Phrasal verbs are combinations of a verb and a preposition, adverb or both. Examples of phrasal verbs include pull off, run out of and look after. Phrasal verbs don't have the literal meaning of the initial verb: for example, "pull off" means "achieve" and "look after" means "take care of." In addition, a single verb can produce a number of phrasal verbs. For example, "pull" makes pull out, pull off, pull round, pull through and pull down.
Collocation refers to the appropriate combination of words in the English language, mainly when using adjectives and nouns together. For example, English speakers commonly say "handsome man" and "pretty woman," but not "pretty man" and "handsome woman," even though "pretty" and "handsome" are synonymous words. There are no formal collocation rules and learners have to rely on their personal experience of listening to and reading English.
According to Oxford University's ELT Journal, certain lexical chunks have "slots" where the speaker can insert a number of words, according to the situation. For example, "_ enjoys _ during the weekend" can become "John enjoys swimming during the weekend" or "President Obama enjoys spending time with his kids during the weekend." Memorized sentence frames can make the speech quicker, while listeners can find it easier to interpret familiar phrases.
Idioms are phrases with a metaphorical meaning. Even though these lexical chunks can have a literal meaning as well, English speakers rarely use them for this purpose. For example, when you say "The ball is on my court," it doesn't mean that you are on one side of a court with a ball, but that it's your turn to speak or act in a situation.