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Collocations for expect - verb

ADVERB

confidently
She confidently expects to win.
fully
My parents fully expect us to get married.
rightly
They rightly expect to be obeyed.
not necessarily
I do not necessarily expect an easy answer to this question.
not really
I didn't really expect them to come.
half
I was half expecting to see Jim at the concert.
initially, originally
honestly
Did you honestly expect me to believe that?
seriously
You can't seriously expect me to sympathize with you.

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VERB + expect

be fair to, be natural to, be reasonable to, can, can realistically, can reasonably
We can expect to see an improvement in the weather over the next few days.
be unfair to, be unrealistic to, be unreasonable to, can hardly
It would be unreasonable to expect them to do all that work for free.
You can hardly expect to learn a foreign language in a few months.
be foolish to
It would be foolish to expect this at his age.
be naive
Was she really naive enough to expect that he had changed?
would, would normally
I would expect the factory to be working again as normal by next week.
be entitled to, have a right to
You are entitled to expect certain minimum standards of hygiene.

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PREPOSITION

from
We expect good results from our employees.

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PHRASES

as expected
As expected, they lost the election.
(only) to be expected
The wine list is excellent, as is to be expected from such a high-class restaurant.
This kind of tantrum is to be expected from a two-year-old.
be widely expected
The economy is widely expected to pick up in the first half of next year.
expect a lot, too much, etc. of sb
I think my parents always expected too much of me.
when you least expect sth
An accident can happen anywhere, at any time, just when you least expect it.

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Expect is used with these nouns as the subject:
observer

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Expect is used with these nouns as the object:
announcement, answer, apology, arrival, assistance, baby, backlash, call, child, company, failure, favour, honesty, loyalty, miracle, news, obedience, perfection, reception, recompense, recovery, reply, reprisal, return, sale, snow, submission, summons, twin, upturn, visitor, worst

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