Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / December 2003

nospam.please@srivastava.mailshell.com (n o s p a m p l e a s e) wrote
on 03 Dec 2003:

Probably "skills", but when one asks questions about words or phrases
out of context, one always risks perplexing the reader. Anyone
competent enough to provide correct answers to questions about usage
will wonder about at least the sentence these words are being used in.
The paragraph would be better, and the entire discourse would be better
yet, but that is often impractical.

One must understand that words have only dictionary meanings when they
lack a context and that context affects not only meaning but also
usage.

Next time you ask a question, please try to provide a context.

Let me ask you a question: "three patients" or "3 patients", which one
is correct?