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I want to say that two people established a good rapport. But the context is quite informal, and "established" sounds stuffy in my context. What other verb(s) could I use in place of establish here?

Edit: I've been asked for more information about the context. Background: my son, M., was resisting going to the suggested appointments with the school social worker, Ms. D. Email to school point person:

M. went to the first appointment with Ms. D. today. They (started to establish) rapport, and [etc].

I would like to know more verbs that can be used with rapport instead of establish. The ones I already knew were build, create, feel, get going (i.e. get a good rapport going). Also, I'm not sure when to use an article and when to use a qualifier (e.g. built rapport, built a rapport, built good rapport, built a good rapport). I'm wondering if the concept of good is built in already.

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  • Build, Create, form, forged, etc.
    – vickyace
    Mar 30, 2017 at 1:02
  • have...........
    – Drew
    Mar 30, 2017 at 2:20
  • Please do see the tag info for single word requests. There's a checklist at the end.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Mar 30, 2017 at 7:46
  • @AndrewLeach - Could you be more specific about what's missing? Context? I want to describe the results of my son's first appointment with the school social worker (which he had resisted going to, but which went surprisingly well). Criteria -- I've seen hundreds of questions that don't give a rubric. I did say, though, that an informal tone was important. Words I didn't like: establish, build. Perhaps the problem is that I didn't show thesaurus words I considered?
    – aparente001
    Mar 30, 2017 at 20:13
  • Yes: you need to say what you've considered and rejected. The fact that it's a boy and a mentor of some description might be useful, too. There may be words more appropriate for that situation than a good relationship between an aged aunt and her equally-aged gardener, for example. (For instance, hit it off might work in your case, where it wouldn't really work for the older generation.)
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Mar 30, 2017 at 20:42

2 Answers 2

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Rapport is far more stuffy than established I would say. If you are looking for an alternative sentence you might try: -

Two people got to know each other

or

They got to know each other quite well

See here for a short discussion about the meaning of the term.

If you want to keep rapport but just don't like the word established, developed works fine:

Two people developed a good rapport

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    "They got along well"--that's more informal.
    – Xanne
    Mar 30, 2017 at 1:16
  • Maybe you're right. I'm going to say they hit it off with a good rapport.
    – aparente001
    Mar 30, 2017 at 1:30
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"Bond" or "Bonded" would the word I would use... but that could have connotations that you may not want to imply.

eg: the 2 new students bonded during their first school camping trip..

but as a direct replacement of the word "established" as used in your example, I would perhaps suggest "built up", or (as Gary noted "developed")

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