Collocation usage is quite natural for native speakers of a language, especially when it is a resource that promotes the linguistic economy. However, the combination of lexemes may be a challenge for those who are learning a foreign language, because of the interference of the mother language which may lead to the literal translation of collocations. The result is a less than natural speech and/or problems with meaning. This paper discusses and reflects the usage of the expression "Eu tive um ótimo tempo quando fui pro Portugal (I had a great time when I went to Portugal), a phrase written in an academic text by a North-American student studying Portuguese. It was sought on two corpora two examples of Brazilian Portuguese collocations with the word tempo (time) that could have the meaning of stay/experience somewhere. The chosen expressions were Fiquei um tempo, Passei um tempo and Tive um tempo. Although the first two expressions portray the meaning of stay experience, an adjective is not allowed between the verb and the noun; the last expression does not have this meaning. In conclusion, it is necessary to use another word combination to express the idea of spending a good/bad time abroad in Portuguese. Thus, collocations in PB are a relevant theme to PL2E field.