Line and margin

[Tom]

Hi

I have consulted some dictionaries but still cannot tell a difference.

Could you please tell me the difference between the two?

A teacher to his students:

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

Basically, you can draw a line in order to create a margin. The margin is the space on the paper which should remain empty.

I copied a picture from the Net and labeled the lines and margins:

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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tom]

Many thanks for the hard work, Amy.

So the right collocations are:

draw a line
create a margin

Right?

Can we say: draw a margin?

Thanks again

Tom

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

No, I doubt that I would ever say 'draw a margin'.

You might 'make a margin' or 'set up the margins', for example.
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_________________
Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Alan]

Hi Tom,

I remember hearing and being told at school to draw a margin. And that meant, as I understood it, 'draw a line down the left-hand side of a page that would act as a margin.'

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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