Collocations for awful - adj.

be, feel, look, smell, sound, taste
I felt awful when I realized what I'd done.
The fish tasted awful.

just, quite, really, simply, truly
a truly awful book

absolutely, the most
She's the most awful snob.

pretty, rather

Awful is used with these nouns:
bore, cheek, condition, crime, din, disaster, dream, fate, feeling, film, fuss, lot, memory, mess, moment, muddle, news, nightmare, noise, pain, predicament, quiet, realization, row, rush, shame, shock, smell, sound, state, stench, story, tale, thing, thought, time, tragedy, truth, waste, weather