Collocates may be characterized as follows:

• Syntactically and semantically permissible
  Example: 'There was green grass growing everywhere.'
   
• Syntactically permissible but semantically impermissible (commonly referred to as collocational clashes)
  Example: 'There were green ideas growing everywhere.'
   
• Syntactically impermissible but semantically permissible
  Example: 'There was green grass grows everywhere.'
   
• Syntactically and semantically impermissible
  Example: 'There was green ideas grows everywhere.'
   

Collocates may also be characterized as follows:

• Syntactically and semantically permissible, but incidental, as in live metaphors
  Example: 'The barn was painted red like a tomato.'
   
• Syntactically and semantically permissible, but fixed in usage, as in dead metaphors
  Example: 'He turned as red as a beet.'