example take+3for, or take@+3for.

Delexical verbs are almost always discontinuous. Search give+3smile, make+3speech, take+3photograph, have+3bath.

Does whether or not appear as a fixed unit, or can it be separated? Search whether+or+not and whether+5or+not.

Honing in

It will also happen that after searching a single word, you will want to find more examples of one of the groups in which it occurs. When you search for teach, the second last line contains teach you how to.

Practice: search the left word and then one of the chunks in which it turns up.

Alternative search items

If you want to search for two items at the same time, use the vertical bar | (Shift + the key beside the arrow at the top right of the English keyboard).

Training in combining queries

Do we say on a/the train or in a/the train? Since a/the is not at issue, search in+1train and then on+1train. Unsurprisingly, we say both, and equally unsurprisingly, they mean different things. You could limit your search to finding only articles between the preposition and the noun. on+DT+train. Or if you want them on the same screen in|on+DT+train. With a maximum number of forty finds, this can sometimes present too few results.

Is train also a verb? train@/VERB Does it ever have the railway sense when used as a verb? What is the verb that occurs frequently with in train? What compound nouns does train occur in?

Alternatives to POS tags

We noted above that participles were not always marked as adjectives. We know that adjectives typically precede nouns so searching for welcoming+NOUN is likely to find welcoming as an adjective, but it also finds it in the continuous sense e.g are welcoming. Since noun phrases are often launched by determiners, DT+welcoming+NOUN is more likely to prevent any continuous uses appearing.

To search for any –ing form before a specific noun, e.g. ceremony, you would search DT+VBG+ceremony. Similarly, DT+VBN+house will find past participles as adjectives. This is a useful strategy for finding specific types of collocations.

Apostrophes