How to understand "It may precede or follow something."? From my perspective, "precede" means something happens earlier than another thing, however, "follow" means that something happens after another

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How to understand "It may precede or follow something."? From my perspective, "precede" means something happens earlier than another thing, however, "follow" means that something happens after another thing. Why can they use together to express the same meaning? Chronic bronchitis — Chronic bronchitis is defined as a chronic productive cough for three months in each of two successive years in a patient in whom other causes of chronic cough (eg, bronchiectasis) have been excluded [7]. It may precede or follow development of airflow limitation [7,9]. This definition has been used in many studies, despite the arbitrarily selected symptom duration.Why can they be used together to express the same meaning?

4 août 2017 10:59

Réponses · 5

Hi Bing Chen, The word "or" is included in the sentence, meaning that there are two possibilities that are mutually exclusive ---Chronic Bronchitis may occur after OR before airflow is limited. Therefore, there is no contradiction in the sentence. Cheers, Lance

4 août 2017

In this context, they don't mean the same thing. The author intends to say that the cough may come either before or after airflow limitation. It is not necessarily always before or always after.

4 août 2017

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