Meaning & use
fundamental skills
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Meanings
nounplural
the basic abilities that people need in order to do a job, learn a subject, or manage daily life.
Grammar: Almost always plural and used with a plural verb: Fundamental skills are taught early.
Patterns
- fundamental skills in something
- the fundamental skills of something
- teach/learn fundamental skills
Reading and simple arithmetic are fundamental skills that every child needs.
The course teaches fundamental skills in cooking, cleaning, and budgeting.
Employers say many new graduates lack fundamental skills like clear writing.
nounpluralsporttechnical
the most basic physical or technical movements that form the base of a sport or activity.
Grammar: Used in sports and training contexts, often with 'of' plus the activity: the fundamental skills of swimming.
Patterns
- the fundamental skills of a sport
- practice/drill fundamental skills
Young players spend hours on the fundamental skills of passing and shooting.
The coach went back to fundamental skills after the team lost five games in a row.
Common combinations
- teach fundamental skills
- Schools should teach fundamental skills before advanced topics.
- acquire fundamental skills
- Children acquire fundamental skills through play and repetition.
- lack fundamental skills
- Some applicants lack the fundamental skills needed for office work.
- fundamental skills in mathematics
- The test measures fundamental skills in mathematics and reading.
- master the fundamental skills
- You must master the fundamental skills before you try the advanced moves.
Synonyms and how they differ
- basic skills
- Very close in meaning, but 'basic skills' is the more common everyday phrase, especially in education and job ads.
- core skills
- Suggests the central, essential set of abilities; often used in business training, slightly more formal than 'fundamental skills'.
- basics
- Informal and shorter; it refers to the simple facts or methods of a subject rather than measurable abilities.
Opposites
Word family
- fundamentally adverb
- In a basic and important way: The system is fundamentally unfair.
- fundamental adjective
- Basic and necessary: a fundamental rule.
- skill noun
- A single ability to do something well.
- skilled adjective
- Having training or experience: a skilled worker.
Commonly confused: fundamental skills or soft skills?
fundamental skills vs soft skills
'Soft skills' means personal abilities such as communication and teamwork, not the basic technical abilities called 'fundamental skills'.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'fundamental skills' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The phrase is plural and works as the object of 'focuses on'. Option An is wrong because the article 'a' cannot go with a plural noun; option B has a plural noun with a singular verb; option D uses the noun where an adjective ('skilled') is needed.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fundamental skills”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.