Introduction: Pauses in speech reveal neurocognitive processes and cognitive effort underpinning language production. Individuals with aphasia (IWA) show an increase in number and length of pauses between words. Previous and current research studied the relationship between pauses in speech and lexical frequency. However, frequency also manifests as collocation strength. In this study, we investigated the effects of Lexical Frequency and Collocation Strength of two-word combinations (bigram) on speech pauses in narrations of IWA and neurotypical controls (NC). We predicted that words with higher frequency and bigrams with stronger collocations require less processing effort, reflected in shorter pauses before them. Methods: 20 NC and 20 IWA narrated the “Dinner Party” comic (Fletcher & Birt, 1983). Transcriptions were annotated using ELAN. Lexical Frequency and Collocation Strength were analysed using the Frequency in Language Analysis Tool. Results: Linear mixed-effect models revealed that IWA showed longer Pause Duration (PD) (p < .001). There was a negative and non-significant effect of the interaction between Group and Lexical Frequency on Pause Duration (p = 0.179). The interaction effect between Group and Collocation Strength on Pause duration was negative and significant (p = .001). Conclusions: PD was shorter before bigrams with stronger collocation values. This finding could be interpreted as a reflection that word combinations with high levels of association require less cognitive effort in language production. In aphasia, analytic/combinatorial capacities decrease, resulting in a greater influence of statistical properties on language production. Frequency-based approaches may be valuable in explaining patterns of preservation and impairment in aphasic language processing.