diff --git a/doc/en/how-to/usage.rst b/doc/en/how-to/usage.rst
index fe46fad2d..b34a4b896 100644
--- a/doc/en/how-to/usage.rst
+++ b/doc/en/how-to/usage.rst
@@ -26,6 +26,11 @@ Pytest supports several ways to run and select tests from the command-line or fr
 
     pytest test_mod.py
 
+When passing a path as a positional argument like this, it's not possible to
+pass a file basename. If you want to pass a path to a file, you must pass
+either a relative path or an absolute path. Otherwise, consider the below
+keyword expressions instead.
+
 **Run tests in a directory**
 
 .. code-block:: bash